A Checklist to Maximize Your Effectiveness at Digital Dealer
This session, originally presented by C-4 Analytics on the Digital Dealer platform, provides a simple, stripped-down checklist to help you maximize your time at the conference. You have three days to run the gauntlet of classes, peer debates, and vendor interactions.
The goal is to provide a framework to quickly triage glossy sales pitches and get to the heart of the matter: identifying partners who can genuinely help you win sales and market share while lowering costs.
The Core Problem: The Conflicted Vendor
The battle for sales is a daily dogfight. You are not only fighting on-brand rivals, but also third parties and—unbeknownst to many—your own website provider.
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The Reality: An in-market buyer may be looking at 12 vehicles on Edmunds, checking credit, and running history reports (all data that is available for purchase). If your partner is a conflicted vendor (one who serves your on-brand archrival), they cannot help you get in front of this perfect buyer because they are selling gunpowder to both sides of the conflict.
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The Action: You must select companies that are not going to work for the enemy. The entire checklist is designed to expose this conflict and ensure your investment is focused solely on your success.
The Checklist: 9 Questions to Ask Your Vendors
Use this two-part checklist to evaluate any agency, partner, or provider you meet at Digital Dealer. The ideal benchmark answer is provided for each question.
Part 1: Conflict, Measurement, and Time Commitment
| Question | Benchmark Answer | Rationale |
| 1. Will you work for my direct competitors? | No. | This is the biggest red flag. A conflicted vendor cannot help you win without robbing sales from another client. |
| 2. Are you measured by Sales, Share, and Cost? | Yes. | The dealership's goals are sales, share, and cost reduction. Any focus solely on VDP views or traffic is a distraction from the core business. |
| 3. What is the Rooftop to Account Manager Ratio? | 10 or Less. | Too many accounts (e.g., 50–100 per rep) means your account is not getting the time needed for customization and strategy (often 16 minutes per week). |
| 4. Is the Account Manager Fully Certified? | Yes, Fully Google Certified. | The person responsible for your account must have the training and smarts. Demand that they hold all relevant platform qualifications. |
| 5. To what extent will we rely on OEM Reports? | 100%. | Reports (Sales by ZIP, Pump-in/Pump-out) are gold. They must be used to dissect where and against whom you are losing sales to guide campaign strategy. |
Part 2: Transparency and Technical Readiness
| Question | Benchmark Answer | Rationale |
| 6. Do you pay Google directly? | Yes. | This ensures transparency in ad spend. Paying a middleman creates an opaque relationship and potential hidden costs. |
| 7. Will you rebuild campaigns around Buying Moments? | Yes. | The future of measurement is organizing campaigns around where the customer is in the funnel (e.g., Can I afford it?). This provides opportunities to dominate segments where you currently have low impression share. |
| 8. Will you reveal your data sources to me? | Yes. | Demand to know what data (trade appraisals, credit checks, etc.) they use to target the perfect buyer. If they won't share, it's a huge red flag. |
| 9. Will you measure sales by "Names on the Whiteboard"? | Yes. | They must track the fundamental offline ratios, like Lead to Appointment Set to Sale, to prove that digital spend is driving profitable outcomes, not just clicks. |
Watch the Full Webinar
For a deeper dive into these topics and to hear directly from Rob Stoesser, Vice President of OEM, watch the full webinar below.