Columbus, Ohio (January 12, 2022) - Clarivoy today announced the integration of its software on the CarGurus website. With the addition of its tracking capabilities on the CarGurus website, and the full integration of CarGurus’ website shopping activity into its Multi-Touch Sales Attribution platform, dealerships subscribing to Clarivoy’s services gain an unbiased, more comprehensive, and accurate picture of how many sales CarGurus influences.

Clarivoy’s proprietary algorithms fractionalize credit across the various touchpoints in a buyer’s purchase journey so that every marketing effort is accurately recognized for its contribution to sales. When relying on leads alone for attribution, dealers face significant blind spots because they can’t see the full impact their marketing efforts had on their customer’s purchase journey. With this new integration, dealers now have a granular view of how consumers interact with CarGurus before purchasing a car. Dealers receive insights into how many anonymous online shoppers CarGurus drives to their dealership(s) in addition to the traditional measurement metrics using leads and click-through data. 

"This integration is a huge step in the right direction for dealers."

According to Gray Scott, Director of Marketing and Technology at Cardinale Automotive Group, “This integration is a huge step in the right direction for dealers. CarGurus has always provided exceptional value and return on investment/ return on ad spend, and now this integration will allow dealers to see beyond leads into direct and assisted sales for buyers that shopped on CarGurus’ website. This is beyond exciting for the big attribution question we all face at the end of every month.”

“We believe dealers will benefit significantly with this additional data, enabling them to see the vital and important role that marketplace sites have in influencing sales,” said Steve White, Clarivoy founder, and CEO. “This additional data is a significant step toward greater insight for automotive retail dealers, as CarGurus is a premier listing site in the United States, where millions of visitors shop online anonymously every month,” added White.

For more information, or to sign up for a product demonstration, visit: https://www.clarivoy.com/demo 

About Clarivoy

Clarivoy is the auto industry’s leading provider of multi-touch sales attribution and advanced digital targeting tools. Their solutions reveal more about their client's customers, their advertising, and their path to success so they can drive more sales. Clarivoy’s proprietary technology grants marketers incomparable visibility into their customers and campaigns – across all channels, all devices – online and offline. Armed with this new information, marketers can stop guessing and start knowing what is working and what is not. http://www.clarivoy.com/

Important Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements About CarGurus:

The information in this release about CarGurus contains forward-looking statements regarding future events that involve risks and uncertainties, and CarGurus’ actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with CarGurus’ business, please refer to CarGurus’ Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other reports filed by CarGurus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements represent CarGurus’ beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this release. While CarGurus may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point, CarGurus specifically disclaims any obligation to do so.

I’m sure that most managers are familiar with the frustration that comes with discovering a salesperson decided a sale was not to be made without really working the lead, letting a perfectly good customer leave the lot. Perhaps the salesperson pre-qualified them and decided they weren’t a “today” buyer; or didn’t like how they looked; or, after a few probing questions decided they couldn’t afford to buy. The fact is, when a customer leaves without a deal being made, most sales managers get irritated.

And, when it comes to digital customers, often salespeople, internet managers or a full-blown BDC – whoever handles those leads -- can find themselves chasing their tails, making multiple phone calls and sending several emails to unresponsive leads.  This can lead to cherry-picking from that pot of leads, going for the ones that look like they are a more likely sale.

In either scenario, with walk-ins or digital leads, your dealership could be missing sales with poor sales practices that absolutely affect your close rates.

Your leads should all be looked upon as sales opportunities. But, I am sure you have noticed that those following up with your leads (and yes, they belong to the dealership NOT the salespeople) tend to favor one type of lead over another.

Typically, this practice develops when people have more success engaging with leads from certain lead sources than others. My bet is that their pay plan is tied in some way to their success. And this can lead to cherry picking leads. Whether that “success” is tied directly to sales or setting appointments makes no difference. They are going to chase their pay plan by strategic selection of leads.

For example, let’s say your dealership has a high closing rate on leads from your website, Cars.com, and/or CarGurus, but a lower closing rate from other lead sources. Perhaps this is because these leads have better information, or these customers tend to answer the phone and engage via email. This means less work for your staff, higher paychecks, and better individual performance.

