By
·
8 minute read
Automotive companies globally spend over a staggering $35 billion annually on marketing.
But where does the money go? And does it drive sales?
Although traditional advertising makes up a significant portion of budgets, events and experiential marketing also play crucial role.
That’s why measuring the effectiveness of auto shows is priority number one for experiential marketers. Doing so is the only way to prove ROI on the huge investments brands make to staff shows, bring in vehicles and build physical spaces.
Actionable insights that connect marketing and sales efforts and qualify top-of-the-funnel leads are invaluable for marketers.
Successful measurement begins with identifying objectives and KPIs, adding a software solution to the planning stages then connecting the before, during and after of activations with data.
Why auto show metrics are important
Data is the only way to understand what’s working and what isn’t. Without it, optimizing future activations is impossible, and with costs regularly in the six—or even seven figures per show—there’s no wiggle room to play a guessing game.
With data leading the way, marketers can:
- Track footfall patterns and dwell time with spatial analysis.
- Run more efficient test drives by eliminating lines and managing wait times.
- Allocate human resources based on the volume of visitors.
- Bridge the data gap between experiential and digital marketing.
- Collect and qualify leads.
- Connect with sales team in real time.
- Set benchmarks for future shows.
- Provide concrete evidence of the ROI.
- Refine future strategies and allocate resources more effectively.
That last point is crucial because marketers can reduce costs by using data to understand the best number of vehicles, the number of brand ambassadors needed on different days and times, and even the best space for their activation.
On a micro-scale, digital forms that adapt to answers give marketers insights into individuals. Well-crafted forms will:
- Record their preferences.
- Prompt them to join mailing lists for offers, future events, etc.
- Note where a person is in their purchase journey.
- Qualify leads and identify those ready to buy soon.
- Trigger timely, personalized follow-ups to keep a brand top of mind.
Understanding auto show goals
While the ultimate objective of any marketing initiative is to sell more, not every goal is the same. Common auto show goals include:
- Brand Awareness: Increasing brand visibility and recognition.
- Lead Generation: Collecting contact information from 250 potential customers.
- Customer Engagement: Creating memorable experiences and fostering positive brand associations.
- Product Showcase: Introducing new models or highlighting existing product features.
Encouraging further learning, registering for contests, and signing up for test drives all involve providing first-party data to reach goals. The tools for collecting that data range from pen-and-paper sheets to digital forms to lead capture tools.
Whatever the metric used to measure success, they all have the same end goal and are interrelated. So, qualifying leads and increasing brand awareness are two sides of the same coin.
14 key metrics for measuring auto show effectiveness
Auto shows are not generally retail experiences. Some exceptions exist, but a sale is not usually a key metric. Neither is thinking of them as a networking opportunity.
These metrics will provide valuable insights into your event's performance, allowing you to measure ROI, find areas for improvement, and refine future strategies.
1. Attendance Ratio
If you know attendance statistics for an auto show, you should also have the same data for your activation.
While other metrics get more specific, knowing the percentage of attendees who visited your activation sets a baseline for lead collection, cost per lead, etc.
2. Footfall
This tells marketers how attendees move into, out of and around physical spaces.
Insights into things like where bottlenecks appear, areas people don’t seem to go to, and how they interact with an activation help marketers fine-tune future set-ups to subtly direct people to the areas you want them to.
3. Dwell Time
Are people spending more time with Car A than Car B? Does that data change on different days or at different times? What if the positions of Car A and B were swapped?
Dwell time is a proxy for engagement. It can inform decisions around product choices, activation size, and more and help with efficiency.
4. Wait Time
Inefficient test drives create lost leads. People will likely not wait long to get into a vehicle — unless there are other things to do while waiting.
Understanding how to make test drives more efficient is critical to creating engagement and conversions.
Pro Tip: These first four metrics are best measured using spatial analysis tools. Quick and easy to deploy, they provide real-time insights, allowing marketers to adapt activations on the fly and gain insights to plan better for the next event.
5. Lead Generation
Other than awareness and visibility, why would a brand spend money activating at an auto show? Because marketers know experiences pave the road for conversions.
Lead generation encompasses a range from those with casual interest to those actively considering purchase within the next few months.
6. Qualified Leads
Experiential marketing thrives on engaged attendees who express genuine interest, not just casual visitors. Qualified leads provide contact details and valuable insights like preferences and purchase timelines, fueling future sales efforts.
7. Follow Throughs
Tracking pre-registered test drive attendance helps identify those who didn't show up. Reaching out to these individuals allows you to understand their absence and maintain engagement, reinforcing their importance to your brand.
8. Walk Ups
While pre-registered test drives are valuable, capturing those spontaneous 'walk-up' drivers at the show is equally crucial. These engaged leads offer a prime opportunity for nurturing, having now experienced your brand and vehicle firsthand.
9. Follow Ups
Following up on auto show leads with timely, personalized communication is key to moving potential customers toward a purchase. Generic messages fall flat, and delays can make them irrelevant. A fast response time sets your brand apart and capitalizes on initial interest, fostering deeper consideration.
10. Cost Per Lead (CPL)
Cost Per Lead (CPL) is a crucial metric for evaluating the efficiency of your auto show investment. It's calculated by dividing the total activation cost by the number of leads generated. With significant marketing budgets at stake, a low CPL indicates a more cost-effective campaign.
11. Satisfaction Score
Satisfaction scores offer a straightforward way to gather feedback and understand how customers feel about your brand. Simply asking, "On a scale of 1-5, how did you like this [test drive, contest, product, etc.]?" provides valuable insights into their experience.
12. Brand Awareness
Generating brand awareness is a key objective for any event. While it's trickier to quantify than other metrics, we can gauge success by tracking positive media coverage, YouTube views and comments, social media mentions, QR code scans, and other indicators. These insights are invaluable for shaping future events and strengthening overall brand loyalty.
