Is Your Dealership Ready for the Impact of CDPs?

One of the biggest topics of discussion that will take place at NADA 2025 is the growing trend of CDP implementation. The capabilities dealerships will have to stay competitive in 2025 and beyond is incredible, but it's equally important to take a step back and evaluate the capability we have to integrate before jumping in headfirst. 

Adopting a CDP comes with an opportunity to evaluate your readiness for growth - from changes in your operations, vendors, and costs to technical upgrades and new workflows.

Here’s What You Need to Know About CDPs for Your Dealership

1. More Complex Campaigns & Increased Costs

As you begin to leverage the power of a CDP, expect an increase in both the number of campaigns and the complexity of those campaigns. This is especially true when you start using your first-party data to run real-time marketing initiatives.

For instance, while your dealership may currently run 4-6 campaigns per month (think new car sales, service offers, etc.), a CDP will help you build many more campaigns based on specific customer actions, preferences, and behaviors. These campaigns will require more frequent updates and adjustments, and you'll need more resources to manage them.

This increase in activity and customization will drive up vendor costs. Agencies you work with will need to hire staff with advanced technical skills to manage complex campaigns and integrations. Whether it’s a marketing automation platform or a specialized team member, this will impact your bottom line. Be prepared for that added expense.

2. The Need for Advanced Data Skills

One of the key benefits of a CDP is the ability to create highly targeted customer segments based on detailed data. However, managing this data requires specific technical knowledge. For example, you’ll need to work with tools that segment customers based on their behavior—whether it’s browsing your website, booking a service appointment, or interacting with your sales team.

Agencies may need to hire additional technical talent who can work with complex data structures to properly activate these segments. You’ll also need to ensure your team is familiar with platforms like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and ASC events to effectively track customer interactions across all touch points. Without these capabilities, you may miss opportunities to engage customers at the right moment.

3. Upgrading Your MarTech stack

To fully utilize a CDP, your dealership will need to upgrade your marketing technology stack. For instance, email marketing won’t be as simple as it used to be. Now, every email campaign will need to be dynamic, including customer-specific data to track who’s clicking through to your website and interacting with offers.

Also, moving your data between your DMS, CRM, and CDP will require new API integrations and secure connections. Your team will have to work closely with your agency to ensure your marketing platforms can seamlessly connect with the CDP and other systems you use.

4. Data Privacy and Compliance Matters

As CDPs centralize all your customer data, it’s essential to be aware of data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. The more customer data you collect and use, the more important it becomes to safeguard that information. Make sure your agency partners are well-versed in compliance and are following best practices to protect both your customers and your dealership.

How Do You Know If Your Dealership Is Ready?

If you're considering implementing a CDP, it’s important to evaluate whether your dealership is equipped to handle the changes this technology brings. Here are a few things to ask yourself:

• Does your team have the right technical expertise to manage more complex campaigns?
• Is your current marketing tech stack capable of integrating with a CDP?
• Do you have the internal resources to support data-driven initiatives and ongoing campaign management?
• Are your team and vendors partners up-to-date on data privacy laws?

While CDPs offer huge potential for enhancing customer engagement, improving service retention, and boosting sales, it’s essential to plan for the added workload and cost. Understanding how your agency works with data and whether your marketing platforms can integrate with a CDP will ensure you’re not caught off guard as you move forward.

In short, CDPs are a powerful tool for dealership growth—but success depends on the preparation you put in now. Get your team ready, understand the tech upgrades required, and prepare for a shift in how you manage marketing campaigns. By doing so, you'll be in a much better position to capitalize on the benefits a CDP can offer in 2025.

Is Elevation The Right Solution For You?

Our custom CDP, Elevation, may be the solution to support the focal points we've discussed. Elevation integrates your major data feeds into a powerful Managed CDP solution that identifies high-intent shoppers in your market, and targets them with custom, focused digital marketing campaigns.

In addition, Elevation eliminates the need to expand and train your in-house team, and Edifice handles all compliance verification for you.

Ready to unlock the full potential of a CDP for your dealership? Let’s talk about the next steps!

Look out for us at NADA 2025! We'll be there so say "hi" and follow up with any questions you may have.