--- title: What Is Data Attribution? description: When it comes to tracking the success of your dealership's marketing efforts, attribution is vital to ensure you're focusing in the right areas. image: https://blog.edificeautomarketing.com/hubfs/Edifice_Automotive_December2017/images/Web_Attribution.jpg --- [![Edifice-Logo-Full-Color-350x100-01-01](https://blog.edificeautomarketing.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Edifice-Logo-Full-Color-350x100-01-01.png?width=350&height=100&name=Edifice-Logo-Full-Color-350x100-01-01.png "Edifice-Logo-Full-Color-350x100-01-01")](https://www.edificeautomarketing.com/) - [Turnkey Targeted Marketing](http://www.edificeautomarketing.com/advanced-technology-data) - [Solutions & Services](http://www.edificeautomarketing.com/solutions-services) - [About Us](http://www.edificeautomarketing.com/about-us) - [Our Story](http://www.edificeautomarketing.com/about-us#story) - [Case Study Success Stories](https://info.edificeautomarketing.com/case-studies) - [Blog](https://blog.edificeautomarketing.com) - [Contact Us](http://www.edificeautomarketing.com/contact-us) [See a Demo](http://www.edificeautomarketing.com/schedule) ![](https://blog.edificeautomarketing.com/hubfs/Edifice_Automotive_December2017/images/Web_Attribution.jpg) # What Is Data Attribution? Published by [Hale Soucie](https://blog.edificeautomarketing.com/author/hale-soucie) on September 1, 2017 So, you have decided to try and give your dealership a leg up on local competition by implementing **multi-channel digital marketing** (a very wise choice).  You’ve set aside a budget and already have some great ad ideas. However, since you don’t have much experience in the area, you’ve hired a company to help you with the dirty work. Everything seems to be falling into place, but you can’t help but wonder if the agency you’ve chosen is doing a good job and your money is being well spent. How will you know if they are – or aren’t –  delivering on everything they promise? The answer is a word that everyone in marketing likes to throw around whether their audience, or they themselves really know what it means: **attribution**. So, what is attribution? **at·tri·bu·tion** ## **atrəˈbyo͞oSH(ə)n/** ### ***noun*** 1. **the action of regarding something as being caused by a person or thing.** In regards to marketing, attribution is how an agency or a customer determines the efficiency of spending and assesses how successful their advertising is. Simply put, attribution is **associating a specific marketing effort with an individual sale**. There are several different schools of thought on how attribution should be carried out. For quite some time the thought has been that **last click**, or the last impression that resulted in a response can and should be **credited with the sale**. However, many people, including ourselves think this is **a flawed attribution model** and the market is starting to shift in response to that. While clicks are a significant milestone on the consumer’s journey to a sale, they are just that: a milestone. Clicks are an excellent way to “check the temperature” of a marketing plan, and are an extremely valuable metric, but ultimately, they are just a step in the process. **A click gives zero return on investment unless it leads to an actual sale**. If you put too much focus on clicks alone, you may be losing sight of your ultimate goal: ***to sell more cars***. In fact, this **click obsession** has led to the proliferation of **bots**, **spammers**, and companies that use them to sell **over-inflated numbers** with **no results**. To learn more about bots, crawlers and how to protect yourself from them [click here.](https://blog.edificeautomarketing.com/blog/2016/02/26/ghost-and-crawler-spam/) So how should you really check the success of your marketing? Well, if the ***only*** thing that gives you a **return on investment** is a **sale**, why not focus on that? **Point of sale match back** is the **best** way to model your attribution because instead of assuming a high number of clicks means a high number of sales, it **associates specific transactions with the marketing the customer received**. Unless you are serving ads to every man, woman, child and bot in a 50-mile radius of your dealership – an expensive and sloppy technique we not-so-affectionately refer to as **carpet-bombing** – your marketing should be targeting specific people to drive them to your store. This ensures that you are not just driving random clicks to your site; you are driving meaningful traffic with visible results. When you target specific people, evaluating the performance of your marketing is almost effortless. This is why at **Edifice** we **provide the list** of everyone we are marketing to ***upfront***, and when those people come in to make a sales or service transaction we match back to the list. We are confident our solution works and are happy to prove it. And the best part? We let you **keep that list** with email responders and postal info to use however you please afterwards. To find out more about Edifice’s solutions or how to get a free market study, you can email me at [Hsoucie@edificegroup.com](mailto:Hsoucie@edificegroup.com) or leave your email below and I’ll be happy to send you more information. Market studies include owner counts, intender counts, and other valuable data for your market. | ![Headhsot](https://blog.edificeautomarketing.com/hubfs/Edifice_Automotive_December2017/images/Headhsot-150x150.jpg) | Hale Soucie is the Metro Atlanta Area Sales Manager and content-creator for Edifice Automotive. To get in touch with Hale you can reach him at his email hsoucie@edificegroup.com. | | --- | --- | Tags: [Google Analytics](https://blog.edificeautomarketing.com/tag/google-analytics) [Back to Blog](https://blog.edificeautomarketing.com) ## Related Articles ## [What Is Consistent, Cost Effective Dealership Marketing?](https://blog.edificeautomarketing.com/what-is-consistent-cost-effective-dealership-marketing) First off, a dealership needs to keep an eye on their market share of both new and used cars. This should be done in at least two ways; against similar brand franchised dealers in their market and against all franchised dealers in their market. 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