However, that doesn’t mean leads from other sources are bad. It could mean that your staff has gotten so used to focusing on the leads from certain sources that they work them faster and with more enthusiasm, neglecting other leads. Those “other” leads receive slower responses and less effort is exerted in engaging with them or answering their questions in depth.

This practice by itself will lower overall closing rates. Why? Because every lead is an opportunity. There is no way for your staff to know which of your leads are ready to buy. Only when your staff decides for themselves that one lead source is better than another does that fact become reality.

In the end, all leads should be treated the same, regardless of source. Just as it is impossible to know which customers walking on the lot are “today” buyers, the same goes for digital opportunities.

Ensure that your staff isn’t discriminating against any particular lead source, that they are working your process with each and every lead that comes in and providing each digital customer with the same courtesy, information, and quick response. Your closing ratio will

Many consider Michael Jordan one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, basketball player who ever lived. He also made some thought-provoking statements. One I find really interesting and words from which we can all learn is this:

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

It’s such a revealing commentary about how to win in life and in business. It certainly applies to our auto industry where the game of marketing is lost just as many times, if not more, than it is won.

Proving marketing results is challenging for vendors. The monthly reports they supply to dealers to show their worth are not always good news. But… that isn’t necessarily bad. As long as action is taken to correct the issues creating the problem. The most important thing is having the correct data. So, if the month looks like a loss, but you have good data as to WHY, that can actually be turned into a win.

In my experience, the reason why many dealers get so confused with reports is very simple: they don’t understand them. And, to further confuse matters, there is non-uniform reporting based on variables and models that don’t match. Think of it like a crime scene. A lot of different people witness the same event, yet all have different perspectives and recollections of it. Some don’t even know what happened. While there is truth in everyone’s story… sorting out that truth and figuring out the puzzle pieces is the hard part.

Working with several different vendors means you have several different modes of reporting. It’s like comparing apples to oranges to lemons and bananas. Your marketing director, Internet director, general manager or dealer must quickly and easily compare each marketing expense one-to-one, so as to effectively and knowledgeably judge what is working for your store – and what is causing you to lose the marketing game. The problem is that many don’t have time to decipher the Rubik’s Cube of reports they’ve been given, and most don’t know how to act upon it to make a difference and win the game.

Marketing is like a big (and expensive) game of Jenga. The tower is built, thought to be solid but, as pieces are removed, it gets more and more unstable. A great player knows which pieces to strategically remove while still keeping the tower stable. Poor players watch the tower crumble before them and lament because their opponent won. And the best players take their losses and use the lessons learnt to gain strength and win in the future.

Without a workable solution in place, or a data analytics hero on staff to figure all of this out, the data ends up being pretty meaningless. Today, it’s more important than ever to know and understand how your marketing efforts perform so that you can make accurate decisions and adjust your spend accordingly for the best ROI. You simply cannot let that data slip past you into a black hole. It is vital to have a workable way to capture and decrypt it all in a format you understand and can use to make smart marketing decisions, leading to increased profitability and sales.

Given the right information, in the right format, collectively you can make decisions wisely – based on knowing rather than guessing!

There’s nothing wrong with a vendor having a bad month for your dealership. It’s the opportunity to win that matters. But you only get this opportunity if you have the right data to learn from. Then you can adjust so as to win in the future.

Columbus, OH, September 12, 2018 – Clarivoy, a pioneer and leader in automotive marketing attribution, today announced it has been recognized as one of the 2019 10 Best Tech Startups in Columbus by the Tech Tribune. 

Founded in 2017, The Tech Tribune delivers the latest technology news, in-depth technology articles, and insights on the hottest technology startups all over the world. The Tribune staff compiled the very best tech startups in Columbus, Ohio, by considering several factors including but not limited to:

·        Revenue potential

·        Leadership team

·        Brand/product traction

·        Competitive landscape

Additionally, all companies must be independent (un-acquired), privately owned, at most 10 years old, and have received at least one round of funding in order to qualify.

