I, like all of you, want to maximize the returns from my marketing spend. Also like many of you, I use many tactics and partners to attract, retain and convert visitors into contacts. As a result, I regularly check Google Analytics to see how well my marketing efforts are converting visitors into contacts.

However, I’ve learned to not place too much of an emphasis on direct goal conversion sources.

This is because the source/medium for a conversion uses last touch attribution and hides more than it reveals. Let me explain why.

What is Last Touch Attribution?

As the name implies, last touch attribution gives all the credit of a conversion to the last visit. This means that all previous visits or “assists” to conversions have no value. Zero.

Let me paint a picture for you:

A car shopper initially visits your website organically. Afterwards through SEM, then through direct sources, and lastly, through retargeting. On the last visit from retargeting, the visitor fills out a lead form. Google Analytics, and many other analytics software platforms, will attribute the entirety of the credit to retargeting.

Doesn’t sound accurate does it? In the above example, the customer journey includes visits from many different sources. So why should retargeting get all the credit? More importantly, this poses a different question:

Would the shopper have converted if they didn’t come to your site previously through those other sources? Mind = Blown

Use Multi Touch Attribution Instead

As the name implies, multi touch attribution gives credit to all touch points that have assisted in the conversion process. In fact, Google Analytics has multi-touch attribution built in for your digital sources.

So instead of looking at your goal conversion in: Conversions > Goals > Overview, go to: Conversions > Multi-Funnel Conversions > Assisted Conversions.

Here you will find your top direct conversion sources along with your top assisted conversion sources.

What’s really interesting is the last column (Assisted / Last Click or Direct) represents how likely a source was the last place a shopper came from when they converted.

As Google puts it:

A value close to 0 indicates that this channel functioned primarily as the final conversion interaction. A value close to 1 indicates that this channel functioned equally in an assist role and as the final conversion interaction. The more this value exceeds 1, the more this channel functioned in an assist role.

This means a number that’s above 1 is typically not the final converting source, but one that often helps other sources convert.

Let’s take a look at a real example:

For this dealer, sources 1-3 have quite a few conversions. However, based on the Assisted / Last Click or Direct metric, traffic from these sources tends to be the last place a shopper comes from to convert (highlighted in orange).

If you look at lines 4,6,9, you will see that the Assisted / Last Click or Direct is above 1 (in blue) - and in the case of 3.2 and 5.8, WAY above 1. These sources tend to provide traffic that help other sources convert and should not be undervalued.

What Does This all Mean?

What this tells me is that lines 4,6,9 will not be given the credit they deserve if you are looking at a direct goal source list. Additionally, boosting activity or spending on these sources will not just increase direct conversion from these sources, but will, in fact, boost conversions from other sources as well.

So next time you’re looking for ways to increase your conversions, don’t just look at the direct traffic sources. By providing emphasis on sources that have a high assist ratio you can boost your results. 

There is a lot of talk about segmenting your sources and there are countless articles about how to properly set up your Google Analytics to track where things are coming from using standardized UTM codes (in fact, we have our own videos on our resource page), but this may not actually be the best way to measure your digital marketing results.

Put down your pitchforks and let me explain.

The most important thing to remember is that each marketing source will affect other sources and - while separating sources is important for different reasons - you must realize that the results of the marketing campaign are due to the whole effort rather than its discrete parts.

Not splitting up digital sources when measuring results may seem counter to what everyone is saying, but let’s walk through a very common buyer’s journey to illustrate how ALL sources affect each other and produce a cumulative effect.

Consider this example:

Let’s assume that you’ve done your research and you want a new BMW X5.

Because you’ve been researching BMW X5s on research sites, some dealer advertising technologies will know that you’re interested in X5s so you get served a Facebook ad of a beautiful BMW X5 at “Metropolis BMW” and a 0.99% lease offer.  

You think: “Not bad, let’s see what else is out there,” and you fire up Google and search “BMW X5” and  get served SEM BMW X5 ads from “Metropolis BMW”, “City BMW” and “Westgate BMW.” Because you recognized “Metropolis BMW” you click on that dealer’s ad. It takes you to the New BMW X5’s search results page, where you find the one you like.

