The KPI dictionary for a franchise new-car store: every funnel stage from search impression to delivered, funded unit and first service RO, with the formula, source system, owner, and exclusions for each metric.
A new-car dealership should track marketing KPIs stage by stage: search impressions and clicks, VDP and SRP views per available unit, call clicks and form completions, qualified enquiries, appointments set and shown, delivered and funded units, F&I per vehicle retailed, OEM program attainment, and first-service conversion from sold units.
Most franchise stores already hold the raw records: Search Console, GA4, the CRM lead log, the call-tracking log, DMS deal jackets, and service repair orders. What is usually missing is a shared dictionary. Marketing reports leads, the BDC reports appointments, the desk reports ups, and when the three totals disagree at month-end nobody can say which record vanished between systems or which of the dealership marketing metrics to believe.
This page is that dictionary for car dealership marketing KPIs. It defines the ten new-car funnel stages, then gives each KPI its full formula contract: numerator, denominator, evidence window, source system, owner, and exclusions. It publishes no benchmark tables, because a close rate or a cost per sold unit only means something against your own trailing windows, your brand, and your market. Used-car metrics such as reconditioning time, cost-to-market, and the used-to-new ratio belong to the used-car dealership KPI dictionary; this page covers the franchise new-car funnel only.
The funnel dictionary comes first
Before any KPI, write down the ten stages every new-car marketing record passes through, with a business rule, a source system, and an owner for each. When two reports use the same word for different stages, every rate built on top of them is unreliable.
An enquiry is never a sale, a click is never an enquiry, and an appointment is never a delivery. Each stage below keeps its own evidence.
| Stage | Business rule | Source system | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Impression | A search result for the store or a unit was shown | Search Console | Marketing |
| Click | A searcher clicked through to a store page | Search Console, GA4 | Marketing |
| Call click | A visitor tapped a phone link on the site or profile | GA4 event, call-tracking log | Marketing |
| Form start | A shopper began a lead, credit pre-qualification, trade, or test-drive form | GA4 event, website intake | Marketing |
| Form submitted | The form passed required fields and posted | Website intake, GA4 generate_lead | BDC intake |
| Qualified enquiry | A unique contact passes the written model, stock, credit-prequalification, and coverage rule | CRM lead log | BDC / internet sales manager |
| Appointment set | A confirmed date and time for a test drive or delivery discussion exists | CRM appointment records | BDC manager |
| Appointment shown | The customer arrived at the store | CRM / BDC show log | Sales desk manager |
| Delivered / funded unit | The vehicle was delivered and the deal funded, or paid in cash | DMS deal record | Sales operations, accounting |
| Completed service RO | A first service visit closed as a repair order | DMS service RO records | Service manager |
GA4 lets you mark an event as a key event, but Google's key-events documentation is explicit: an event records the configured action. A call click or form submit is not, by itself, a qualified enquiry or a sold unit.
Stage transitions have owners, and the handoffs between them are where dealership reporting usually breaks.
| Transition | Owning role | Where the handoff commonly breaks |
|---|---|---|
| Impression to click | Marketing | Last model-year pages outranking current allocation |
| Click to call click or form | Marketing with website provider | VDPs missing a VIN-specific price and test-drive path |
| Form submitted to qualified enquiry | BDC / internet sales manager | One shopper arriving via OEM and third-party leads counted twice |
| Qualified enquiry to appointment set | BDC | Response clock started from the wrong timestamp, or after-hours leads untouched |
| Appointment set to shown | BDC and sales desk | No confirmation cadence; reschedules double-counted |
| Shown to delivered / funded | Sales desk and F&I | Spot deliveries that unwind staying in the sold count |
| Delivered to first service RO | Service manager | No sold-to-service handoff, so the first appointment is never offered |
Demand and inventory-visibility KPIs
Demand KPIs tell you whether shoppers can find your inventory before anyone contacts the store: search impressions and clicks by page type, VDP and SRP views per available unit, feed freshness, and vehicle-listing markup eligibility. Read them against live allocation and days supply, never against a static catalog.
Search impressions and clicks by page type
Measures how often Google shows and sends traffic to your new-model pages, inventory listing pages, VDPs, and incentive pages, split by page group. Search Console's Performance report documents clicks and impressions for Google Search results; it measures search interaction, not showroom or service outcomes. Keep last model-year clearance pages in their own group so they never hide this year's launch allocation.
