Even with the array of technologies that drive traffic to dealer websites, an average of more than $600 is spent on marketing each new car sold. The problem isn’t digital marketing doesn’t drive views, it’s that it doesn’t provide the right distribution of views.

Today’s car shoppers do most of their research and decision-making long before they ever get to a lot.

In fact, a 2014 report by research firm McKinsey & Company found the average number of customer visits to dealers before buying a car has dropped from up to five to just one for some brands in some geographies over the past 10 years.

With the bulk of the path to purchase happening online, an effective digital marketing strategy is imperative to a car dealer’s success.

But even with the array of technologies that drive traffic to dealer websites and lots, dealers still spend an average of more than $600 on marketing each new car sold and those cars aren’t necessarily moving off the lot any faster.

The problem isn’t that digital marketing doesn’t drive views; it’s that it doesn’t provide the right distribution of views.

In fact, few cars in dealer inventory get the “magic” 30 VIN views, identified in CDK Global’s 2009 study as the sales lift benchmark.

According to LotLinx data, a quarter of a dealer’s inventory gets nearly 80% of all views. The bottom 50% of inventory gets a cumulative 7.4% of VIN views. This is even more surprising when you consider this doesn’t include inventory that gets absolutely zero views.

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