The Sales Match Report is designed to help manufacturers understand how their marketing and engagement activities influence actual product sales. Unlike reports that focus primarily on lead conversion performance, Sales Match begins with confirmed new vehicle purchase registrations (completed sales) and works backwards to identify purchasers who engaged with the brand prior to buying.
Because the report starts with completed sales, it is one of the most effective tools available for demonstrating marketing impact and understanding the relationship between marketing activity and revenue generation. The Sales Match Report provides a clear connection between consumer engagement and completed sales.
For many organizations, this report becomes the primary source for executive-level marketing attribution reporting because it answers a simple but important question:
Of the products we sold, how many can be tied to measurable pre-purchase interactions with our brand?
When should the Sales Match Report be used?
The Sales Match Report is most valuable when the objective is to understand marketing influence on sales rather than lead conversion performance.
Marketing teams often need to justify investments in advertising, email marketing, website experiences, events, and lead generation activities. While lead volume and website traffic can demonstrate engagement, executive stakeholders ultimately want to understand whether those activities contributed to sales. The Sales Match Report helps answer that question by identifying purchasers who engaged with the brand before completing their purchase.
This report is particularly useful when analyzing marketing ROI, evaluating campaign effectiveness, identifying trends in buyer behavior, supporting annual planning discussions, preparing board presentations, or reviewing overall marketing performance with executive leadership.
When the objective is specifically understanding lead conversion rates or lead handling performance, reports such as Lead Closed Sales may provide additional insights. Sales Match is best viewed as a sales attribution report rather than a lead conversion report.
Who should review the Sales Match Report?
Because the report focuses on the relationship between marketing engagement and sales outcomes, it is useful across several areas of the organization.
Executive leadership teams often use the report to understand the measurable impact of marketing investments and communicate results to ownership groups or boards of directors. Marketing teams frequently leverage the report to evaluate campaigns, identify successful engagement strategies, and determine where future investments should be allocated.
Sales leadership can use the report to better understand how consumer engagement influences dealer performance and purchase behavior, while product and brand managers can use the report to evaluate which product lines are generating the strongest engagement-driven sales performance.
The broad applicability of the report makes it one of the most versatile reporting tools within Aimbase.
What information is shown in the Sales Match tab?
The Sales Match tab provides a high-level view of how many sales occurred during the selected purchase period and how many of those sales can be connected to known consumer engagement. Because the report begins with registrations and works backward to identify qualifying activities, it is often one of the clearest ways to understand the relationship between marketing efforts and actual sales outcomes.
The KPI section at the top of the report provides an immediate snapshot of overall sales attribution performance.
Total Sales
The Total Sales metric represents the total number of new vehicle purchase registrations included within the selected purchase date range and filters.
This number serves as the foundation for the entire report because every other KPI is measured against this population of sales.
For example, if 5,000 registrations occurred during the reporting period, Total Sales would display 5,000 regardless of whether those purchasers ever interacted with marketing efforts prior to purchase.
When reviewing this metric, it is important to focus on trends over time rather than isolated periods. Significant increases or decreases may reflect seasonality, changes in market demand, product launches, economic conditions, or shifts in dealer activity.
Matched Sales
Matched Sales represents the number of new vehicle purchase registrations that can be connected to at least one qualifying engagement activity prior to purchase.
Qualifying activities may include submitted leads, appointments, email activity, website sessions, or other tracked interactions captured within Aimbase.
For example, if the report shows:
- Total Sales = 5,000
- Matched Sales = 3,500
the report is indicating that 3,500 purchasers can be connected to a known interaction before buying.
This metric is often the first KPI executives focus on because it demonstrates how many sales can be tied to measurable engagement activity.
A growing Matched Sales count often indicates improvements in marketing influence, engagement volume, consumer participation, or attribution visibility.
However, organizations should be careful not to evaluate this metric in isolation. Increasing sales volume alone will naturally increase Matched Sales volume. For that reason, Matched Sales Rate often provides more meaningful context.
Matched Sales Rate
Matched Sales Rate measures the percentage of total sales that can be connected to a qualifying consumer engagement.
The calculation is:
Matched Sales ÷ Total Sales
Using the previous example:
- Total Sales = 5,000
- Matched Sales = 3,500
Matched Sales Rate = 70%
This means 70% of all purchases during the reporting period can be tied to a measurable interaction with the brand before purchase.
This is often the most important metric in the report because it helps answer a fundamental business question:
How much visibility do we have into the customer journey leading to a sale?
A higher percentage generally indicates stronger consumer engagement tracking, stronger lead generation performance, and greater confidence when evaluating marketing influence.
A lower percentage does not necessarily indicate poor marketing performance. In many cases it may reveal opportunities to improve registration collection, lead capture processes, campaign tagging, attribution settings, or overall engagement tracking.
