Cox Automotive Data & Buying Signals in Fullpath

Overview

As part of Cox Automotive, Fullpath brings data from across the Cox Automotive ecosystem into its products to help your dealership identify trade-in and acquisition opportunities, understand each shopper's equity position, and reach shoppers based on how actively they are shopping for a vehicle.

Today, this includes Kelley Blue Book® (KBB) and Autotrader (AT) data, as well as Cox Automotive Consumer Intelligence Buying Signals such as Market-Level Insight and Market-Level Confidence. KBB and Autotrader data is enabled per account through your Autotrader/KBB data setting. As additional Cox Automotive data sources become available in Fullpath, they will be added to this article.

How It Works

Cox Automotive data reaches Fullpath in several distinct forms. It's worth keeping these separate, since they power very different capabilities:

KBB & Autotrader Data by Product

Website Engagement — Trade-In Tool

The trade-in tool on your Fullpath-powered website uses KBB valuation data to give shoppers an instant, branded estimate of what their current vehicle is worth as a trade-in. A shopper enters their vehicle details — year, make, model, and style, followed by engine, transmission, and drivetrain — along with mileage and vehicle condition. Fullpath then returns a Kelley Blue Book® Trade-In Range for that vehicle.

Shoppers select condition from four standard categories:

After viewing their range, the shopper provides contact details to receive it, which creates a lead for your dealership. If your website uses the KBB Instant Cash Offer (ICO) tool, Fullpath also captures completed ICO submissions as conversions, so those trade-in intenders flow into your shopper data alongside other website activity.

Equity

Equity uses KBB valuation data to value the vehicles your customers already own. For each owned vehicle, Fullpath retrieves a KBB valuation by VIN and stores a set of value ranges, one for each condition category (Fair, Good, Very Good, and Excellent). Your account uses a single KBB valuation condition setting to determine which range is applied by default; when no specific setting is configured, the default is Good.

To calculate a customer's equity position, Fullpath combines the KBB trade-in value of the owned vehicle with payoff and deal information (such as remaining balance and the original deal terms). The result is an estimated equity amount and an equity range, which indicate whether a customer is in a strong position to trade in or upgrade. Higher condition tiers correspond to higher valuations, so the condition setting directly affects the equity figures shown.

CDP — Shopper Page, Filters, and Audiences

KBB valuation data is available throughout the CDP so you can find and prioritize shoppers based on the value of the vehicle they own. The following KBB-derived fields appear on shopper records, in filters, and in audience exports. In the dashboard and in export files these fields are presented under Equity labels:

These fields can be used to build dynamic audiences and to surface ready-made audiences such as positive-equity shoppers. KBB-based fields are included when you export shoppers, so the valuation data travels with your lists into other tools.

The CDP also recognizes offsite shopping activity on the KBB.com and Autotrader.com marketplaces, which are part of the Cox Automotive ecosystem. When a known shopper views vehicles on those sites, that activity is matched to their Fullpath profile and surfaced in two places:

• Shopper Profile. The website activity view separates activity on your own dealership website from Cox ecosystem activity on Autotrader and KBB, and the timeline calls out offsite conversions, activity, and page views, including marketplace vehicle-detail-page (VDP) views.
• Audience Builder. Offsite marketplace activity is available as filters, so you can build audiences of shoppers based on what they view across Autotrader and KBB.

Two offsite VDP-view filters are available in the Audience Builder:

Together, these give you visibility into shopping behavior that takes place beyond your own website, so you can identify in-market shoppers and time your outreach accordingly.

Audience Activation

Audience Activation puts KBB data to work in your email and SMS campaigns in three ways:

• Equity-based audiences. Audiences built in the CDP using KBB valuation and equity data — for example, shoppers with positive equity — can be activated directly into email and SMS campaigns, so you can reach the right trade-in and upgrade candidates with relevant messaging.
• Trade-in / vehicle-acquisition link. Your dealership's vehicle-acquisition page (the trade-in or KBB Instant Cash Offer landing page configured for your account) is available as a merge field in campaign content, so trade-in calls to action can link shoppers straight to the right tool.
• Offsite activity campaigns. When shoppers view vehicles on the KBB.com or Autotrader.com marketplaces, Audience Activation can build audiences from that offsite activity and engage them through dedicated email and SMS campaign templates — reaching in-market shoppers based on behavior that happens outside your website.

Digital Advertising

In Digital Advertising, KBB is used as an advertising context rather than as valuation data. Trade-in and research-oriented ad groups target shoppers who are researching their vehicle's value, using trade-in keywords (such as "trade in," "trade in appraisal," and "car valuation") together with placements on KBB.com and other automotive research sites like Autotrader.com, Carfax, Cars.com, and TrueCar. This puts your dealership in front of shoppers at the moment they are evaluating a trade or a purchase. No individual vehicle valuation data is used in this targeting.

Summary: Cox Automotive Data by Product

Cox Automotive Consumer Intelligence: Market-Level Insight

What It Is

Market-Level Insight is a Buying Signal label assigned to a shopper that predicts where the shopper is in the car-buying process and which vehicles they are interested in. It is built from the shopper's interests, CRM activity, and online shopping activity across Cox Automotive's network. It is a directional signal, not a guarantee. The label refreshes automatically as new activity comes in and moves down on its own as a shopper goes quiet.

