Overview
This campaign reaches service customers with an upcoming appointment who are also actively browsing replacement vehicles on Autotrader or KBB. A shopper who is about to bring their current vehicle in for service and is simultaneously looking at new vehicles off-site is signaling vehicle-upgrade intent. The campaign helps your team convert that visit into a sales conversation.
At a glance
| Campaign group | Service to Sale |
| Audience | Off-site VDP - Service Appointment Vehicle Upgrade Intent |
| Channels | Email and SMS |
| Data sources | Cox Automotive (Autotrader and KBB) off-site VDP views, combined with service appointment data from the dealership |
| Send cadence | Sent on weekdays only during the standard Audience Activation send window (Monday–Friday) |
Campaign goal
Convert a service appointment into a vehicle upgrade conversation. When a shopper has both an upcoming service visit and recent off-site VDP activity, they are likely evaluating whether to repair or replace their current vehicle. The campaign reaches them before the appointment with a relevant vehicle from your inventory — giving sales and service teams a coordinated opportunity to talk through upgrade options on-site.
Who receives this campaign
A shopper qualifies when ALL of the following are true:
- They have a scheduled service appointment within the next 30 days.
- They have viewed at least one vehicle detail page on Autotrader or KBB within the past 6 months.
A shopper is excluded when ALL of the following are true:
- They purchased from your dealership within the past 90 days, AND
- They submitted a sales lead within the past 14 days (they are already in an active conversation with sales).
How the matched vehicle is selected
The matched vehicle is based on the shopper's most recent Autotrader or KBB VDP view, with the same tiered fallback used across all Off-Site VDP campaigns:
- Same-trim match (year, make, model, trim).
- Same-model match (year, make, model).
- Same-make match (year, make) as a final fallback.
Vehicles with active dealership offers or dynamic payments are surfaced first within each tier.
Templates available
- Email — Single Offer (Personal and Assuring tones), in both Classic and Luxury styling.
- Email — Plain Text Assuring variant in Luxury styling.
- SMS — Personal and Urgency tones, in both Classic and Luxury styling.
- Subject lines matched to each tone.
When this campaign sends
Sends are limited to weekdays (Monday through Friday) during the standard send window. This campaign carries the highest priority in the Off-Site VDP campaign family — if a shopper qualifies for both this campaign and another Off-Site VDP campaign in the same window, they receive this one only.
Coordinating with your service and sales teams
This campaign generates the most value when service advisors and salespeople are aware of the off-site intent signal. Recipients of this campaign are good candidates for an in-person upgrade conversation at the time of their service visit. Consider flagging recipients to your service team so the conversation can continue at the appointment.
Prerequisites
- Cox Automotive (Autotrader/KBB) data integration is enabled for the client.
- CRM and DMS integration is configured so service appointment data flows into the CDP.
- Audience Activation is active for the dealership.
Frequently asked questions
Why a 30-day appointment window?
Thirty days is far enough out to give the message time to drive a pre-appointment touchpoint, and close enough that the upgrade conversation is still timely when the shopper arrives in the service drive.
What if the shopper already responded to a sales lead recently?
The exclusion rule prevents campaign overlap with active sales conversations. A shopper who submitted a lead within the past 14 days AND purchased within 90 days is treated as already engaged through sales channels and is excluded from this campaign.
Is the service appointment itself referenced in the message?
No. The message focuses on the vehicle the shopper viewed off-site. The service appointment is used only for targeting — it is not referenced in customer-facing copy, in keeping with the principle that off-site signals inform who gets reached, not what is said.