- Contract: counts per page group, reported as counts rather than a rate; one declared calendar month; Search Console; owner marketing; no exclusions beyond the declared groups.
- Cannot tell you: whether any searcher called, visited, or bought.
VDP and SRP views per available unit
Measures merchandising pull per unit of live inventory: total vehicle-detail and listing-page views divided by average available units. A franchise store's available count moves with every OEM allocation drop and dealer trade, so a weak month can reflect a thin pipeline rather than weak demand. Declare whether inbound, in-transit units count as available before the window opens.
- Contract: VDP plus SRP views ÷ average available units; one month; GA4 and the inventory feed; owner marketing with new-car manager sign-off; exclusions: sold units still indexable online, fleet-only units.
- Cannot tell you: whether viewers saw a unit physically on the ground.
Inventory feed freshness and accuracy
Measures the share of advertised units whose price, trim, VIN, and availability match the DMS record within a declared lag, typically 24 hours. Factory incentive programs change monthly, and a stale feed keeps advertising expired program pricing after the new program period starts.
- Contract: matching advertised units ÷ all advertised units in a dated snapshot; weekly or monthly as declared; website feed against DMS; owner marketing; exclusions: units deliberately withheld from advertising.
- Cannot tell you: anything about demand; it only proves the advertised catalog is real.
Vehicle-listing markup eligibility
Measures the share of live inventory pages carrying valid vehicle listing structured data. Google's vehicle listing documentation describes the markup for car-dealer inventory pages; eligibility and display remain Google's decision, not a dealer guarantee. The automotive SEO guide covers how visibility is earned; this KPI only confirms the technical gate is open.
- Contract: inventory pages with valid markup ÷ all live inventory pages; monthly audit; site crawl or structured-data testing; owner marketing or website provider; exclusions: non-inventory pages.
- Cannot tell you: impressions, clicks, or enquiries.
Enquiry and response KPIs
Enquiry KPIs measure what happens between a shopper finding a unit and the store earning an appointment: call-click rate, form completion rate, lead response time, qualified-enquiry rate, and appointment set rate. Phone-ups, internet leads, and walk-ins each keep their own source label.
GA4 documents lead-generation events such as generate_lead, qualify_lead, working_lead, disqualify_lead, and close_convert_lead in Google's recommended-events reference. The dealership still defines when each stage occurs in its own process; the event names are buckets, not business rules.
Call-click rate
Measures the share of website sessions where the shopper taps a phone link; declare VDP views as the denominator instead if that is how the store reads phone intent. Phone-ups at a franchise store skew toward VIN-availability questions, especially when allocation is tight and shoppers fear a unit will sell before they arrive.
- Contract: call clicks ÷ sessions in the same window; one month; GA4 event and call-tracking log; owner marketing; exclusions: staff and vendor lines, repeat taps from one session.
- Cannot tell you: whether the call connected or anyone answered.
Form completion rate
Measures submitted forms against started forms across credit pre-qualification, trade appraisal, test-drive, and availability requests. Credit forms abandon more often because they ask for sensitive fields; the website conversion workflow owns fixing the request path.
- Contract: submitted ÷ started forms per form type; one month; website intake and GA4; owner marketing; exclusions: spam and staff tests removed from both sides.
- Cannot tell you: whether a completed form came from a real buyer.
Lead response time
Measures minutes from submission timestamp to the first meaningful response, reported as a median per source. OEM-routed leads, third-party listing leads, and direct site leads arrive through different pipes, so one blended median hides which provider's queue is actually slow.
- Contract: response timestamp minus submission timestamp, median per source; one month; CRM lead log; owner BDC or internet sales manager; exclusions: auto-responder sends, which are not responses.
- Cannot tell you: whether the response moved the buyer closer to a visit.
Qualified-enquiry rate
Measures the share of attributable enquiries that pass the store's written qualification rule: real shopper, in the coverage area, interested in a model or stock number the store can supply, inside the credit-prequalification policy. This is the first KPI in the dictionary with a frozen formula, shown in the contract table below.
- Contract: unique qualified enquiries ÷ all unique attributable enquiries; one month; CRM lead log with source field; owner BDC or internet sales manager; exclusions: duplicates, spam, employment and vendor enquiries, out-of-area contacts, staff tests.
- Cannot tell you: whether qualified shoppers were handled well afterward.
