Why your car dealership must build a robust first-party data strategy

Car dealers and marketers must develop their understanding of first-party data once third-party cookies are discontinued. Today on Inside Automotive, we’re continuing our conversation on the importance of first-party data with Colin Carrasquillo, the Digital Marketing Manager for Nielsen Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram.

It can be challenging to decipher what the shift of digital data from first-party to third-party will have on the operations and the marketing that dealerships use to entice consumers. In plain terms, the cookies that your dealership uses to collect customer data will go extinct as early as 2023. This means that dealerships will need to educate themselves on the new tools available to them.

Carrasquillo explains that dealerships need to clean and segment their current data. Train your sales force to get as many touchpoints of customer data as possible. You can describe it as nicely as you like to customers but try to obtain as much as possible. Then, separate the data into groups that make sense to you. Carrasquillo explains that marketing campaigns can be adapted and targeted at specific groups of customers through the management of first-party data.

Car dealers also need to have a data strategy in place that aligns with their vendors. How these strategies interact with one another will be crucial to their success, and it comes down to accountability. Carrasquillo says that dealers should ask themselves—how do we work together to make our partnership successful?

Google Analytics 4 looks to revolutionize business-to-customer interactions and help dealerships know their customers better than ever before. Carrasquillo advises all dealers to download GA4 immediately and start figuring out how it works. 

Data from Google Analytics 4 should allow marketing to be revolutionized and change the way data is utilized. Since cookies will be a thing of the past, all sorts of businesses will need to shift, and Carrasquillo believes that using Google Analytics 4 will optimize and further drive sales across the industry.