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Customer Research
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Why Research with CBC?
Most data systems in automotive marketing are built on modeled or inferred audiences — meaning the agency is making educated guesses about who your buyers are and what influenced them. CBC's research system is built on a fundamentally different foundation.
The CBC customer research system is built on:
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Verified buyers — not prospects, not look-alikes, not modeled audiences. Every data point comes from someone who completed a vehicle purchase at your dealership.
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Post-purchase survey data — collected at the point of sale, capturing the buyer's actual media exposure, decision journey, and key influencing factors while the experience is fresh.
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Daily data ingestion — your research dashboard is continuously updated, not a static quarterly report that's outdated before you read it.
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Full-funnel visibility — connecting media exposure to research findings to purchase outcomes, so you can see exactly which channels and messages are moving buyers through the funnel.
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Custom segmentation — data organized by dealership, audience type, vehicle category, or any other dimension relevant to your marketing strategy.
The result: every insight reflects current, real-world buyer behavior — not assumptions, not averages, and not someone else's audience data applied to your market.
Information That Saves You Time and Money
What CBC Customer Research Delivers
CBC translates raw buyer survey data into three categories of actionable output, all accessible through your custom dealership dashboard.
Custom Reports and Dashboards - Every CBC partner receives a research dashboard built specifically for their dealership. It surfaces buyer profile data, media attribution findings, and trend analysis in a single, easy-to-read interface — updated continuously as new survey responses are collected. No spreadsheets. No waiting for monthly reports. Your data is always current.
Media Strategy Recommendations - Research without action is just information. CBC's team analyzes your buyer survey data and translates it directly into media strategy recommendations — which channels your buyers are actually consuming, which messages resonated, and where your budget will produce the highest return. Every media recommendation CBC makes is grounded in what your verified buyers told us, not what a third-party model predicted.
Audience Segments for Targeting - CBC uses your buyer survey data to build precise audience segments for use across your digital and broadcast campaigns. Because these segments are derived from real buyer profiles — not inferred from browsing behavior or third-party signals — they reflect the actual demographics, geographies, and behaviors of the people most likely to buy from your dealership again.
How CBC Customer Research Works
The CBC research process is straightforward, continuous, and built entirely around your dealership's buyers.
Step 1 — Survey at point of sale. When a customer completes a vehicle purchase, CBC administers a post-purchase survey capturing key data points: what media they were exposed to, what influenced their decision, how they found your dealership, and who they are as a buyer.
Step 2 — Daily data ingestion. Survey responses feed directly into CBC's research engine on a daily basis, keeping your dashboard current and ensuring your strategy is always based on the most recent buyer behavior.
Step 3 — Segmentation and analysis. CBC organizes and analyzes your buyer data by vehicle type, demographic profile, media channel, geography, and other relevant dimensions — surfacing the patterns that matter most to your marketing strategy.
Step 4 — Actionable strategy output. CBC's team translates research findings into concrete media recommendations, audience segments, and campaign adjustments — closing the loop between what your buyers tell you and how your marketing budget is allocated.
Who CBC Customer Research Is Built For?
CBC's customer research program is designed to serve every decision-maker at an independent dealership.
Dealer principals and owners get clear visibility into where their marketing budget is producing results and where it isn't — with data to back every recommendation CBC makes.
General managers get a continuously updated performance dashboard that connects media investment to buyer behavior and purchase outcomes, so conversations with your agency are grounded in real numbers.
Marketing directors and managers get verified audience segments and media attribution data that make campaign planning faster, more precise, and easier to defend to ownership.
Research Case Studies
Research - FAQ
What is first-party data for car dealerships?
First-party data is information collected directly from a dealership's own customers — through surveys, CRM records, service history, or direct interactions. It is the most accurate and actionable form of marketing data available because it reflects real buyer behavior rather than modeled estimates or third-party inferences. CBC collects first-party data through post-purchase surveys administered at the dealership at the moment of sale.
What is first-party data for car dealerships?
Third-party data is purchased from external providers and based on modeled or inferred consumer behavior — meaning it approximates who your buyers might be. CBC's research data comes directly from verified buyers who completed a purchase at your dealership, making it a direct reflection of your actual customer base rather than a statistical estimate.
How does customer research reduce wasted ad spend for dealerships?
When a dealership knows which media channels its verified buyers were actually exposed to — and which ones influenced their decision — it can allocate budget toward the channels that produce real results and away from those that don't. CBC's post-purchase survey data provides exactly this level of attribution, replacing guesswork with documented buyer behavior.
Can CBC use customer research data to improve my dealership's ad targeting?
Yes. CBC uses verified buyer survey data to build custom audience segments that are applied directly to your digital and broadcast campaigns. Because these segments are built from real buyer profiles rather than third-party data, they produce more precise targeting and stronger campaign performance.
Does CBC's customer research work for independent dealerships?
Yes — CBC's research program is specifically built for independent dealerships nationwide. It provides the kind of verified, first-party audience intelligence that has historically only been available to large franchise groups or OEM-backed dealer networks.