Where to Find It

Cox Automotive Consumer Intelligence Buying Signals are available as filters in the Audience Builder in CDP Pro, so you can build audiences of shoppers based on where they are in the car-buying process.

What It Looks At

Inputs can include, but are not limited to:

• Shopping activity. Vehicle page views and searches tied to a specific year, make, and model. Activity tied to a vehicle the shopper already owns is filtered out, so it isn't mistaken for shopping.
• Contact activity. Phone calls, chats, and lead-form submissions, which signal stronger intent than browsing alone. A lead submitted within the last 7 days is what separates Ready To Buy from Actively Shopping.
• Time windows. Activity is measured across 7-day and 90-day windows, so the share of activity in the most recent 7 days can be compared against the shopper's full 90-day activity.

How It's Built

At a high level, the calculation can include, but is not limited to, the following steps:

Market-Level Tiers

Market Level Adjustments

After a tier is assigned, it is corrected against real-world buying behavior. Adjustments can include, but are not limited to:

• Digital Retailing engagement. Shoppers using Digital Retailing tools, such as payment and financing calculators, trade-in tools, or dealer checkout flows, can be moved up a tier, since this engagement correlates with a meaningfully higher likelihood of buying.
• No preferred make yet. Shoppers that haven't settled on a clear make preference can be stepped down from the top tiers.
• Browsing volume. Very low browsing volume can step a shopper down a tier, while very high volume can move an Inconclusive shopper up.

What It Produces

For each shopper, Market-Level Insight produces:

• A Market Level label.
• Shopping-activity counts, both overall and recent.
• Contact counts by channel (calls, chats, and leads), both overall and recent.
• The date of the shopper's last activity.

Why It Matters

Market-Level Insight helps you prioritize and personalize outreach based on where a shopper really is in the car-buying process. Because it recalculates continuously from fresh activity, the label reflects a moving target rather than a permanent status.

Cox Automotive Consumer Intelligence: Market-Level Confidence

What It Is

Every Market Level label comes with a companion field, Market-Level Confidence. Confidence describes how cleanly a shopper's activity matched the logic that placed it in its tier. It does not describe how close the shopper is to buying; that is what the tier itself tells you. Confidence is expressed on the following scale:

Very High · High · Moderate · Low · Very Low · Inconclusive

What It Looks At

Confidence draws on the same Buying Signals used to assign the Market Level, including:

• Recent shopping volume. Vehicle page views and searches in the last 7 days, with owned-vehicle activity filtered out first.
• Recent shopping share. How much of the shopper's 90-day shopping activity happened within the last 7 days.
• Recent contact share. How much of the shopper's 90-day calls, chats, and lead submissions happened within the last 7 days.
• Last activity and overall activity volume. Used to catch shoppers that have gone quiet and to account for thin data.

How It's Assigned

How to Read It

• Compare within a tier, not across tiers. An Actively Shopping shopper can carry Very High confidence while a Ready To Buy shopper carries Moderate. Confidence ranks shoppers inside a tier; it doesn't outrank the tier itself.
• Adjusted tiers keep their original confidence. A shopper moved up to Actively Shopping for Digital Retailing activity may still carry Low or Inconclusive confidence, and a Ready To Buy shopper stepped down for having no preferred make can keep Very High confidence.
• Not Currently Shopping is always Low or Very Low. This comes from how the tier is defined, not from doubt that the shopper has gone quiet.

Why It Matters

Confidence gives you a second way to sort shoppers within a tier. For example, you can work Very High confidence Ready To Buy shoppers before Moderate ones. It also signals when a tier assignment rests on thin or ambiguous activity.

Availability

KBB and Autotrader data is enabled per account through your Autotrader/KBB data setting, and the KBB valuation condition used by Equity and the CDP is configurable at the account level. The depth of offsite marketplace data available on your account depends on your Autotrader/KBB listings subscription; questions about your subscription should be directed to your Autotrader/KBB representative.

Cox Automotive Consumer Intelligence filters appear in the CDP Pro Audience Builder for all dealerships using VinSolutions as their CRM. Signal data is available only for Cox Automotive AMP clients whose website has the Pixall tag installed; for all other dealerships, these filters return zero shoppers.

Valuation figures are estimates provided by Kelley Blue Book and can vary based on region, vehicle, condition, and other factors. Market-Level Insight and Market-Level Confidence are directional signals that recalculate as new activity comes in. If you would like to confirm which Cox Automotive data capabilities are active on your account or adjust your valuation condition setting, contact your Fullpath representative.

Autotrader/KBB Shopper Data Visibility by Subscription Tier

The depth of Autotrader/KBB shopper visibility described throughout this article depends on whether the dealership holds an active Autotrader/KBB listings subscription.

Specific subscription and eligibility questions should be directed to the dealership's Autotrader/KBB representative.

Learn More

• CDP Group & Shopper
• Attribution Dashboard