“We are very proud to be recognized by the Tech Tribune as we work hard to keep on the leading-edge of technology in our industry to best serve our clients,” said Steve White, Clarivoy CEO. “Clarivoy provides a single, complete view of how people buy cars and where to get the next sale. We are the auto industry’s most trusted source of truth for optimizing the performance of marketing campaigns by using unified, unbiased business intelligence to provide clarity that reveals which ads work, and which don’t – empowering marketers to invest in solutions, not speculation,” White continued.

Clarivoy’s Attribution API software gives dealers, vendors and marketing agencies visibility into the total number of cars each vendor and marketing source are responsible for influencing monthly. It provides continuous confidence in the value of the vendor’s offering to the dealer through an independent, trusted voice.

Clarivoy’s Identity Graph fuels the new API technology and is created using proprietary technology that can match a person to multiple devices across multiple channels. The Attribution API software delivers monthly attributable sales to Clarivoy’s growing Attribution API partners and is very simple to set up. All that is required is the installation of Clarivoy’s tracking code on all relevant website properties. Clarivoy then works with dealers to obtain sales data and deterministically matches the sales file with leads and vendor website traffic to show the vendors’ true impact on vehicle sales.

For more information, or to sign up for a product demonstration, visit: http://www.clarivoy.com

# # # # #

About Clarivoy:

Clarivoy is a marketing technology firm specializing in unified, unbiased business intelligence. Their measurement and identity solutions reveal more about their clients’ customers, their advertising and their path to success so they can drive more sales. The company’s attribution software was named the winner of the 2016 DrivingSales Innovation Cup Award for the Most Innovative Dealership Solution of 2016. Clarivoy’s proprietary technology grants marketers superior visibility into their customers and campaigns – across all channels, all devices – online and offline. Armed with this new information, marketers can stop guessing and start knowing what is working and what is not. http://www.clarivoy.com.

Throughout the history of our automotive industry – and even more so as we increasingly progress into the digital era – dealers have been focused on gaining more leads. Just about every widget and message on dealer websites has one single goal – conversion.

Does your website have 100 annoying pop-ups and 20 different ways to communicate with your dealership? Many dealer websites require that the customer give up their personal details in exchange for pricing or product information which they came to the website hoping to find... and less and less customers are willing to share those details.

According to a recent article on CMSWire, the desire most retail companies have to gather customer information is precisely why these conversion frictions exist. Many dealerships aren’t willing to give out information; and the same goes for many customers. This exchange of information is a thing of the past. Why? Because consumers aren’t invested in any dealership until THEY decide that they want to be.

Your dealership can’t force consumers to pay for information with their personal details. They’ll simply go elsewhere to find it. It’s not as if there’s any lack of places they can go. In fact, if you don’t add pricing, or create easily navigable websites providing the information consumers desire (pricing, etc.), they can easily find it on third-party listing sites.

Dealerships spend upwards of $25-$30 per lead from third-party sources including listing sites, as well as lead providers (and their own manufacturer). And, if a dealership gets 100 leads from these sources at an average cost of $25 per lead, they are spending $2,500 per month.

The question is, which leads in fact convert at a higher rate and are of higher quality? There is no doubt – and any industry expert will agree – dealer website leads convert at a higher percentage than any lead from an outside source.

Don’t misunderstand me. I am not bashing these third-party listing services and lead providers, they provide a valuable benefit to dealers and can significantly increase exposure, visibility and traffic to the dealer’s inventory. The point I’m trying to make isn’t that vendor-partners aren’t valuable. Rather, that a lack of information, and the amount of friction a consumer experiences when trying to obtain that information directly from a dealer website, drives them away from the dealer and over to sites that make it an easy and friction-free experience.

Widgets and various other technologies on websites are great -- as long as they provide value to the car shopper and don’t present obstacles. Communication tools, trade-in valuation tools (that offer accurate information), VDPs and pricing information are the main things consumers are looking for.

Failing to provide tools that are easy to use and accurate, and which make gathering information seamless for the consumer, will only hurt your conversion rates and force consumers to seek that information elsewhere. In the end, you may very well end up paying someone else for that customer’s information – unless, of course, the customer decides to go to a competitor who provides the information and less friction.