You read up on it, scroll through the pictures, but for whatever reason you don’t fill out any forms and you leave.

A few days later, you are reading about Lebron dominating on ESPN.com and Metropolis BMW retargets you with the X5 you’ve looked at. You think “That was a pretty good X5, I should really show the wife and see what she thinks.”

Later that evening, you want to show your wife the X5. You fire up your browser and type in “www.metrobmw.com” and navigate to the BMW you remembered. Your wife thinks it’s pretty good and you fill out a “Get ePrice” form to get the best price.

SUCCESS! Digital marketing conversion!

To recap, this was the buyer journey, the ads, and the associated digital marketing sources:

So, what would you attribute the conversion to?

Direct traffic? But there was a SEM ad click in there. What about display? There were no clicks - but it did prompt the buyer to chat with his wife. How about Facebook? It started the whole thought process.

Your Google Analytics would have reported Direct as the traffic source for this conversion. But, as you can clearly see, completely attributing it to Direct isn’t correct.

Ok smart guy, so then how would you measure your digital marketing?

Because each source interacts and affects other sources, the only trustworthy way is to measure “one level up” at the campaign or thematic level. For example, “one level-up” at your dealership could be the campaign you’re running: new cars, used cars, specials, fast sellers, slow sellers, etc.

This is because your new car campaign message will rarely cross over to your used car campaign messaging and vice versa. As a result, the people who resonate and react with one campaign typically won’t resonate with the other.

The measurement and subsequent comparison then becomes, which campaign or theme gave me the best ROI? Did promoting new cars on all channels result in better ROI than promoting used cars on all channels?

So next time you see yourself judging your marketing results by channels try to remember that digital marketing is all a big happy family and that digital marketing, as a whole, really is more than the sum of it’s parts.

Everyone is constantly looking to get the best bang for their buck and gain better results for less. However, most dealers are currently investing more money into attracting new site visitors instead of focusing on retaining return visitors, which are actually more performant. Returning visitors tend to spend more, and are already likely to consider your dealership as an option, since they are familiar with your website and what you have to offer. As a result, one of the most profitable things you can do as a dealer is to streamline and improve your retargeting strategy so you can get more returning visitors. 

Why is it, then, that most dealers spend a significantly small proportion of effort trying to get buyers to re-engage with their vehicles?

Why Returning Visitors are Important

Let’s go through a common online shopper’s journey. Let's say a buyer already knows exactly which car they want and start searching for it. They take a look at a couple of review sites to make sure they’re making the right choice and then start scouting dealerships for that car. Once a desirable car is found, the buyer typically interacts and engages with the elements of the Vehicle Detail Page (VDP). It makes sense for the dealer to remind the shopper that they have the car that they want and convince them to return to the page, call your dealership or pay an in-person visit.

This is the digital equivalent to a person that walked into your dealership, indicating to a sales rep that they liked the Ford F150 and your sales person providing constant follow up calls for F150s.

And this is the same in all areas of retail. In fact, a recent e-Commerce study indicated that returning visitors spend approximately double the amount spent by new visitors online. In addition to outspending, returning visitors are twice as likely to include an item in their online shopping cart compared to new ones. So even though returning visitors comprise only 48% of e-Commerce sessions, they are much more profitable.

Simple Concept, Tricky Implementation 

The concept of retargeting campaigns isn’t  new to many dealers. However, careful attention must be paid to retargeting efforts to ensure certain limits are geared towards positioning potential clients closer to their dream car as there are many common missteps that dealers make when implementing retargeting.

Find out more about maximizing your dealership’s results through proper retargeting techniques, check out Ian Cruickshank’s upcoming presentation at the Digital Dealer 22 Conference and Expo, How to Increase Online Conversions by Increasing Return Visitors.

Everyone loves new cars. They’re shiny, they smell great and the sales staff love making a big sale. It’s a huge part of how OEMs rate their dealers as well. I mean, who doesn’t want to be the “#1 Chevy dealer in the county”?

But once we scratch the surface, the bright sheen of selling these new cars starts to wear off. According to the NADA DATA Midyear 2016 Annual Financial Profile, dealers actually LOSE $227 on every new car they sell and PROFIT $228 from every used car they sell.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you don’t shoot for being the “#1 Chevy dealer in the county”, but if you’re looking to make a real profit, you might want to shift your emphasis towards more pre-owned inventory.

