Overview
This campaign reactivates long-dormant sales leads who are showing fresh buying intent by browsing your inventory on Autotrader or KBB. These are shoppers who submitted a lead more than a year ago, never bought from you, and have now returned to active vehicle research on third-party automotive sites. The campaign reaches them with a personalized message tied to a vehicle in your inventory.
At a glance
| Campaign group | Non Buyers |
| Audience | Off-site VDP - Cold/Lost Lead Reactivation |
| Channels | Email and SMS |
| Data sources | Cox Automotive (Autotrader and KBB) off-site VDP views, combined with first-party CRM lead history |
| Send cadence | Sent on weekdays only during the standard Audience Activation send window (Monday–Friday) |
Campaign goal
Reconnect with cold leads who have signaled they are back in market. A shopper who submitted a lead up to a year ago and is now viewing Autotrader or KBB has likely restarted their car-buying journey. The campaign brings them back to your dealership with a relevant inventory match — capturing intent that would otherwise go to a competitor.
Who receives this campaign
A shopper qualifies when ALL of the following are true:
- They submitted a sales lead to your dealership up to 1 year ago.
- They have viewed at least one vehicle detail page on Autotrader or KBB within the past 180 days.
A shopper is excluded when the following is true:
- They have already purchased from your dealership in the past 10 years.
How the matched vehicle is selected
Audience Activation uses the shopper's most recent Autotrader or KBB VDP view as the trigger and surfaces a vehicle from your inventory in this priority order:
- A same-trim match (year, make, model, trim).
- A same-model match (year, make, model).
- A same-make match (year, make) as a final fallback.
Vehicles with active dealership offers or dynamic payments are prioritized within each tier.
Templates available
- Email — Single Offer (Personal, Urgency, and Assuring tones), in both Classic and Luxury styling.
- Email — Plain Text Assuring variant, in both Classic and Luxury styling.
- SMS — Personal, Urgency, and Assuring tones, in both Classic and Luxury styling.
- Subject lines matched to each tone.
When this campaign sends
Sends are limited to weekday send windows (Monday through Friday). Standard Audience Activation deduplication rules apply: a shopper qualifying for multiple campaigns receives only the highest-priority outreach, and Cold Lead Reactivation is deprioritized relative to service-tied campaigns and the Hot variant.
Prerequisites
- Cox Automotive (Autotrader/KBB) data integration is enabled for the client.
- CRM is connected so historical sales lead data is available.
- Audience Activation is active for the dealership.
Frequently asked questions
Why a one year lead window?
A lead older than a year is well outside any active sales conversation and qualifies as a true reactivation target. The ten-year cap reflects the practical limit of useful CRM history; older records are typically too stale to be addressable. Shoppers with newer leads are reached by other campaigns (Off-Site VDP Visitors Hot or on-site campaigns).
Won't these shoppers be unsubscribed or unreachable?
Audience Activation honors all standard suppression rules — unsubscribes, bounces, SMS opt-outs, and engagement health checks. A cold lead must be both engageable and identifiable in your CRM to qualify. Cold age alone does not disqualify them, but inactive contactability does.
How does this differ from a standard cold-lead reactivation campaign?
Standard cold-lead reactivation reaches all dormant leads on a schedule. This campaign reaches only the subset of dormant leads who are currently showing renewed buying intent by browsing inventory on Autotrader or KBB — a much higher-intent signal, with messaging that references a specific vehicle rather than generic reactivation copy.