We’re in the age of transparency and information. Don’t be afraid to lose sales by being fully transparent online. Chances are that consumers can find it anyways -- without your help. By providing it in the first place, you build trust with that prospective customer and they are more likely to start a conversation with you and buy or service their vehicle at your dealership, versus the competition. And -- bottom line -- that means increased revenue for your dealership.

As time goes by, digital marketing is increasingly integrated into car dealerships’ ad budgets. Because of that, many options have developed which allow dealerships to create exposure and deliver ads in a more direct and targeted way -- more than was ever possible with traditional media.

Even some forms of traditional media have become digital, such as radio, which in its digital form allows you to target a specific demographic and interests, which certainly wasn’t possible before. Because of this explosion of digital marketing options dealers can be hard-pressed to keep up with the choices and any ROI, which they may, or may not, get from their advertising budget.

Historically, the dealer or general manager would meet with their ad agency regularly to discuss creative, budget and frequency. The ad agency would then make the appropriate media buys and the dealership would hope for the best. With digital marketing, so many channels are available to utilize that it’s harder than ever to be on top of your game for every channel.

According to a recent blog on Digitally Cognizant,  digital marketing spending will be close to $120 billion by 2021. And, bringing it closer to home, a recent article in Automotive News states that, according to 2017 NADA data, Internet ad spend has eclipsed all other advertising spend combined. Therefore, your dealership would be wise to consider having someone in-house on your staff to oversee your digital marketing and ad spend.

For most dealerships, the person in charge of digital marketing inevitably ends up being the Internet manager, or Internet director (by title), whose pay plan is centered around sales commissions. Because of this, those staff members are more interested in selling cars than managing digital ads, the website or, at the very least, paying attention and analyzing where that budget is going and how it’s performing.

Many dealerships look to sales performance and expect an Internet department to pump up unit volume – and rightfully so. But that stud Internet department which pumps out units and profit can suddenly grind to a dreadful halt if someone isn’t paying attention to – and optimizing – where the digital budget is going and how it’s performing.

Having someone whose sole job is to manage, analyze and optimize that ad spend could, in fact, INCREASE sales performance; simply because budgets can be dynamic and shifted to better performing channels. Yes, dealers are used to designing pay plans around sales. It’s safe. But it may be costing you money in wasted ad spend and missed opportunities.

Who should you look for when (not if) you end up choosing to create a position like this? The Digitally Cognizant blog suggests that you may not want to look at experience as a hiring factor; rather someone with education and knowledge in current digital marketing platforms – like a recent graduate.

Why? Because, the article states, “it’s not years of experience that matters but finding someone who’s worked with digital marketing tools and techniques on actual campaigns and can point to tangible results.”

My thoughts are that most successful dealerships and groups have someone in place whose sole job is to ensure their digital marketing spend and channels are performing. This person identifies those which are performing or failing to perform, optimizes the ones which are and cuts the ones which are not.

Many dealers will consider this an extra fixed expense but, in all actuality, it’s necessary. As Internet spend budgets continue to increase as a percentage of dealership budgets, it will only become more important and necessary to have someone with the knowledge, skill set and focus on what will become, if it is not already, most of your advertising budget.

And, by optimizing your digital marketing ad spend, that employee is helping you sell more cars. Which is what every dealer wants.

Clarivoy’s Attribution API helps CarSoup.com Show Auto Dealers how it’s Helping them Sell More Cars

Columbus, OH, June 25, 2018 – Clarivoy, a pioneer and leader in automotive marketing attribution, today announced that CarSoup.com has embedded Clarivoy’s multi-touch attribution technology into its website, which ensures proper credit is attributed to those marketing sources that influenced the customer’s vehicle purchase. Now CarSoup.com dealers will gain a more holistic view of all the vehicle sales that CarSoup.com influenced from Clarivoy’s independent, unbiased attribution technology.

CarSoup.com is an online venue for buying, researching and selling new and used vehicles with 6 million vehicles listed nationally from over 20,000 dealers and thousands of private sellers.