Organizations should focus on long-term improvement of this metric rather than targeting a specific benchmark, since ideal performance varies significantly by industry and buying cycle.
Total Owners
Total Owners represents the number of unique purchasers within the selected reporting period.
Unlike Total Sales, which counts registrations, Total Owners removes situations where multiple registrations may be associated with the same individual.
This metric provides a better understanding of the size of the purchasing audience rather than the number of products sold.
For organizations with customers who frequently own or purchase multiple units, this metric can provide valuable context when evaluating overall market reach.
Matched Owners
Matched Owners represents the number of unique purchasers who can be connected to at least one qualifying engagement activity before purchase.
For example:
- Total Owners = 2,000
- Matched Owners = 1,500
This indicates that 1,500 unique purchasers engaged with the brand prior to purchase.
While Matched Sales focuses on attributable registrations, Matched Owners focuses on attributable people.
This distinction becomes increasingly important for brands whose consumers may purchase multiple products over time.
Matched Owner Rate
Matched Owner Rate measures the percentage of purchasers who can be connected to a known engagement activity prior to purchase.
The calculation is:
Matched Owners ÷ Total Owners
For example:
- Total Owners = 2,000
- Matched Owners = 1,500
Matched Owner Rate = 75%
This metric is particularly useful when discussing customer reach and audience engagement with executive stakeholders.
Where Matched Sales Rate answers:
What percentage of our sales can we attribute?
Matched Owner Rate helps answer:
What percentage of our buyers are engaging with us before making a purchase?
Organizations looking to improve customer journey visibility often monitor this metric over time because it provides insight into how effectively the brand is identifying and engaging prospective buyers before they convert to customers.
What does the Sales Match Trend chart show?
The Sales Match Trend chart shows how Total Sales, Matched Sales, and Match Rates change over time. This visualization allows organizations to identify trends in marketing influence and understand whether their ability to connect sales back to consumer engagement is improving, declining, or remaining stable.
At first glance, it may be tempting to focus solely on the volume of Matched Sales. However, the relationship between Total Sales and Matched Sales often reveals a more meaningful story.
For example, imagine a brand records:
| Month | Total Sales | Matched Sales | Match Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 1,000 | 500 | 50% |
| February | 1,200 | 720 | 60% |
| March | 1,300 | 910 | 70% |
While sales volume is increasing, the more important observation is that Match Rate is also increasing. This suggests the organization is improving its ability to identify and engage consumers prior to purchase.
Conversely, an organization may experience growing sales while Match Rate declines. In those situations, sales growth is occurring, but visibility into the customer journey is decreasing. This may indicate lead capture issues, gaps in engagement tracking, or changes in consumer purchasing behavior.
This chart is particularly valuable when reviewing year-over-year performance, measuring the impact of major initiatives, or evaluating long-term improvements in attribution coverage.
What does the Match Type Distribution chart show?
The Sales Match by Type analysis breaks matched sales into the specific activity that created the connection between the purchaser and the brand. Depending on the data available within Aimbase, matched sales may be attributed to activities such as lead submissions, email engagement, web activity, or appointments.
PRO TIP: Sales Match uses a hierarchy when assigning attribution. The report prioritizes the events in this order: lead, email, appointment, web activity.
If a sale qualifies for a lead match, it is counted only as a Lead match and not also as an email, appointment, or web activity match. Lead typically represents the largest percentage of matched sales because it's prioritized first and is an event that often include or trigger email engagement, appointments, and website visits. The other activities are often matched because some purchasers continue engaging with emails after their lead activity falls outside the report's date range, allowing the sale to be attributed through email, appointment, or web activity instead. Additionally, returning owners may skip the lead entirely and only revisit the website or engage with a monthly newsletter. This may also allow a sales match on an activity other than a lead.
The important thing to remember, though, is each sale is counted only once, using the highest-priority qualifying match type.
When reviewing this information, organizations should focus less on which category is largest and more on what the distribution reveals about customer behavior.
For example, imagine the report indicates:
| Match Type | Matched Sales |
|---|---|
| Leads | 420 |
| 135 | |
| Web Activity | 90 |
| Appointments | 55 |
In this scenario, lead activity appears most frequently among purchasers. This may indicate that lead generation programs play a significant role in helping consumers move toward a purchase decision.
At the same time, the presence of substantial email and web activity among matched purchasers suggests that a meaningful number of customers are engaging with the brand beyond simply submitting a form. This may indicate that nurture programs, website content, and ongoing engagement efforts are contributing to sales influence throughout the buying journey. This interpretation aligns with Dan's explanation that Sales Match intentionally expands attribution beyond traditional lead activity.
What information is shown in the Days to Close tab?