Appointment set rate
Measures confirmed appointments against unique qualified enquiries in the same cohort, with a declared booking lag so late-month enquiries still get their chance to convert. A franchise BDC books mostly test drives, and the set rate depends on having sellable trims on the ground when the shopper wants to come in.
- Contract: qualified enquiries with a confirmed appointment ÷ all qualified enquiries in the cohort; one month plus stated booking lag; CRM appointment records; owner BDC manager; exclusions: cancellations before confirmation, duplicates, appointments set outside the cohort window.
- Cannot tell you: whether anyone will show up.
Dedupe is the rule that keeps this section honest. One shopper who sends an OEM-routed lead, a third-party listing lead, and a direct site form about the same VIN is one unique enquiry; declare the matching key (name, phone, email, stock number of interest) and the attribution rule (first touch or last touch) before the window opens. Walk-ins with no digital record stay labeled as unattributed walk-ins, never forced into a channel to balance a report. Channel build-versus-buy decisions sit with the lead-generation playbook; this page only defines how each channel's records get counted.
Showroom and sale KPIs
Showroom KPIs measure what the store does with the appointments marketing and the BDC created: appointment show rate, close rate on kept appointments, marketing cost per delivered unit, funded-versus-unwound rate, front-end gross per unit, and F&I per vehicle retailed. Every one is a count or ratio of physical outcomes, never web events.
Appointment show rate
Measures kept appointments against confirmed appointments due in the window, with no-shows staying in the denominator. Test-drive no-shows at a franchise store often trace to the specific trim being unavailable or already sold, which is an inventory problem wearing a BDC costume.
- Contract: kept appointments ÷ confirmed appointments due; one month; CRM / BDC show log; owner sales desk manager; exclusions: reschedules counted once in their final window.
- Cannot tell you: whether shown appointments were worked properly on the floor.
Close rate on kept appointments
Measures delivered and funded units against shown appointments. It is the cleanest read on floor performance this dictionary offers, and it still moves with allocation: a store missing volume trims posts a weak close rate no matter how the desk works the deal.
- Contract: delivered and funded units ÷ shown appointments in the cohort; one month plus funding lag; DMS deal records and show log; owner sales desk manager; exclusions: unwound deals removed from the numerator.
- Cannot tell you: gross, funding quality, or whether the buyer will return.
Marketing cost per delivered unit, by channel
Measures direct channel or vendor spend against the unique delivered and funded units attributable to that channel's cohort. This is the KPI that ends arguments about lead providers, because it prices the channel on funded cars rather than on the leads it claims. Shorten the cohort and you punish channels with longer buying cycles, so the 90-day window with a funding lag stays fixed.
- Contract: direct attributable spend ÷ unique delivered, funded units from the cohort; declared 90-day cohort plus funding lag; vendor invoices and DMS deal records; owner marketing with accounting sign-off; exclusions: uncosted owner labor, unwound deals, fleet and broker units, unattributed units.
- Cannot tell you: what would have happened without the spend.
Funded-versus-unwound deal rate
Measures funded deals against all delivered deals. Spot delivery is routine in franchise retail, and a delivery that unwinds when financing falls through sat in the sold count for days; this rate keeps that gap visible.
- Contract: funded deals ÷ delivered deals; one month plus funding lag; DMS deal jackets; owner F&I director with accounting; exclusions: none, because removing unwinds from the denominator is exactly the failure this KPI catches.
- Cannot tell you: why deals unwind, unless the desk codes the reason.
Front-end gross per unit
Measures average front-end gross on delivered retail units. It is tracked, and this page deliberately publishes no target for it: the MSRP-to-transaction spread compresses during factory incentive months, and stair-step pursuit can trade front-end gross for volume on purpose.
- Contract: total front-end gross ÷ delivered retail units; one month; DMS deal jackets; owner GM and sales desk; exclusions: fleet, broker, and employee deals as declared in the rule.
- Cannot tell you: total deal economics, which include holdback, F&I income, and pack.
F&I per vehicle retailed (PVR)
Measures total F&I product income on funded retail deals against funded retail units delivered, with cash deals staying in the denominator and fleet and commercial deals staying out. Marketing reads PVR because channel mix changes the funded-deal economics the store realizes, but the F&I director owns the number.
- Contract: total F&I product income ÷ funded retail units; one month; DMS deal jacket records; owner F&I director; exclusions: fleet and commercial deals.
- Cannot tell you: whether any marketing action caused the income.