However, if you plan on focusing more on pre-owned sales, you need to realize that the methods you’re using to market today aren’t actually optimized for pre-owned sales. Here’s why:

Pre-Owned Buyers Need to Confirm Inventory, New-Car Buyers Don't

According to an article by Automotive Ventures, “On average, car buyers only visit 2.2 dealerships” and “two-thirds (68%) visited two dealerships or fewer before buying, while 40% of consumers visited only one dealer before buying.”

What this means is that the buyer knows what he/she wants before going into your dealership.

Here’s the difference: 
New car shoppers assume you DO have the cars they want on your lot - or that it’s easy for you to get them. After all, if you’re a Ford store, you MUST have the new Ford Mustang, right? And if for whatever reason you don’t happen to have the exact package or color your shopper wants, the shopper expects you to be able to order it for them. As a result, they don’t need to confirm you have to the vehicle they want before they visit.

However, used car shoppers assume you DON’T have the car they want because they know that a used car’s availability is inconsistent. They know that if you don’t have what they want, it’s not as simple as ordering one from the factory. As a result, they need to confirm you have the vehicle before they visit.

In order to optimize marketing for pre-owned vehicles, dealers must move past only marketing the make and model, and go all the way down to the inventory level.

Which brings me to my next point:

Most Dealership Marketing Tactics Don't Focus on Used Inventory or Any Inventory at All

Let’s look at the most prevalent tactics a typical dealership employs and how they relate to inventory level marketing:

As you can see, a good six out of eight do not market at the inventory level. But, because most dealership marketing is geared toward new cars and new car shoppers assume you have the inventory they want, many dealers stop at this point.

However, only your campaigns on listings sites are actually aligned with how used car shoppers buy, since that channel allows shoppers to confirm available inventory.

Pre-Owned Optimized Marketing = Inventory Level Marketing

The interesting thing about inventory level marketing is not that it’s new, but rather, that it’s just a slight variation of some of the existing channels that you are currently using. 

In fact, there are webinars available that talk about existing and available technology as well as tactics for optimizing pre-owned vehicle marketing.

So, if you’re more interested in results, try focusing a bit more on marketing your pre-owned cars at the inventory level. According to the data from NADA, your bottom line, and hence your wallet, will thank you.

I work for a company that is known to drive qualified buyers to your dealership’s Vehicle Detail Pages. However, we know that driving these qualified car shoppers to your VDP is only half the battle.

All the quality traffic in the world would only move the needle slightly if the VDP doesn’t have the elements to entice the car buyer to spend more time, view more cars and interact more with your website - you know, the indicators of buyer intent.

To help you out, we’ve scoured the internet to provide a “Best of” list on how to optimize your VDPs in order to maximize car shopper engagement. 

Use your own photos - and use lots of them!

We’ve written about this when providing insight into what makes a good inventory ad; the same can be said about Vehicle Detail Pages.

In our previous article, we suggested to make “the car the star” and to avoid stock photography.Sarah Klongerbo from 9clouds reiterates that point and writes:

Dealers, it’s time to say goodbye to stock images. We’re serious about this one. Not only are stock images boring to look at anyway, they also tell the buyer absolutely nothing about the specific vehicle you’re selling. Visitors to your VDP want to see recent photos that were taken on your lot so that they can see the car in its current state.

Cars, unlike other consumer items, are completely unique as no two cars are exactly alike. As a result, car buyers expect to see the nuances of a car through multiple images and other types of media, which is simply unattainable with the use of stock photography.

Give as many details as possible

As previously stated, cars, unlike TVs, electronics, clothing or any other retail item, are unique and as a result, each one may fit a person differently. With the combinations and permutations of packages, colors and models (not to mention different brands), it’s important to provide as many details about the features of a vehicle as possible, so the shopper can match them to their own requirements.

This may be even more important for millennial buyers. As Denise Chudy from Lotlinx writes:

[The millennial] generation is more concerned [about a car’s] features, quality, and brand attributes they want, and less concerned with where the car was manufactured. In this environment, detailed and engaging VDPs are a no-brainer.

