In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, getting attention isn’t easy and keeping it is even harder. Between crowded ad feeds, short attention spans, and rising costs, car dealerships can’t afford to waste budget on traffic that doesn’t actually convert.
At sMedia, we believe attention is more than visibility; it’s a choice. We go step further by helping dealers measure intentional behavior with our proprietary signal: the Engaged Prospect Metric (EPM).
From Attention to Action: Why Engagement Matters More Than Ever
We’ve written extensively about why attention matters, especially Voluntary Lifted Attention (VLA), which tracks when shoppers choose to engage, but attention alone isn’t enough. It’s not about how many people visit your site, it’s about who’s actually shopping. This is where EPM comes in. It helps dealers cut through vanity metrics and focus on real engagement that signals buying intent.
What Is the Engaged Prospect Metric (EPM)?
EPM is sMedia’s proprietary metric that only triggers once a shopper has spent 30 seconds engaging on a Vehicle Details Page (VDP).
It’s a simple yet powerful idea: if someone lingers on a VDP for 30 seconds or more, they’re doing more than just browsing; they’re shopping.
That makes them an Engaged Prospect, and that makes your next move more strategic, more focused and more profitable.
Why Dealers Should Care
Most traffic metrics don’t go deep enough. They measure bounce rate or time on site, but they don’t isolate the behaviors that actually signal buying intent, like EPM does. By comparison, Google’s Engaged Sessions metric records “the number of sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, or had a conversion event, or had 2 or more screen or page views.” Those sessions could have only been to your homepage with no other action taking place. This is precisely why EPM only tracks VDP engagement.
With EPM, you can:
- Identify which channels deliver high-quality traffic
- Reduce ad waste by removing low-performing sources
- Refine messaging based on VDP engagement
- Build powerful retargeting audiences based on real interest
It’s Not Just Retargeting, It’s Smart Targeting
Once EPM identifies your most valuable traffic, you can use it to build first-party audiences for social, display, direct mail* and more.
Imagine retargeting a shopper with an ad for the exact vehicle they spent valuable time researching, and on the platform they use most. That’s the difference between chasing clicks and staying top of mind.
Want to learn more? We’ve covered all of this, and more, in our recent webinar → Getting Attention: How Dealerships Can Break Through Digital Noise
Easy to Set Up, Hard to Ignore
We install the EPM via Google Tag Manager. It’s lightweight, secure, and won’t slow down your site at all. Once active, it runs quietly in the background, collecting valuable insight that powers your strategy.
✔️ No extra cost
✔️ No disruption
✔️ Included in your regular Customer Success reporting
The Takeaway: Not All Traffic Is Created Equal
Clicks are cheap, attention is earned, and Engaged Prospects are what actually drive your dealership forward.
If you’re still measuring success in impressions or basic site visits, it’s time to go deeper. EPM shows you who’s really shopping and gives you the data to convert them faster.
Let’s chat to start tracking your current EPM data today!
*Direct Mail is available for US customers only
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