Autotrader, a Cox Automotive brand, recently examined the limitations of current dealership sales tracking in a new white paper.

Clarivoy data from a sample of 875,000 automotive sales showed that only 8% were traceable through customer relationship management systems, meaning 92% of buyers did not submit a lead-generating inquiry.

Many dealers still rely on last-touch attribution, tracking only the final channel a customer interacted with — such as a dealer’s website — as the lead source. However, the typical car shopper engages with an average of 62 touchpoints. With most dealerships tracking only two, they are capturing just 3.5% of the full buyer journey. As a result, many influential touchpoints are being missed.

Key findings include:

• 92% of marketplace-assisted sales were not recorded in CRM systems.

• 48% of shoppers began their searches on a marketplace, 23% used a search engine first, and 14% started with a dealer website.

• Eight in 10 shoppers used a third-party site during their searches.

• On average, buyers used four distinct channels while shopping.

Multitouch attribution helps address these gaps by showing all the channels a customer engaged with before making a purchase. When combined with a weighted engagement formula, it allows dealers to evaluate shopper behavior beyond lead volume, tying activity to potential sales outcomes. This provides a clearer view of which marketing efforts are most effective and how customers are actually discovering dealerships.

“Paid search, organic search, and third-party marketplaces are major blind spots for dealers,” said Jade Terreberry, Cox Automotive senior director of strategic planning. “Our data shows these digital channels, particularly marketplaces like Autotrader, often play a key role in the buyer journey. Dealers relying only on one-touch attribution or lead tracking are missing critical data.”

In one test, Autotrader used multitouch attribution to evaluate its role in the buyer journey. It was credited with influencing 55% of sales — more than twice the rate indicated by one-touch attribution.

“According to Cox data, the average car buyer spends 95 days in the market and interacts with many channels and tools before purchasing,” Terreberry said. “Dealers need to reassess how they measure return on investment. Multi-touch attribution allows them to prioritize lead quality over quantity and apply engagement formulas tailored to their customers, markets, and close rates.”

The white paper, developed by Perficient and using Clarivoy data, offers additional details on multi-touch attribution and the role of marketplaces in the car buyer journey.