But don’t just stop at the features. For certified pre owned and used vehicles, their history also plays an important factor.

Launch Digital Marketing writes:

Include information about a vehicle’s history – When shopping for a used car, customers need to know whether a car has been damaged due to an accident or [if it] has sustained damage from other causes. Knowing this information, customers can decide if maintenance costs for a particular model may be too much. Add even more credibility by including a third party vehicle history report.

Provide accurate price information

According to ThinkWithGoogle, the “Can I Afford it” micromoment is one of the most important components of the buying journey. To most people, budget is one of the least negotiable factors, since a person only has so much money. As a result, an inflated or generalized price may cause the buyer to remove a certain vehicle from consideration.

As Launch Digital Marketing puts it:

Provide accurate price information – It is absolutely necessary to include correct pricing on a VDP. When customers do not find the price of a vehicle readily available, they may think that the vehicle is over their budget and avoid further inquiries.

This pertains especially new car pricing as well. Remember, shoppers aren’t on a car configurator on the OEM site where they are looking at the manufacturer's suggested retail price, they are on your dealership’s site. This means they are want to know the exact price of the car they are looking at, not a “suggested” price.

Create a sense of urgency

Getting your car shoppers to act on the next step is challenging. A tactic many retail e-commerce sites use involves creating a sense of urgency to get the consumer to act on the product. This can be done by invoking people’s fear of missing out (or #FOMO - yes, it’s a real thing).

One effective way to do this is by showing how many people have favorited a particular car. Remember, cars are unique and if the shopper is interested in a car that has many “favorites” they may be more compelled to act, as many “favorites” implies the vehicle is popular, which means it will be gone soon.

Another way to create urgency is to show your buyer pricing comparisons. According to the e-commerce site Shopify:

If you are offering awesome discounts, show them the numbers. If you are not offering awesome discounts, still show them how much they will end up saving on a purchase from your site. Always, give a comparison of the actual price and the discounted price.

Lastly, consider using a countdown timer or deadline dates if you are close to the end of a sale or an incentive. The ticking timer or “3 days left” sign will indicate to shoppers that they need to act now in order to take advantage of the promotion.

The Big wrap up!

WHEW! That was a big list. Let’s go over it.

1. Use a lot of your own photos - every car is unique so take lots of photos and avoid stock images at all costs.
2. Details are key - write down everything you know about the vehicle including all of its features and history.
3. Provide accurate pricing information - don’t inflate or use generalized prices or shoppers may think the car is over their budget and will avoid buying it.
4. Create a sense of urgency - use tactics to compel shoppers to act now, not later.

Do you have anything to add that has worked well for you? Leave it in the comments.

Digital marketing in the automotive dealership industry is incredibly competitive. Dealers are constantly vying for the top position in all channels - SEO, SEM, listings, display. If it exists, they want to be at the top. And as a result, we get many requests for benchmarks and whether they are “better than the guy down the street.”

However, putting too much emphasis on external benchmarks may lead you down the wrong path as it focuses purely on how others are doing rather than how well (or poorly) you’re doing.

What dealers should be focusing on are internal benchmarks and comparisons such as how well you are doing compared to yesterday and what you need to do today to improve your results tomorrow.

External Benchmarks Don't Provide Any Actionable Insight

Forget about digital marketing for a minute and let’s compare benchmarks to something else. Suppose you own an NASCAR team. The lap times at Daytona range from 44.53 to 47.97 seconds, the average lap time is 45.51 and your car’s lap time is 45.30.

I’m not sure about you, but I wouldn’t be happy if my car had a lap time of 45.30. Even though I’m above average, I would want to improve on that. I would want to get my lap time to 45.00, then 44.53, and if possible 44.00. What’s more, it wouldn't matter if my car was the one bringing up the rear at 48.00 or in the pole position at 44.50, I still want to better my lap time.

As this example illustrates, external benchmarks don’t have any bearing on what you should do next.

This analogy can be applied when comparing results for your digital marketing efforts. Whether it’s Time on VDP, VDPs per Session, Bounce Rate or anything, it’s more important that you keep improving regardless of where you are on any external benchmark.

