Cox automotive breaks SQL barrier, driving >50% lead conversions

Analytics is rarely about how much data you collect; it’s about determining which levers can have the biggest impact. Success comes from keeping your team focused on the right metrics so you can push your goals closer to the finish line.

At Cox Automotive, we have two major goals: to help consumers find vehicles and to connect auto buyers to auto sellers. We’re part of the Cox Enterprises family, focusing on auto dealers, consumers, and business audiences—between Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, we’ve touched most Americans’ lives.

I joined the company in 2011 as a web analyst, and today serve as the Product Analytics Director for Cox Automotive’s brands. To get the metrics we need to put the proverbial pedal to the metal, there’s been no bigger help than Amplitude.

Custom SQL was a wrench in the gears

With analytics, the work doesn’t end when you obtain the data points—you’re really trying to uncover a story about the user, and that requires you to dig in, dive deeper, and figure out the wheres and whens and whys. Cox Automotive had developed a serviceable homegrown analytics platform, but it wasn’t easy to craft a story from the platform data. Each layer of questioning took so long, and our team struggled to recognize the key levers to pull to increase registrations and conversions.

Let’s say we had a working session with the product teams. We’d dive into a topic, and I’d have an idea for a data point to help us make a decision. Within our system, I would have to write up a SQL query—or find and modify an existing query—to feed into Snowflake, and then wait for it to spit out a simple data table. Not only did it take time to write the query, but we had to account for the run time and processing time during these working sessions. On top of that, we had no visualization capabilities, so we had to interpret the data as best we could while having real-time discussions.

Cox Automotive needed an analytics solution to keep the team focused, efficient, and productive. Specifically, I knew we needed an analytics platform with better segmentation, cohort analysis, and A/B testing.

Finding our dream data-hotrod

I evaluated several analytics platforms with my team, and we ultimately decided on Amplitude Analytics.

While Amplitude was a more premium offering than some other options, it had all the capabilities we needed. The analytics would allow us to drill down and get to the data quickly, and its visualization capabilities would also help us make better sense of our data.

Another thing that stood out was the relationship-building element. Amplitude was genuinely invested in our effort. It was clear we had found the perfect platform and partner for the job, so we rolled it out and never looked back.

My product analytics team was the first to onboard, and I anticipate that other departments will follow suit. Currently, our primary focus is providing analytics support to our product teams, including UX and engineering.

Burning rubber for a 50% increase in lead conversions

Within our team that owns Mobile Applications, we had two mandates: improve the performance of the Autotrader app (Android/iOS), and launch a new Kelley Blue Book app (Android/iOS). While users ultimately loved our apps, we knew we could do more. The Autotrader app had a 4% to 12% conversion rate, with a flat line in registrations for eight months. But with our existing tech stack, it was hard to know why this was happening—including what was (and wasn't) leading to conversions.

Using Amplitude, we focused only on activities that had a positive correlation with lead or registration and then used a narrow goal-setting approach to redesign the Autotrader app and launch the new Kelley Blue Book app.

With resources like Amplitude’s Journeys feature, we could help our product and UX teams understand how people use our website and apps, which was vital for launching a new app like Kelley Blue Book. Journeys doesn’t just show us that users went from one page to another, but also shows which events happened on each page. With more granular details about user flows, we could make meaningful changes to our product.

In the first two quarters of having Amplitude-powered insights, we increased Autotrader’s lead conversion rates by 50% and saw our registration rates triple from 12% to 38%. We have also launched a beta version of the Kelley Blue Book app and have uncovered opportunities to add additional capabilities.

We put data-informed decisions in overdrive

Too many people look at analytics as just dashboards and reports, but I want people to understand the bigger story. At Cox Automotive, we want to know the actions throughout our user journey so we can create the best experiences possible for our customers.

My goal has always been to demystify data and teach our stakeholders how to analyze, drill down into, and interpret it. By showing my colleagues how to explore the data themselves and create dashboards for KPIs in Amplitude, they can better integrate data into their workflows and ensure they focus on the right things.

At Cox Automotive, we’re redefining what’s possible when you focus on data excellence and democratization. And we’re doing it with Amplitude.