13. Conversion Rate
A long-term metric based entirely on following people from event lead to sale. This data clearly shows the percentage of people who were first engaged at an auto show and later made a purchase. It’s a proxy for ROI.
14. Cost Per Conversion (CPC)
An auto show is no different than a digital ad or TV commercial in that it’s part of an overall marketing strategy. CPC is an efficiency metric calculated as total campaign cost / total conversions. It can be further delineated to total auto show cost / total conversions. It’s an important ROI indicator.
Pro Tip 2: Collecting and organizing on-site data is best done with software. Think license scanners, tablets and surveys that work offline, forms that provide deeper learnings, text messages that alert people to test drive times, etc. And all of that should integrate seamlessly with existing tech stacks to connect data to sales in real-time.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of every metric, but if your team measures all of these, you’re well on your way to reporting verifiable numbers.
How to measure auto show ROI
In an era of smaller budgets and increased scrutiny, return on investment is the most important metric for live marketers.
The simple formula for all activations is: cost – revenue / cost x 100.
The cost of an auto show activation is the simpler number to quantify. It’s the price of setting up at a venue, staffing it and transporting vehicles. The only way to quantify the revenue side of the equation is with a strong data plan.
Marketers must:
- Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely goals.
- Identify the KPIs of those goals.
- Track pre-show reach and engagement (website, traffic, social media mentions, registrations, etc.).
- Collect data and leads during the show.
- Connect with leads following the show.
- Analyze metrics and report KPI achievement.
- Track purchase journeys from registration/sign-in to on-site engagement, post-show communications, and conversion.
Once marketers can show that a person went to the event, provided their data, was nurtured through the purchase journey, and later converted (a week or a year later), you can attribute revenue to that event and calculate ROI. Once that’s done, further extrapolations can be made around cost per lead, conversion, etc.
How to overcome measurement problems at auto shows
Auto shows present various measurement challenges, but many can be addressed with a little proactive planning. Here are six key examples to consider.
1. Lack of budget
The simple fact is — especially for auto shows — the amount of money effective measurement costs compared to the overall investment is small.
Plus, some experiential marketing technologies offer trials and pilots for first-time customers. Ask around before assuming what you need is unaffordable and add a line item to the next activation.
2. It’s too late
Measuring dwell time or footfall requires little more than a few sensors. Capturing and qualifying leads requires a tablet, a license scan, and a few predefined questions.
In many cases, both can be up and running in as little as 24 hours. However, including a robust measurement strategy in the initial planning stages is always best.
3. Poor internet
Overloaded Wi-Fi is a common hurdle at auto shows. It can disrupt digital activations and hinder data collection. A solution is to utilize forms and surveys that function both online and offline, allowing for data uploads when connectivity improves.
4. Disparate data sources
Using multiple different technologies and solutions can lead to disparate data sources. Connecting one data source to another is often difficult, which means inputting data manually.
A single software solution that measures and connects the before, during, and after phases of auto shows will correlate, analyze, report, and provide marketers with a complete picture of the data.
5. Low-quality data
Bad data is a common problem stemming from various factors like illegible handwriting, manual input errors, incompatible systems, or connectivity issues.
Investing in experiential marketing technology and tools can address these challenges. A clear understanding of your data collection pain points is essential before selecting a vendor to ensure improved data quality.
6. Slow data retrieval
Some believe there’s no point in spending resources to collect data when it takes weeks or months to hit the system, leaving sales teams and leads wanting. It’s a fair thought, but this problem is caused by not investing in the right tools to collect the data in the first place.
Qualifying leads on the spot, sending them personalized communications quickly, alerting sales teams in real-time and syncing the data with an existing tech stack is all possible.
Getting started with auto show measurement
Though costly and demanding to plan, auto show activations remain a top strategy for generating high-quality leads. This is why auto shows have existed for so long. If brands didn’t believe in their value, they’d stop attending them.
But in 2024, every experiential marketing dollar is scrutinized more than ever before. That means effectively measuring the ROI of those dollars is a must. That’s why it’s important to include measurement tools or apps in planning early and spend a little to measure the entire budget.
It starts with understanding the goals of your auto show activation and the KPIs that will best prove its success or failure. For some brands or agencies, there might be just a few, while for others, there can be many. The important thing to understand is that a measurement partner is key to getting data that delivers real insights so your activation can be optimized, even in real time.
Introducing Limelight Platform
Limelight Platform is built to help event marketers turn experiences into sales and prove the value of their work. We connect the before, during and after of activations with a single system that can be integrated into existing tech stacks without taxing IT departments.
Our software allows marketers to design and implement entire consumer journeys easily. It qualifies and organizes leads, sends personalized communications, alerts retailers in real time, provides actionable insights, and reports true ROI numbers with data digital marketing teams need.
To learn more about how Limelight can help your team sell more, reach out to us here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I measure auto show success?
Track tangible metrics like attendance, media coverage, sales, and exhibitor satisfaction to measure auto show success. Also, consider other factors like brand awareness, industry influence, networking, and public engagement. Compare your show to past events and competitors to fully understand its success.
How do I know if activating at an auto show is worth it?
To decide if activating at an auto show is worthwhile, evaluate if the show's attendees align with your target customers, how much competition there will be, and the potential return on investment compared to the costs. Research the show's track record and set clear goals for your activation to make an informed decision.
How do I measure auto show ROI?
To measure auto show ROI, track lead generation, sales, changes in brand awareness, customer satisfaction, and calculate your return on investment by dividing net profit by total costs. This will help you understand the effectiveness of your show participation and make informed decisions for future events.