Franchise-program KPIs
Franchise-program KPIs measure the store against the manufacturer's own scoreboard: stair-step or volume-program attainment, days supply against allocation, co-op fund utilization, and OEM survey scores. Program rules are set by the manufacturer and change by period, so this page describes mechanics only and never promises payouts.
Stair-step and volume-program attainment
Measures retail deliveries counted by the OEM against the program objective for the period. Stair-step programs pay per-unit bonuses when the store crosses declared thresholds, which is why end-of-month retail pushes exist; the attainment number tells you distance to the threshold, not whether chasing it is profitable at the margin.
- Contract: OEM-counted retail deliveries ÷ program objective; the OEM's declared program period; OEM sales reporting against DMS deliveries; owner GM; exclusions: deal types the program letter declares ineligible.
- Cannot tell you: the program's value, which the GM judges from the program letter and deal records.
Days supply against allocation
Measures available units against the trailing daily sales rate, read next to confirmed inbound allocation. A franchise store does not control its allocation, so low days supply can reflect a thin pipeline rather than strong marketing, and high days supply can reflect a slow trim mix the OEM keeps shipping.
- Contract: available units ÷ trailing daily sales rate; monthly snapshot with the trailing window declared; DMS inventory and allocation reports; owner new-car manager; exclusions: sold units, fleet pipeline, dealer trades not yet received.
- Cannot tell you: demand independent of supply.
Co-op fund utilization and pre-approval status
Measures claimed and approved co-op advertising funds against accrued funds on the OEM statement, with pre-approval status tracked per campaign before money is spent. Manufacturers reimburse qualifying advertising when the submission meets their documentation and brand rules; approval is their decision, so co-op is never booked as revenue before it is approved.
- Contract: approved and claimed co-op ÷ accrued co-op per the OEM statement; monthly reconciliation; OEM co-op records and invoices; owner marketing with accounting; exclusions: non-qualifying spend under the program rules.
- Cannot tell you: whether the advertising worked.
OEM CSI and SSE survey scores
Measures post-delivery and post-service survey results under the manufacturer's scoring rules. Manufacturers use these scores in program evaluation, the eligibility rules and question wording are theirs, and surveyed customers are a sample rather than the full owner base.
- Contract: survey score per the OEM's published scoring; the OEM's reporting period; OEM survey reports; owner GM with sales and service; exclusions: responses the OEM rules declare invalid.
- Cannot tell you: complete customer sentiment, only what the manufacturer's instrument captured.
Ownership and retention KPIs
Ownership KPIs measure what sold customers do after delivery: whether they book a first service at the issuing store, whether they keep servicing there, whether fixed operations cover the store's fixed costs, and whether they buy again. Marketing helped earn the original buyer, so these numbers close the loop.
First-service conversion rate
Measures sold units from a cohort that complete a first service repair order at the issuing store, with a declared service-interval lag so recent deliveries are not judged before their first visit falls due. Warranty and prepaid-maintenance visits bring new-car buyers back through the franchised service lane, which is where retention economics start.
- Contract: sold units with a completed first service RO ÷ eligible units from the sold cohort; sold cohort plus stated service-interval lag; DMS service RO records; owner service manager; exclusions: warranty-only visits counted per the store's written rule.
- Cannot tell you: about service done at independents the store cannot see; that absence is disclosed, never estimated.
Service retention rate
Measures the sold cohort that returns for any service at the issuing store over a declared trailing window, typically twelve or twenty-four months. First-oil-change defections to quick-lube shops are the pattern this KPI exists to catch, and catching them early costs less than winning the customer back later.
- Contract: cohort units with any service RO in the window ÷ all units in the sold cohort; trailing declared window; DMS service records; owner service manager; exclusions: out-of-store service invisible to the store, disclosed rather than estimated.
- Cannot tell you: why customers leave.
Fixed-ops absorption
Measures parts and service gross against the dealership's total fixed expenses, read as a whole-store health metric with no portable target. Franchise stores run factory warranty and recall work at OEM-set rates, so absorption reads differently than it would at an independent shop.
- Contract: parts and service gross ÷ total fixed expenses; one month; financial statement; owner GM with accounting; exclusions: none, but the expense definition stays fixed once declared.
- Cannot tell you: anything about marketing performance, which is why it sits in the review as context rather than as a KPI to optimize.
Repeat and loyalty purchase rate
Measures buyers from a past delivered cohort who purchase again from the store over a declared multi-year window. Lease maturities create predictable return windows tied to contract end dates, which is why the renewal conversation starts from the DMS contract record rather than from an ad campaign.