Clarivoy’s Attribution API software will help CarSoup.com dealers by using “Any-Touch” attribution. Any-Touch attribution makes sure proper credit is attributed to those marketing sources which influenced the customer’s vehicle purchase, whether first, last, or somewhere in the middle, finally getting away from the dated last-click attribution models plaguing the industry.

“We are very excited about this partnership with Clarivoy. With Clarivoy’s new Attribution API, we can finally show performance according to the amount of sold vehicles that have CarSoup.com in the buyer’s purchase journey. Dealer’s will no longer be reliant on salespeople to properly source where a buyer came from. This enables us to consult with our dealers and provide data they can trust. As a result, our dealers know they are spending their marketing budget in the right place; thus, we can truly prove our value,” said Brian Bowman, President of CarSoup.com.

According to Steve White, Clarivoy CEO, in the eyes of a dealer, the value of a third-party auto vendor, marketing agency or website provider is reduced to one thing: Leads. Since most visitors to a dealer’s website or third-party site are unidentifiable, 95 percent of the value of that vendor or marketing partner is lost. “Unless you are the first or last touch in the CRM, you probably aren’t getting credit from the dealer. Even if you do get credit, it’s only for leads you delivered and NOT for anonymous shoppers that result in sales. Dealers and third-party auto vendors receive millions of unique web visitors per month, and yet less than five percent identify themselves. Who are the other 95 percent, and did they purchase a vehicle? By partnering with us, CarSoup.com can now truly show dealers their real performance,” said White.

Clarivoy’s Attribution API software gives dealers, vendors and marketing agencies visibility into the total number of cars each vendor and marketing source are responsible for influencing monthly.  It provides continuous confidence in the value of the vendor’s offering to the dealer through an independent, trusted voice.

Clarivoy’s Identity Graph fuels the new API technology and is created using proprietary technology that can match a person to multiple devices across multiple channels. The Attribution API software delivers monthly attributable sales to Clarivoy’s growing Attribution API partners and is very simple to set up. All that is required is the installation of Clarivoy’s tracking code on all relevant website properties. Clarivoy then works with dealers to obtain sales data and deterministically matches the sales file with leads and vendor website traffic to show the vendors’ true impact on vehicle sales.

“Our Attribution API software provides dealers with monthly visibility into the total number of vehicles sales that our Attribution API partners influenced each month. This will allow CarSoup.com, armed with more data, to consult with their dealers to improve their results,” said White.

For more information, or to sign up for a product demonstration, visit: http://www.clarivoy.com

# # # # #

About CarSoup.com.com (http://www.CarSoup.com.com)

CarSoup.com is an online venue for buying, researching and selling new and used vehicles with 6 million vehicles listed nationally from over 21,000 dealers and thousands of private sellers.

About Clarivoy:

Clarivoy is a marketing technology firm specializing in unified, unbiased business intelligence. Their measurement and identity solutions reveal more about their clients’ customers, their advertising and their path to success so they can drive more sales. The company’s attribution software was named the winner of the 2016 DrivingSales Innovation Cup Award for the Most Innovative Dealership Solution of 2016. Clarivoy’s proprietary technology grants marketers superior visibility into their customers and campaigns – across all channels, all devices – online and offline. Armed with this new information, marketers can stop guessing and start knowing what is working and what is not. http://www.clarivoy.com.

In the old days, if consumers wanted to buy a product or find specials, they turned to the Sunday paper, the radio, or simply visited their local store. Then, the Internet appeared, and everything changed. It became incredibly easy for consumers to find information and, at the same time, gave marketers more ways to push their messages to consumers. But now it seems as if we may be amid a new trend – voice search.

The two leaders in voice assistants are Amazon, with its Echo line, and Google, with its Home devices. A recent article in Forbes solidifies this upward trend in consumer use, focusing mostly on Amazon’s Echo, and how consumers are using it.

In a study of 39,000 Amazon Echo users, it was found that Echo owners spend more per year than non-Echo owners and purchase items more often. In fact, once consumers purchase an Amazon Echo their spending on Amazon jumps 29 percent. Not too shabby! While this is great for Amazon, other retailers are more guarded in their participation, since Amazon typically only pushes Amazon products.

