Pub. 15 2016-2017 Issue 1

N E W J E R S E Y C O A L I T I O N O F A U T O M O T I V E R E T A I L E R S 27 new jersey auto retailer W W W . N J C A R . O R G most important touch point? Is it Number one? Number seven? To frame it another way, which solution gets the credit for the sale? This question addresses Attribution Modeling. For the last decade, nearly all marketers have relied on Last Click Attribution. In the world of analytics, it is simply easier to attribute a consumer action (i.e. a sale) to the last touch point. However, the last digital touch may never have occurred without the first traditional touch. Do we then attribute the sale to touch point Number one? The answer: neither First Click nor Last Click Attribu- tion will suffice. As analytics and the data render advances, the industry must move to a balanced model: one which takes into account, and reasonably weighs, all touch points along the consumer’s path to purchase. Back to your ad budget. The next month rolls around and you begin reviewing the prior month’s data. Your display ads pulled a couple thousand clicks but ac- counted for zero online or phone leads. Your Cost Per Click (CPC)/ Search En- gine Marketing (SEM) campaign pulled only a couple hundred clicks at the same cost, but accounted for over 40 appoint- ments made. So, you do the “wise” thing and invest in what you “know” works. Money is pulled out of display and put into CPC. The only problem: your data did not ref lect the reality of your custom- ers’ shopping patterns. You don’t know what you don’t know. Therefore, bad data in equals bad data out, and your sales suffer two months later. Congratulations, you just poked yourself in the eye and didn’t even notice. As they say, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. Imagine yourself on a fishing trip. Your line is off the starboard and you see a fish jump off the stern. You immediately reel in the line and cast it to where you know the fish are. Five minutes later you spot one off the port. Reel in the line and try again. Next comes the forward and then starboard again. Diversity is the name of the game. In today’s world, no one ap- proach will suffice. Budgets permitting, fish with three lines all at once, check the bait and have some patience. Enough is enough. There is no such thing as a Digital Advertising Budget or a Traditional Advertising Budget. Your customers aren’t divided that way. Each and every marketing investment can be simply defined as a dollar spent to deliver a message to an individual in order to spur an action. You simply have one budget with one goal: selling cars. Let’s return to the question we began with: “How do we best invest our monthly advertising budget?” In other words, what can we do to spur consumers to take an action and become customers? My best answer: stop trying to dictate shopping habits according to some con- ceptual divide between Traditional and Digital or Mobile and Desktop or Brand- ing and Conquest. You do not possess the power. Put your customers first. Good data, inquisitiveness, and common sense can tell you more than just where your customers are, but how they shop. Marry insight with relevant content and you will craft a better shopping experience. Simply put, happier customers lead to more sales. Finally, be sure to temper knee jerk reac- tions with a little patience. The modern world of marketing affords advertisers the opportunity to reach their customers and prospective custom- ers across a wide variety of mediums. Innovative dealerships aren’t holding digital spend to traditional ROAS (return on ad spend) and vice versa. The future is here: Cross Channel and Cross Device. Your customers are shopping (or at least considering) all the time – whether they are at home watching TV, in the car listening to the radio, at work on their desktop, be- tween meetings on their mobile devices, or at the beach on their tablets. Dealers that take a holistic, one-path approach have a distinctive advantage. Those rely- ing on the old traditional/digital splits will be left behind. Marketing, particularly in a hyper-local world, is f luid by nature, as are the shop- ping habits of your customers. Adapt or die. Britain O’Connor is President/CEO of BOC Partners, an Advertising Agency with 30+ years’ experience serving Automotive Dealers throughout the New York Market. Britain can be reached at 908-232-2177, ext. 14 or at BOC@BOCpartners.com. “How do we best invest our monthly advertising budget?” In other words, what can we do to spur consumers to take an action and become customers?