The Great Cookie Purge

Heads Up: Your Jar Will Soon Be Empty

In order to really appreciate the importance of Google’s proposed cookie purge, you need to first understand a cookie as something other than a waist-widening treat. We’re talking about data here and by definition a cookie or, more accurately, a third party cookie tracks an internet user’s browsing history, stores the information and compiles a profile about their search and spending habits. For this reason, cookies are like candy to advertisers.

Third party cookies are practically timeless as far as technology is concerned; they’ve been around for more than 20 years. However, with continued consumer pressure for more digital data privacy now than ever before, tech giants like Google and Apple are being forced to rethink how they operate.

First party audience data will be invaluable as the cookie jar empties. If your dealership doesn’t know how to effectively and successfully market to your own data, you’ll be outpaced by the next dealership who does.

Bottomline: Dealerships need to switch up their marketing strategies if they intend to survive the “cookiepocalypse.”

That’s where we come in.

How can we triumph over an empty cookie jar when it comes to targeting your customers and ensuring you’re making marketable connections that convert to leads?

We’re so glad you asked …

Take Back Control with Clean Data

It might not sound as appealing -- literally -- as a cookie, but clean data is the way of the future when it comes to meaningful marketing for the automotive industry.

What is clean data?

Clean data is defined as accurate, complete, and actionable data.

Side note: data is more than just customer contact information.

It is widely accepted across the dealer body that their CRM and DMS data is grossly inaccurate. Whether it be duplicate customer records, inaccurate contact information due to incorrect data entry, or lack of capture all together.

Imagine starting with information as basic as customer contact details and then you layer the financial data from the sale on top of metrics like closed or outstanding repair orders.

Can you confirm that the customer even still owns that vehicle you sold them?

Let’s complicate this even more!

What if you have five customer records for the same person, with multiple different emails, phone numbers, and service data? How do you know which record is accurate and, therefore, actionable?

You don’t.

Now let’s think about how much time is being wasted in the BDC.

If time really is money -- and it is -- this amounts to dollars being lit on fire.

Do you feel like you have clean data now?

Clean is the Gold Standard

We’ve heard “cleanliness is next to godliness” and when it comes to automotive marketing that really makes an impact, we couldn’t agree more.

That’s why we’re motivated to teach dealerships across the country about the value of clean data in order to create what we call the “Golden Customer Record.”

Stay tuned: our next blog post in this series details what this golden record entails and explains how our data mining strategies can help you curate a Golden Customer Record for each of your customers.

For now, the basic definition of the GCR can be summed up like this: A singular customer contact record, updated and merged with all relevant data points, both historical and new.

Sounds simple, but can your data deliver the gold standard?

Ready to go for gold? Contact the AutoMiner at sales@theautominer.io or support@theautominer.io and don’t miss “How to Create the Golden Customer Record,” our upcoming feature in this blog post series, “Data Trends for 2022.”