Google, on the other hand, is a completely different story. Google Home may not have been first, but it’s catching up. And it is more attractive to retailers since, well, Google isn’t a retailer. According to the Forbes article, Google recently surpassed Amazon’s Echo in quarterly sales for the first time ever. While consumers can still do searches on Amazon’s Echo, Google’s knowledge-base is far larger; and their technology is designed to help consumers find what they want, when they want it, whether that be information or retail products.

Why does any of this matter to car dealers? Well, voice assistants aren’t going away. In fact, manufacturers recently began integrating Amazon Echo and Google technology into vehicles.

And then Google recently partnered with one dealership, Paragon Honda, to develop technology that makes it easier for consumers to communicate with the dealership. Consumers will eventually be able to schedule service appointments and pick-up and delivery through Google Home, without ever having to call the dealership.

In January, I wrote a blog about the future of marketing and autonomous vehicles that discusses the opportunities for marketers to get their messages in front of consumers who aren’t doing anything but riding in a vehicle. If voice assistants continue to grow in popularity, it’s inevitable that Google will figure out how to integrate marketing messages into their voice assistants – and, of course, create additional revenue.

It is even possible that, rather than using computers for a simple Google search, consumers will shift towards using voice assistants instead. This, of course, could put a dent in PPC revenue for Google that can only be recovered through integrating marketing into Google Home.

Amazon created two products that could be perfect at this – Amazon Echo Show and Amazon Echo Spot. Like the Echo itself, both are effective as voice assistants. And, they also recognize when a person is walking by and display messaging on their screens. Currently, these messages are about news, trending videos, weather, etc. But, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t easily become advertisements. AND, if a customer chooses to watch news via their Amazon device, advertisements could easily be included. Then that “click” that was once done with a computer, suddenly becomes a voice prompt from the customer.

In our technology-filled world, as a marketer you must keep on top of new technologies and think about all future possibilities, so you can capitalize on them once they appear. We can already write a book purely using voice dictation software. Is it an impossible thought that voice assistants will eventually create marketing opportunities?

For decades, advertising enjoyed a fairly predictable business. Print, radio, and TV coalesced into a three-pronged approach that was mastered after decades of relative stability. Simply put, if a vendor demonstrated expertise, then clients willingly trusted them, generation after generation. Then the Internet happened.

The ones and zeros that began streaming through our phone lines created a reverberating disruption to media that is still being felt wirelessly today. From video pre-roll to dynamic targeting, to machine-readable content, advertising has been dealt an onslaught of changes. While some merged, and others went out of business, some have faced the tide, developed new capabilities and are standing tall against the emerging, digitally native competition. Or, so they’d have you think.

While there are some very talented agencies out there, the sad truth is that many advertising mediums talk the talk but do little to walk the walk. Understanding today's advertising strategies takes lots of thought and research. Nobody denies that it is complicated. Advertising vendors know that. Sure, they can speak the industry jargon, but when it comes time to spending the money and executing, the stakes are high, and it is truly a digital game of craps, some just using junior talent and white-labeled tools. Some will win, some will lose, and some of them just sing the blues.

Unfortunately, some advertising vendors can’t attract the talent to properly shift into an omni-channel media strategy. Omni-channel media is a term used to describe all forms of consumed media, from billboards to computer monitors. Outside of the mega-budget ad campaigns, the newer, digital-first strategies can nimbly navigate the ever-changing digital landscape, while simultaneously reverse-engineering traditional media deployments. Hypertargeting granular demographic and psychographic segments is a way of life. Traditional media companies are sometimes too mired in the way things were to strategically implement new media campaigns. Instead, it’s merely treated like a tactic to convert consumers to traditional marketing channels.

What clients are faced with is a watered-down version of a digitally naive strategy. Instead of developing services in-house, key pieces are outsourced. New technologies are offered, but frequently gutted of the novelty so that it can be offered to a broader client base. It often looks cookie cutter because it is. Often, the outsourced components are marked up dramatically in the process, driving up the costs for hollowed services. When it comes to offering support, some traditional vendors can do little in the way of help, other than offering to “check on it.” Nobody wins in this situation.

