Source Consolidation Change - Autotrader and KBB are now Autotrader/KBB

Table of Contents

Goal: Enhancing Reporting Accuracy Why Are We Making This Change? Understanding the Situation Current Reporting Approaches with Other Marketplaces Clarifying KBB Instant Cash Offer (ICO) Conclusion FAQ's What does this new source include? How do I interpret this and compare it to the other marketplaces? Is this a change that is made going forward or will all of my data be updated? How does this change my clicktrails? Can I get new clicktrails that show this change for previous months?

Goal: Enhancing Reporting Accuracy

Why Are We Making This Change?

We are implementing this change to improve the accuracy and consistency of our dashboard, ensuring it accurately reflects dealers’ investments and returns.

Understanding the Situation

When we built the dashboard in 2015, listings were sold directly on KBB.com. In 2018/2019, Autotrader transitioned to include KBB listings with all Autotrader listing purchases, rather than selling them separately. As a result:

Dealers allocate their vendor spend data to their Autotrader purchases.
Dealers assign zero spend to KBB.

Impact: This setup means we are not fully capturing the dealer’s ROI for their investment with Autotrader, which may lead to incomplete insights.

Current Reporting Approaches with Other Marketplaces

Our reporting methods across different marketplaces:

Edmunds

When Edmunds social product influences sales, we attribute them to Edmunds, not Facebook.
Reasoning: This approach aligns with measuring the ROI of the dealer’s overall investment with Edmunds.

Cars.com (Cars Social) and CarGurus (RPM)

We attribute the social products to their affiliated marketplaces in our ROI screen.
Note: These additional products are optional, unlike the mandatory components from Edmunds and Autotrader.

Improvements: By aligning our attribution methods across all platforms, we can provide dealers with a clearer and more consistent understanding of ROI.

Clarifying KBB Instant Cash Offer (ICO)

Some dealers assign their KBB ICO spend to KBB in our dashboard.
Reason: The line item displayed as “KBB” can cause confusion.
Clarification: KBB ICO is a website tool whose data we retrieve from the dealer’s CRM, not from our tracking on KBB.com.

Conclusion

Our ROI Audit tab has effectively become a Vendor ROI Audit. To enhance its effectiveness:

We aim to standardize how we attribute spend and sales across all marketplaces and associated products.
This will help dealers gain a more accurate understanding of the ROI from their investments, enabling them to make more informed decisions.

FAQ's

What does this new source include?

Attribution from Autotrader and KBB Listings and Vehicle Merchandising & Advertising Packages - the calculation of influence will be a combination and deduplication, the total amount of influenced sales is a unique count of sales influenced by Autotrader/KBB

Are we combining all KBB into the source name Autotrader?

No. KBB offers dealers a separate Instant Cash Offer package (ICO), which is a separate source in our Dashboard. This source is “KBB Instant Cash Offer” and represents leads and pageviews on the Instant Cash Offer pages.

Note: if you had KBB Instant Cash Offer spend entered under the source name “KBB”, then that spend will be added to Autotrader and will show as the new “Autotrader/KBB”. If that is the case for you, you will need to remove the ICO spend from that Autotrader/KBB amount and move it to your KBB Instant Cash Offer source.

How do I interpret this and compare it to the other marketplaces?

In this new view, we are evaluating the impact on sales by each digital vendor. And, evaluating the effectiveness, efficiency, and profitability of each of those relationships. Simply stated - What do I get for what I spend with each marketplace or vendor? This change will now allow you to see the sales influenced more accurately, cost per sale, and other metrics on the ROI Audit page given what your spend includes with the package purchased from Autotrader/KBB. To dive deeper into individual campaigns, you can still access that data through our “Campaigns Tab”.

Is this a change that is made going forward or will all of my data be updated?

All of your available data will be updated to reflect this new source name. These updates will be rolling out within the next month. (October 2024)

How does this change my clicktrails? Can I get new clicktrails that show this change for previous months?

This change will be reflected in your clicktrails and new clicktrails will be made available to you. You may need to request these updated files from your CSL or request them via our support form here: https://clarivoy.helpjuice.com/contact-us