What You Don’t Invest in Can Hurt Your Automotive Strategy
If you’re only tracking what happens right before the sale, you’re missing what really brings customers in. That’s not just a theory. It’s backed by data.
New research from our latest whitepaper, From Click to Car Sale: How Multi-Touch Attribution Improves Marketing Measurement for Auto Dealers, offers a clearer view of the full buyer journey. The findings come from a 2024 analysis of over 1.18 million car sales by Clarivoy, a leading automotive marketing analytics firm, along with insights from the Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study, which surveyed more than 2,300 recent car buyers.
The data reveals a critical truth: most dealers are only seeing the last click, not the full path to purchase. And that blind spot could be costing them sales.
Let’s fix that.
Below are four of the most common digital blind spots that can distort your view of the buyer journey, and more importantly, how to correct them. These fixes can help you more accurately measure the efforts of your automotive retailing strategy and focus your efforts where they’ll have the most impact.
Mistake #1: You Assume Your Website Is the Starting Line for Car Buyers
It’s easy to assume that the buyer journey begins on your dealership’s website, especially when lead forms and digital paperwork suggest that’s where the action starts. But the data tells a different story:
- Only 14% of shoppers begin on a dealer website
- Nearly 48% start on a third-party marketplace (like Autotrader)
The Blindspot:
Dealers often overestimate the influence of their own websites and overlook the power of third-party platforms. That means they’re missing the moment when shoppers are most open to influence – right at the beginning.
What You Can Do Next:
- Audit your listings on marketplaces. Ensure they’re complete, compelling, and current.
- Ask your team: “Where do we think our customers start – and how do we know?”
Remember: Overlooking your listings means missing out on a huge number of highly motivated buyers from the very start.
Mistake #2: You’re Relying on One-Touch Thinking
One-touch attribution might seem straightforward – but it’s also misleading. It credits only the final click before a sale, ignoring the full journey that brought the buyer there.
Here’s what the data shows:
- Autotrader influenced 55% of all car sales in the study using Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA)
- That’s more than double the impact seen with one-touch attribution, which showed just 21%
Adopting a MTA strategy will reveal every stop along the buyer’s path, including how often they check out places like Autotrader. When you look at the full consumer journey, not just the starting and finish line, you’ll be able to see which digital channels are actually helping you sell more cars – which are under-performing – including revealing which ones might be doing more work than you realized.
The Blindspot:
One-touch attribution gives all the credit to the last interaction – ignoring the digital breadcrumbs that led buyers to your door. That’s like giving the closer all the credit and forgetting the rest of the team.
What You Can Do Next:
- Ask your marketing partner if they support MTA.
- Then, compare CRM-reported leads to actual sales. Is there anything missing?
Remember: Your attribution model might be overlooking the quiet contributors. MTA helps uncover which channels are driving conversions behind the scenes, telling a more complete story and helping you protect your spend and capture more ROI on each and every deal.
Mistake #3: You Missed the “Invisible Click”
Not every shopper leaves a digital breadcrumb. In fact, 46% of shoppers who viewed Autotrader or Kelley Blue Book listings eventually made their way to a dealer’s website, without ever clicking a direct link.
These shoppers were influenced by what they saw on third-party sites, but chose to return later through other paths:
- Typing in the dealer’s URL
- Searching the dealership on Google
- Clicking on a retargeted ad
That means nearly half of your audience may be starting their journey elsewhere – and showing up later without a clear trail.
The Blindspot:
Just because a shopper didn’t click doesn’t mean they weren’t influenced. If you’re only tracking click-throughs, you’re missing the spark that started the fire.
What You Can Do Next:
- Use retargeting and branded search to stay visible after shoppers leave third-party sites
- Don’t rely solely on click-through rates. They don’t tell the full story.
Remember: By viewing and tracking the full journey with Multi-Touch Attribution, and the roughly 62 clicks on average a car shopper takes from first click to close, you’ll quickly realize what’s truly influencing that sale should be weighted in your marketing strategy.
Mistake #4: You’re Only Investing Where It’s Easy to Measure
The biggest pitfall often lies in gravitating toward the obvious. And it’s tempting to double down on the channels that deliver quick, trackable results. But when you focus only on what’s easy to measure (or worse, vanity metrics), you risk ignoring the hidden drivers that actually move shoppers along their journey.
The Blindspot:
When budgets tighten, high-cost channels that don’t “show” results often get cut. But those same channels may be doing the heavy lifting early in the journey. That’s like benching your best player because they didn’t score the last goal.
What You Can Do Next:
- Take the time to re-evaluate your media mix using MTA insights.
- Prioritize channels that influence early and mid-funnel behavior, even if they don’t close the sale.
Remember: The most valuable touchpoints aren’t always the most visible. Don’t let outdated or short-term metrics steer long-term strategy.
For the Road Forward
If you’re only tracking what happens right before the sale, you’re missing out on what really brings customers in. Multi-Touch Attribution and smarter analytics help you see the full journey – and invest in what’s actually working.
Because in today’s market, clarity isn’t just helpful. It’s a competitive advantage.
At Autotrader, we help you uncover the influence behind the sale – whether it’s a click, a view, or a moment of consideration that never shows up in your CRM. With 7 out of 10 shoppers visiting Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, we’re where the journey begins. And with the power of MTA, we help you follow it all the way to the sale.
Let’s move beyond assumptions and start measuring what matters. The data is there. Now it’s time to use it.
See the Cox Automotive + Perficient Whitepaper
See and download the full findings on how to improve your marketing strategy
Sourcing: This data set, containing over 1.18 million sales, forms the basis for all multi-touch attribution insights presented in this whitepaper. Insights were developed using Clarivoy’s platform and proprietary analysis of this data set. For more information on the Clarivoy data, see the “Sources” section at the end of this whitepaper.
