Strategies of High-Growth Dealerships
This session, originally presented by C-4 Analytics on the Digital Dealer platform, challenges dealers who feel they have hit a sales plateau and are concerned their current digital strategy is showing signs of fatigue. The core solution is to Always Be Conquesting—moving beyond traditional, brand-focused advertising to aggressively target all in-market buyers, regardless of the brand they are initially searching for.
History Lesson: The Old Way is the Wrong Way
For 100 years, the automotive advertising landscape was simple: Manufacturers created demand, and dealers advertised the "deals" to convert that interest into a showroom visit. Dealers simply carried over this "old-school" inventory and pricing focus to the internet.
Now, in an environment where sales are slowing, competition is increasing, and advertising costs are rising, that "same old, same old" approach results in stagnation.
The Solution: Conquest Targeting
Conquest targeting is the strategy used by high-performing dealers to target in-market buyers regardless of brand. This means moving beyond the basic focus on your own brand and "doing the manufacturer's work" to increase sales and share.
Identifying the Perfect Buyer
High-growth dealers use advanced data to identify the perfect buyer (whom we call "Stacey") and know everything about her:
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Behavioral Data: Her age, income, education, household size, location, and past purchase history.
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Intent Data: She is known to be in-market, close to purchase (14 days), and searching third-party sites like cars.com, Edmunds, and Autotrader.
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Needs: She is looking for a vehicle that is small but sporty, with good gas economy, active safety technology, and Bluetooth.
The challenge is that she is the perfect buyer, but she isn't considering your brand. The goal is to intercept her before she buys from your competitor.
The Roadmap: Building and Measuring Conquest Campaigns
The primary goals of a conquest strategy are to increase sales and market share. To achieve this, you must:
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1. Build and Run Campaigns: Campaigns are built using advanced, third-party data to target in-market buyers who are searching for other brands but fit your ideal customer profile.
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2. Measure Success by Share: Success is not measured by VDP views or traffic. It is measured by your ability to increase market share, which requires a new understanding of competitive performance.
By implementing conquest campaigns, you are directly fighting against market stagnation and ensuring that your advertising dollars are converting interest into sales, even against the most difficult competitors.