The Days to Close tab helps organizations understand how long consumers typically take to move from engagement to purchase.
While the Sales Match tab answers the question:
"Which sales can be connected to marketing activity?"
the Days to Close tab answers:
"How long does it typically take those influenced purchasers to buy?"
Together, these reports provide both attribution and buying cycle visibility.
DATA TIP: The Days to Close calculation in the Sales Match Report measures the time between a purchaser's first qualifying engagement activity and the purchase date. A qualifying activity may include a lead submission, email engagement, appointment activity, or web session. By using the earliest matched interaction, the report provides a view of how long the consumer's buying journey lasted from the first known indication of shopping activity through purchase.
Example: If a prospect submitted a lead in January, opened emails in March, scheduled an appointment in April, and purchased in May, the Sales Match Days to Close calculation would begin with the January lead because it was the first qualifying activity associated with the sale.
Note: This differs from the Lead Closed Sales Report, which uses an even-distribution approach across all relevant leads when calculating Days to Close.
What does Days to Close measure?
Days to Close measures the amount of time between the first qualifying engagement activity associated with a purchaser and the eventual purchase date.
This creates a view of how long the consumer's buying journey lasts within the data available to Aimbase. The Sales Match Report uses the first known engagement activity because it provides a broader perspective on the overall consideration period.
For example:
| Consumer | First Activity | Purchase Date | Days to Close |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer A | January 1 | January 15 | 14 Days |
| Customer B | January 1 | April 1 | 90 Days |
Although both customers eventually purchased, their buying journeys were significantly different. Understanding these differences helps organizations set more realistic expectations around campaign performance, lead nurturing, and dealer follow-up strategies.
How should organizations interpret Days to Close?
One of the most common mistakes organizations make is expecting immediate sales results from marketing activities.
The Days to Close data helps establish realistic expectations by showing how long purchases actually take to occur.
For example, if a brand discovers that most attributed purchases occur 90 to 180 days after initial engagement, evaluating campaign effectiveness after only 30 days could provide an incomplete picture of performance.
Similarly, if customers typically purchase within 30 days, leadership may reasonably expect campaign results to become visible more quickly.
The report therefore helps organizations align reporting expectations with actual consumer behavior rather than assumptions.
Strategic recommendations for using Days to Close
Days to Close is particularly valuable when making decisions about campaign measurement, reporting windows, and customer nurturing strategies.
Organizations can use this information to:
- Establish realistic campaign evaluation timelines
- Improve lead nurturing programs
- Better understand consumer consideration periods
- Set executive expectations around marketing results
- Support annual planning and forecasting discussions
For example, if the average buying journey spans several months, marketing teams may choose to extend nurture programs rather than concentrating communications into a shorter timeframe.
Likewise, executive stakeholders may gain a clearer understanding of why marketing investments often influence future sales rather than generating immediate purchases.
What does the Days to Close Summary Table show?
The Days to Close Summary Table provides a detailed breakdown of how long purchasers typically take to move from their first recorded engagement activity to a completed purchase. While the KPI and chart visualizations help identify high-level trends, the summary table allows organizations to understand the distribution of purchase timelines within their customer base.
By grouping purchasers into time ranges, the table illustrates where the largest concentrations of sales occur throughout the buying journey. This helps organizations determine whether most customers purchase quickly after engaging with the brand or whether they typically spend weeks or months researching before making a decision.
For example, the table may reveal that a large percentage of attributed sales occur within the first 30 days following engagement, while a smaller percentage close between 90 and 180 days. In this scenario, organizations can conclude that most buyers move through the sales cycle relatively quickly. Conversely, if a significant share of sales occur several months after initial engagement, it may indicate a longer consideration cycle that requires ongoing nurturing and follow-up.
The true value of the summary table lies in helping organizations understand the shape of their buying journey. Two brands may have the same average Days to Close, yet have very different purchasing behaviors. One brand may see a concentrated cluster of sales within the first month, while another may see sales distributed evenly across several months. The summary table helps uncover these differences and provides additional context that averages alone cannot provide.
What information is shown in the Sales Match Details tab?
The Sales Match Details tab serves as the validation layer behind the report. While the Sales Match and Days to Close tabs focus on summarizing trends and performance, the Details tab allows users to see the individual records that make up those metrics and verify exactly how registrations were matched.
This tab is particularly valuable when stakeholders begin asking follow-up questions such as:
- "Which specific sales make up this total?"
- "Why was this sale considered a match?"
- "What activity was connected to this purchaser?"
- "Can we validate these numbers before presenting them externally?"
Rather than providing aggregated statistics, the Details tab presents the total sales that contribute to the report's totals. This makes it easier to investigate individual transactions, answer attribution questions, and build confidence in the results being presented.
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