- Contract: repeat buyers ÷ all buyers in the past cohort; declared multi-year window; DMS sales records; owner GM with sales; exclusions: household matching rules declared in advance.
- Cannot tell you: whether marketing or the maturity date brought the buyer back.
The car dealership marketing KPI dictionary
This is the audit artifact: every KPI on this page with its funnel stage, numerator, denominator, evidence window, source system, owner, exclusions, and new-car note in one place. If a report disagrees with this table, the report is wrong until someone amends the table deliberately.
| KPI | Funnel stage | Numerator | Denominator | Evidence window | Source system | Owner | Exclusions | New-car note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Impressions and clicks by page type | Impression, click | Counts per page group | None; counts | Month | Search Console | Marketing | Beyond declared groups | Model-year groups kept separate |
| VDP / SRP views per available unit | Click, onsite | VDP + SRP views | Average available units | Month | GA4 + inventory feed | Marketing | Sold-indexable, fleet-only units | Available count follows allocation |
| Feed freshness and accuracy | Click, onsite | Matching advertised units | All advertised units | Weekly snapshot | Feed vs DMS | Marketing | Deliberately unadvertised units | Incentive pricing changes monthly |
| Vehicle-listing markup eligibility | Impression, eligibility | Pages with valid markup | All inventory pages | Monthly audit | Crawl / testing | Marketing | Non-inventory pages | Display is Google's decision |
| Call-click rate | Call click | Call clicks | Sessions | Month | GA4 + call log | Marketing | Staff lines, repeat taps | Phone-ups skew to VIN availability |
| Form completion rate | Form start to submitted | Submitted forms | Started forms | Month | Website intake + GA4 | Marketing | Spam, staff tests | Credit forms abandon on sensitive fields |
| Lead response time | Submitted to working | Response minus submission, median | All attributable enquiries | Month | CRM lead log | BDC / internet sales mgr | Auto-responders | Split OEM, third-party, direct |
| Qualified-enquiry rate | Qualified enquiry | Unique qualified enquiries | All attributable enquiries | Month | CRM lead log | BDC / internet sales mgr | Dupes, spam, vendor, out-of-area, staff tests | Model, stock, credit-prequal rule |
| Appointment set rate | Appointment set | Qualified with confirmed appointment | All qualified enquiries | Month + booking lag | CRM appointments | BDC manager | Pre-confirmation cancels, dupes | Depends on sellable trims on ground |
| Appointment show rate | Appointment shown | Kept appointments | Confirmed appointments due | Month | CRM / BDC show log | Sales desk manager | Reschedules once, final window | No-shows trace to trim availability |
| Close rate on kept appointments | Shown to delivered / funded | Delivered, funded units | Shown appointments | Month + funding lag | DMS + show log | Sales desk manager | Unwinds out of numerator | Moves with allocation gaps |
| Marketing cost per delivered unit | Delivered / funded | Direct channel spend | Delivered, funded units from cohort | 90-day cohort + funding lag | Invoices + DMS | Marketing + accounting | Uncosted labor, unwinds, fleet / broker, unattributed | Prices channels on funded cars |
| Funded-versus-unwound rate | Delivered / funded | Funded deals | Delivered deals | Month + funding lag | DMS deal jackets | F&I director | None | Spot-delivery unwinds stay visible |
| Front-end gross per unit | Delivered / funded | Total front-end gross | Delivered retail units | Month | DMS deal jackets | GM + sales desk | Fleet, broker, employee deals | Tracked, never a published target |
| F&I PVR | Funded | F&I product income | Funded retail units | Month | DMS deal jackets | F&I director | Fleet / commercial; cash stays in | Channel mix changes funded economics |
| Stair-step attainment | Funded, OEM-counted | OEM-counted deliveries | Program objective | OEM program period | OEM reports + DMS | GM | Program-ineligible deal types | Rules set by manufacturer, change by period |
| Days supply vs allocation | Inventory context | Available units | Trailing daily sales rate | Monthly snapshot | DMS + allocation reports | New-car manager | Sold, fleet, unreceived trades | Allocation is not dealer-controlled |
| Co-op utilization and pre-approval | Program | Approved + claimed co-op | Accrued co-op | Monthly reconciliation | OEM co-op records + invoices | Marketing + accounting | Non-qualifying spend | Approval is the OEM's decision |
| OEM CSI / SSE scores | Program | Survey score per OEM rules | Surveyed responses | OEM period | OEM survey reports | GM + sales + service | OEM-invalid responses | Manufacturer's instrument, sampled base |
| First-service conversion | Completed service RO | Cohort units with first RO | Eligible sold cohort units | Sold cohort + service lag | DMS service RO | Service manager | Warranty-only per written rule | Warranty and prepaid visits drive the lane |
| Service retention rate | Completed service RO | Cohort units with any RO | All cohort units | Trailing 12–24 months | DMS service records | Service manager | Out-of-store service disclosed | Quick-lube defection is the signal |
| Fixed-ops absorption | Store health | Parts + service gross | Total fixed expenses | Month | Financial statement | GM + accounting | None once defined | Warranty work at OEM-set rates |
| Repeat purchase rate | Loyalty | Repeat buyers | All buyers in past cohort | Declared multi-year | DMS sales records | GM + sales | Household rules declared | Lease maturities set return windows |
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The formula and evidence contract
Six rates on this page carry enough decision weight to need a frozen formula. Each keeps its numerator, denominator, evidence window, source system, owner, and exclusions together; change any definition prospectively, label the change, and never compare old cohorts against new rules.
