How Data and Identity Are Transforming Automotive Advertising

Automotive-specific media buying strategies are reshaping how agencies drive performance and retain dealer clients. On this episode of Driving Solutions, fullthrottle.ai Co-Founder Amol Waishampayan explains why agencies are moving beyond general-purpose demand-side platforms in favor of solutions built specifically for automotive retail.

Waishampayan highlights the limitations of broad DSPs and how industry-specific platforms address the complexities of dealership operations, including inventory dynamics, service marketing, and tiered distribution. He also explores how household-level identity, deeper integrations, and outcome-based measurement are helping agencies improve targeting, reduce wasted spend, and demonstrate clear ROI tied to vehicle sales and service performance.

Key discussion points:

•  Why general-purpose DSPs fall short in automotive retail 
•  How automotive-specific platforms improve targeting and localization 
•  The role of household-level identity in reaching in-market buyers 
•  Connecting ad spend directly to vehicle sales and service outcomes 
•  How DMS integration enables more precise, data-driven campaigns 
•  Why agencies must shift focus from activity metrics to business results 

Driving Solutions is the go-to podcast for dealership professionals who want to stay sharp, informed, and ahead of the curve. Hosted by Jim Fitzpatrick and powered by CBT News, each episode brings you real strategies, smart tools, and expert insights to help you run a more profitable operation.

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Transcript

Announcer 0:04

This is Driving Solutions exclusively on cbtnews.com.

Jim Fitzpatrick 0:10

Hey everyone's gym, it's Patrick. Welcome into another edition of Driving Solutions right here at cbtnews.com. What happens when you move beyond broad one-size-fits-all platforms and start leveraging an automotive-specific demand side platform, also known as a DSP? And more importantly, how can that shift help agencies not just drive better performance, but win and retain dealer clients? Joining us now is Amal We Shimpayan, co-founder of Full Throttle AI. Thank you so much, Amal, for joining us on the show today.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Jim Fitzpatrick 0:45

Sure. So how does an automotive-specific DSP help agencies win and retain dealer clients in such a competitive landscape?

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Well, often what we find is that agencies are using broad platforms versus auto-specific platforms. So they're using Google, they're using uh trade desks, they're using Amazon ads. Essentially, these are very big general platforms. And you can miss the mark if you're trying to specialize it for automotive. And as we know, automotive is a special industry that has a lot of special considerations across the tier model and as well as the concept of new and used and service. So agencies that can use an automotive DSP can help them solve auto-specific problems, right? So you have improved performance, better client retention, less wasted ad spend because you can get really local or really get in there on what moves metal at a local level. Um and then you need speed to market on enabling rapid campaign updates because every dealer lives month to month, which means every agency needs to live month to month with them. So you really just need something, a software that is built around that, not these big giants that haven't had to specialize for a really specific automotive use case.

What Broad DSPs Miss In Automotive

Jim Fitzpatrick 2:01

Sure, sure. Instead of this spray and pray approach that others might take, you guys are drilling, drilling down. What are agencies missing when they rely on broad general purpose DSPs instead of verticalized automotive platforms?

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Essentially, you think about identity, you think about um, you know, vehicles and operation and a lot of specific things that um come from new inventory, you know, used inventory, dealer-specific audiences. Um it's really tough to have all of that in um a general DSP. So an automotive DSP essentially brings that all into one place and makes it scalable. So to give you context, in a large generic DSP, you can use um generic third-party data that is not specific to a single dealer. Whereas in an automotive DSP, you can go say, hey, JBF Honda, um, you know, we're gonna go get these audiences that are very specific to JBF Honda, and that granularity is essentially what helps us actually, you know, move move metal on behalf, help the agency essentially move metal for their dealership customer.

Identity Graphs And Household Intent

Jim Fitzpatrick 3:09

Sure, sure. Um if an automotive DSP isn't just about media buying, but about identity and intent, what does that really mean?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Yeah, essentially it means that we have an automotive identity graph. It's specialized to think about households in the US, it's focused on a household approach. Uh, when you think about buying a car, you know, um you could put it in your name, your name, you put it in your spouse's name, you could use your email, a joint email. You know, there's all all these different things when it comes to identity. But one of the fields that's super important in automotive is actually the postal address because there's often a um a lender involved in in many car sale deals, right? And so your postal address has to be very consistent, very legit to be verified by the financial institution. So um it's a little bit um in the weeds, but if you focus on household uh because of those reasons, it allows you to really have better automotive identity, better measure performance, better measure uh car sales and service and activate all along the way.

Measuring Real Business Outcomes

Jim Fitzpatrick 4:12

Yeah, that's pretty cool. What separates agencies that are thriving today from those that are struggling to keep dealer clients? As you know, dealers can be very demanding and uh and they need to be in order to move roll iron and uh and make money. So uh what what what separates them?

SPEAKER_01 4:30

I think many agencies are buying media on behalf of their dealer clients today, and what they're reporting on is hey, deliver this many impressions, maybe here's where it ran. Um, maybe it has a click-through rate or or view-through rate on like how much are people viewing it. Um, and then what often happens is that the dealer is like, that's great, but my business is down month over month or year over year given seasonality. And so um the long story short is true business outcomes when agencies use uh both Roddle and automotive DSP, every dollar of media is neurotically measured on here's how many new you's and total ROs you got off of this CTV campaign, and here's here's the proof coins, versus agencies that are just buying media saying, we ran media, like how are sales this month? You know, and so I think um that's the difference in agencies that have better retention with their dealers as customers, and it's a better uh way for dealers to have actually better grab market share and beat their competitors.

Jim Fitzpatrick 5:35

Yeah, that's a huge advantage for agencies um that are out there. I mean, I've used to be in the agency world myself and to be able to drill down that far and provide that kind of data to your dealer clients is not only impressive, but today it's almost essential.

DMS Integrations And The Easy Button

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Yeah, 100%, 100%. And I think what you'll see is the agencies that use something that basically think about it like it your ad platform should have a native DMS integration, right? So for example, we use like a Fortellist for CDK, and it's like you can literally go target your um lease customers at less than six months, add in Conquest lease customers to it, and then go target on you know uh Warner Brothers and Hulu, right? And then say how many car sales did I get off that? So that whole loop is something that would typically take a long time. Yeah, call it hard digital labor to try to get connect all those dots. So the platform again is about um how do you make it easy button, you know, because the easy button, especially with AI and everything today, is really what agencies are are looking for.

Jim Fitzpatrick 6:42

Right, right. Yeah, and and as to when you started out earlier in the in the conversation today, uh automotive is kind of a very unique uh uh situation you know with regard to the market, the car buyer. Um so to have this kind of data available at your fingertips uh is the difference between night and day for these agencies, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

100%, 100%.

Jim Fitzpatrick 7:04

Yeah, yeah. Wow. That's pretty cool. Amal Wishampai, co-founder of Full Throttle AI. Thank you so much for joining us on the show. Very much appreciate it. Love to do a follow-up with you to see how this is uh how this is rolling out, and maybe even next time uh bring on one of your agency clients. I'd love to hear from them as well, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Absolutely. We have 40 plus agencies today, and we're growing every week. So love to do a follow-up, and again, thanks for having me.

Jim Fitzpatrick 7:28

Hopefully, we can help you grow. A number of the agencies out there are tuned into CBT. So thanks so much for joining me.

unknown 7:34

Thank you.

Announcer 7:36

Thanks for watching Driving Solutions.