There are some incredibly talented agencies for you to work with. If your advertising partner starts or continues, to offer new digital services, please do your research. Discuss what metrics they track and how they obtain the data. It’s not hard for an advertiser to take a report, throw its name on it, or white-label an existing tool while charging a premium in the process. As with any vendor, find out who some of the other clients (similar to the size and composition of your dealership) are, to get a better indication of performance for yourself. It’s not that your existing vendor can’t do these things. It's a matter of them offering these services overnight.

While the stability of traditional advertising channels has created a foundation for lasting partnerships, today’s technology requires vendors to get smarter and faster. While it’s easy for a vendor to say they offer enhanced product offerings, it’s much harder to actually make these offerings successful. Make sure your vendor is adding the talent, training, tools, resources and technology to demonstrate that they are fully committed to a digital strategy.

What’s more important: maintaining your vendor relationship or reaching new and existing customers as their media consumption changes?

At the recent 2018 F8 Developers Conference, Facebook introduced Facebook Journeys, a new enhancement to their Analytics, which will reportedly give businesses an omni-channel view of the customer journey from introduction to purchase… but does it?

In their session, Facebook gave an example of a consumer (one of the speakers) who shared her journey towards buying a pair of boots. She explained how she jumped around before finally making that purchase decision. She began by explaining how she was a fan of a retail store and that, at some point, liked their Facebook page. She was served up an ad for boots that attracted her and went to their website (on her mobile device) to read reviews. While viewing the website on her smartphone she was prompted to install their app (which she did) and then proceeded to browse their site via the app. After some debate she finally decided to buy the boots, but the mobile site didn’t support mobile payments and she didn’t want to input her credit card information at that moment. So, she made a mental note to purchase them later. After a few days, she went to their website via her desktop computer and purchased the boots.

The message Facebook was attempting to convey with this story is that most analytics focus solely on desktop interactions and the corresponding conversion, ignoring all previous interactions. While this is true, it’s not really the omni-channel marketing they claim. Why? Because true omni-channel marketing attribution would extend far beyond the sources that Facebook Journeys tracks. Facebook Journeys only includes website visitors (if a business has the Facebook pixel installed properly), app installs, Facebook post, ad engagement and subsequent conversions. Here’s what report looks like:

Facebook claims that, with this data, a business can “connect the dots” between the first session and all subsequent sessions leading to the purchase, thus eliminating the “last-click” attribution most businesses (and analytics tools) use.

But how valuable is this information?

As illustrated on an individual level it might be relevant in some ways… but not in many; here’s why. Facebook Journeys is limited to interactions that happen on your website and app along with Facebook activity. The consumer may have visited 12 other retailer websites selling the same boots before returning to the initial retailer… but you wouldn’t know that. And that type of activity is practically a given when it comes to automotive shoppers.

In addition, Facebook will not show you the customer journey on an individual basis, but only in an anonymized and – most importantly – aggregated form. So, while you could get an overall idea of a SET of customers over a given time, you can’t pinpoint an individual customer’s journey.  This only allows you to identify and adjust marketing strategies based on friction points between devices… which leads me to the most important flaw in this report:

Facebook Journeys does not show you an omni-channel journey, but rather a cross-device attribution journey.

True marketing decisions should be made on a more individual level as each consumer is different – especially car shoppers. Most retailers (such as the boot retailer) have just a couple of variables: can the target demographic afford it? And, what payment methods should be provided for the customer?

when it comes to car dealers, however, there are many other variables which influence shoppers, including, but not limited to, new or used (doubt the boot retailer is selling used boots), mileage, financing, negotiation, and more. Facebook Journeys can only show friction points within a transactional journey, not the entirety of that journey. And that’s important.

The one quote from the F8 session which I find most impactful and relevant is as follows: “…smart, informed decision-making is what makes great product marketing. You really want to be able to see the whole customer experience and understand how customers are actually making their way through all of your experiences.”

Sadly, you can’t do that with Facebook Journeys.