| Formula | Numerator | Denominator | Evidence window | Source system | Owner | Exclusions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualified-enquiry rate | Unique enquiries marked qualified under the written model / stock / credit-prequalification / coverage rule | All unique attributable enquiries in the same window | One declared calendar month | CRM lead log plus source field | BDC / internet sales manager | Duplicates, spam, employment / vendor enquiries, out-of-area enquiries, staff test leads |
| Appointment set rate | Unique qualified enquiries with a confirmed appointment | All unique qualified enquiries in the same cohort | One declared month cohort plus stated booking lag | CRM appointment records | BDC manager | Cancelled-before-confirmation, duplicates, appointments set outside the cohort window |
| Appointment show rate | Kept appointments arriving at the store | Confirmed appointments due in the window | One declared month | CRM / BDC show log | Sales desk manager | Rescheduled appointments counted once in final window; no-shows remain in denominator |
| Marketing cost per delivered unit | Direct channel / vendor spend attributable to the cohort | Unique delivered and funded units from that cohort | Declared 90-day cohort plus funding lag | Vendor invoices plus DMS deal records | Marketing owner with accounting sign-off | Owner labor unless explicitly costed, unwound deals, fleet / broker units, unattributed units |
| F&I per vehicle retailed (PVR) | Total F&I product income on funded retail deals | Funded retail units delivered in the window | One declared month | DMS deal jacket records | F&I director | Cash deals with no F&I product remain in the denominator; fleet / commercial excluded |
| First-service conversion rate | Sold units with a completed first service RO at the issuing store | Units eligible for first service from the sold cohort | Declared sold-unit cohort plus stated service-interval lag | DMS service RO records | Service manager | Warranty-only visits counted per the written rule; out-of-store service invisible to the store is disclosed, not estimated |
Bring one messy channel report to a strategy call. We will map it against this contract and show you which stage breaks first.
Why this page publishes no benchmarks
No portable close rate, cost-per-lead figure, gross target, or absorption target appears here, because any of them would be false precision. Four structural differences move these numbers too much for a published benchmark to survive contact with a real store.
- Store size and volume band. A small single-point store and a high-volume store run different BDC capacity, desk coverage, and appointment math.
- Brand. Program objectives, incentive cadence, and lease mix differ by manufacturer, which moves close rates and gross at the same traffic level.
- Metro versus rural density. Cross-shopping intensity, drive-time tolerance, and walk-in share change enquiry behavior in ways a national average cannot represent.
- Franchise program months. Stair-step pushes and incentive launches distort trend lines; an attainment month is not a normal month.
Use the store's own trailing windows instead: the last three months, the trailing twelve, and the same month last year, all under the same definitions. Before comparing anything, run the failure-state checklist.
- Collapsed stages: a lead, call, click, or appointment counted as a sold car.
- Double-counted leads: one shopper arriving through OEM, third-party, and direct channels logged three times.
- Unattributed walk-ins forced into a channel to balance the report.
- OEM-program months read as normal trend months.
- Tracking changes made mid-window without a label.
- Sold units still indexable online, pulling VDP views and poisoning per-unit metrics.
