A shopper walks into a dealership and begins talking with a salesperson. 

The dealership employee asks how the shopper heard of the store, and he or she jots down some notes.

Though that may help break the ice with the shopper, it’s not exactly a scientific approach to figuring out where their traffic comes from.

“That may be part of a good salesperson’s introduction when they enter the showroom or are on the lot, but after they have all those sales, within their DMS, they’re still scratching their head at the challenge of, ‘where do I point my monthly marketing spend?’”  Cox Automotive Media Solutions Group president Brian Geitner said in a December phone interview. “And then we’re able to come back around with this study and make it concrete.”

The study Geitner refers to is one recently conducted by independent data analytics firm Transparency.  

It found that 60 percent of an average dealer’s sales have been influenced directly Autotrader or Kelley Blue Book.

In conjunction with this study, the two Cox Automotive entities are inviting dealers to test Transparency’s results against their own respective data sets.

In other words, a dealer can have his or her buyer database analyzed to see how many of their sales were influenced by KBB or Autotrader.

The study is available now through the NADA Convention & Expo, a Cox Automotive spokesperson confirmed, and its availability will possibly be extended until the end of the quarter.

There are eligibility requirements: dealers have to be current customers of Autotrader and KBB with inventory listed as of Sept. 1.

“Transparency’s attribution data finally makes it possible for dealers to know how many people who transacted at their dealership (car purchase or service) visited Autotrader or KBB.com and how much they earned from those customers,” Geitner said in a statement. “We’re invested in giving our clients confidence that they’re spending their marketing dollars wisely.”

Transparency starts its analysis with first-party sales data and doesn’t use cookies or tracking pixels; it reportedly has above 80 percent accuracy for sales matching findings.

The company pairs IP addresses of consumers with the transactional DMS data at a dealership, according to the statement. It then cross-references that with matching IP addresses on the Autotrader and KBB websites.

It also complies with relevant privacy laws.

Furthermore, Cox Automotive does not receive any of the DMS data, Geitner said.

“Today’s consumer likes to shop anonymously,” Transparency chief operating officer Darren Haygood said in the statement. “While millions of customers visit aggregate publisher sites every month, very few actually submit a lead prior to purchasing the vehicle. Transparency provides our partners and their dealer clients insights into the value of the entire audience.”

Giving dealers information on where their sales are coming from helps “create that confidence and connect those dots for the dealer,” Geitner said in the interview.

“They’re creating great relationships on their own and we want to show them that we’ve had some influence on that,” he said.