The month-end review agenda
Run the KPI dictionary through one fixed month-end agenda: reconcile the data first, read every stage against the store's own prior windows, and leave with one keep, change, or stop decision per channel. Sixty focused minutes beats a dashboard nobody trusts.
- Reconcile data breaks. Tracking changes, dedupe failures, and unattributed walk-ins get resolved or labeled before any number is discussed.
- Read stage by stage. Every funnel stage against the trailing three months, the trailing twelve, and the same month last year, with OEM-program months annotated.
- Check demand against allocation. VDP views per available unit and days supply together, so supply gaps never masquerade as demand shifts.
- Price the channels. Marketing cost per delivered unit on the 90-day funded cohort, with unattributed units still visible.
- Review franchise position. Stair-step distance, co-op pre-approval status, and survey standing as program mechanics, with no payout treated as promised.
- Close the loop. First-service conversion from the sold cohort, then one keep, change, or stop decision per channel with an owner and a date.
Frequently asked questions
These are the questions GMs and internet sales directors ask when the KPI dictionary reaches the month-end meeting. Every answer returns to the same rule: define the stage, name the source system and owner, and judge movement only against the store's own trailing windows.
What are KPIs for car dealerships?
Car dealership KPIs are measurable values tied to written business rules that show whether marketing, the BDC, the sales floor, and fixed ops move shoppers from search impression to a delivered, funded vehicle and a first service visit. Each KPI needs a numerator, denominator, evidence window, source system, owner, and exclusions before it can support a decision.
Which marketing KPIs should a new-car dealership track every month?
Track the funnel stage by stage: demand KPIs such as impressions and VDP views per available unit; enquiry KPIs such as response time, qualified-enquiry rate, and appointment set rate; showroom KPIs such as show rate and marketing cost per delivered unit; franchise program attainment; and ownership KPIs such as first-service conversion and service retention.
What is a good lead-to-sale conversion rate for a car dealership?
No portable good rate exists, and this page deliberately publishes none. Store size, brand, metro versus rural density, and franchise program differences move the number too much. Define lead-to-sale as unique qualified enquiries reaching a delivered, funded unit, then judge it against your own trailing three-month and same-month-last-year windows under the same definitions.
Does a form submission or phone call count as a sale?
No. A form submission records a completed web form, and a call click records a tapped phone link; neither is a qualified enquiry, an appointment, or a sold unit. GA4 can mark such events as key events, but an event only records the configured action. A sale is a delivered, funded unit in the DMS deal record.
How is marketing cost per sold car calculated?
Divide direct channel or vendor spend attributable to a cohort by the unique delivered and funded units from that same cohort. Use a declared 90-day cohort plus funding lag, pull spend from vendor invoices and units from DMS deal records, and exclude uncosted owner labor, unwound deals, fleet and broker units, and unattributed units.
What is F&I PVR and why does marketing care about it?
F&I per vehicle retailed is total F&I product income on funded retail deals divided by funded retail units delivered in the month; cash deals stay in the denominator and fleet deals stay out. Marketing reads PVR because channel mix changes funded-deal economics, but the F&I director owns the number.
Which KPIs does the manufacturer already require from a franchise dealer?
Franchise dealers already report retail deliveries against program objectives, OEM customer-satisfaction survey scores such as CSI or SSE, and co-op advertising documentation with pre-approval status. Each manufacturer sets its own program rules and changes them by period, so treat these as program mechanics to reconcile with your own funnel stages, never as guaranteed payouts or marketing performance.
How often should a dealership review its marketing KPIs?
Hold one fixed month-end review per declared calendar month: reconcile data breaks first, then read every funnel stage against the store's own prior windows, annotate OEM program months, and make one keep, change, or stop decision per channel. Between reviews, check tracking and dedupe weekly so a broken form or feed never reaches the month-end meeting.
Put the dictionary to work at the next month-end
Start the next review by confirming the ten stages, the owner of each handoff, and the dedupe rule, then read every KPI against your own trailing windows. The records already exist in your systems; the dictionary is what makes them agree with each other.
theStacc does not supply your DMS, CRM, call-tracking, or F&I systems; what it covers is the demand side of the funnel: Content SEO researches, drafts, and queues dealership content, and Local SEO covers GBP posts, review replies, citations, and rank tracking. The full franchise-store proposition lives on the auto dealer marketing page.
Want a second set of eyes on your funnel dictionary? Bring your current KPI report and we will walk the stages with you.
Sources & references
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