Internal Benchmarks Provide Much More Insight

Internal benchmarks provide much more value because they are a direct reflection of the actions you have taken. As a result, you can see where your decisions or activities have become better or worse.

Below are a few internal benchmarks that will help with your comparisons.

Benchmark 1: Before vs After

This is typically what people think about when they do internal benchmarking and it works well to measure the difference between a major strategy shift. Given the same time period determine if we are better now than we were before.

Example 1 - VDP / Session - Before vs After

In Example 1, the benchmark from Months 7-12 was 33% better than from Months 1-6. As a result, we know that the activities we are executing are producing positive results.

Benchmark 2: All vs One

“All vs One” benchmark comparisons are good for determining if a particular tactic is contributing to an increase or decrease in your average. This helps assess if a tactic is helping or hurting your metrics.

To do this, measure the metrics from a particular tactic and compare them to an aggregated benchmark of all tactics. The benchmark in this case is the “All” measurement and the comparison is against the “One” measurement.

Example 2 - VDP / Session - All vs One

In Example 2,  the internal average of all sources for VDP / Session is 0.84 and we can see that Technology1’s average is higher than the average for all sources.

What this means is that Technology1 is helping bring up overall metrics and is contributing to the success of that metric and should be viewed positively.

Benchmark 3: Month vs Month

“Month over Month” comparisons provide insights into two things:

1. What direction items are trending, and
2. If the results are an anomaly

Example 3 - VDP / Session - Month vs Month

In Example 3, we see a general increase in metrics for Months 1-3 and a dip in Month 4 for “Technology1.” However, results recover in Month 5 and Month 6. As a result, Month 4 looks to be an anomaly.

Additionally, when we compare it to the “All” line, we see that both sources dipped in that month. This indicates that the dips were universal and may be caused by an external market factor.

Focus on What’s Important: Continuously Improving

It’s easy to get caught up in external benchmarks. It’s nice to hear that you are doing better than the average or, alternatively, it’s frightening to hear how much further you need to go. But the one thing that both of these scenarios have in common is a shared goal for constant improvement.

So the next time you are given benchmark metrics, take them with a grain of salt and try turning your focus inward.

As digital marketers we are taught from the very beginning that one of the most important things to measure are “Lead Form Fills”. 

The premise is simple: If someone is willing to provide you their information on a lead form, then they are obviously interested in the car on your lot and this automatically makes them a lead.

Score one for the dealership marketing team!

This may have worked back in 2005 and perhaps even in 2010, but today’s buyers have proven that they are much more wary of forms and this wariness has been reflected in their online behaviour.

Why Lead Form Submissions Are No Longer Good Indicators of Intent

As Ward’s Auto states: “Many shoppers were put off by filling out forms asking personal questions. And the people who did go through the exercise and submit leads didn’t get much in return.”

The article goes on to quote Jared Rowe, former president of the Cox Automotive Media Group: “Half of [the people who filled out price quote forms] didn’t get called back, and the other half didn’t get a price quote. They figured, ‘What’s the point?’”

Recent discussions that we have had with top marketers from some of the largest dealer groups in the country have echoed this statement. I’ll paraphrase the sentiment: Even when we (marketers) are able to generate form filled leads - only 50% of them get followed up on in a timely and effective manner.

Is the lead form really as valuable as we’ve been lead to believe? Many studies suggest that car buyers will find the car they are looking for online and only visit one or maybe two stores before making a purchasing decision.

According to the Harvard Business Review, “Fewer than 10% [of car shoppers] will fill out an online contact form or communicate via email.”  However, the article goes to state that “Nearly 75% of buyers had not contacted the dealership before visiting.” So, are they calling, using chat, texting or something else entirely?

What these two findings imply is that digital indicators of a showroom visit are there, but they are just not as apparent as form leads.

This directly contradicts what digital marketers are relying on as their primary metric and so if this metric is not lead forms, then what is it?

The New Indicators of Interest

Shoppers will still go to dealerships’ websites to view inventory, but they are just not filling out forms. So what we need to do is find new metrics to gauge interest.

Time on VDP

The longer a car shopper spends looking at the cars you have on your lot, the more interested you can assume they are. If you have not set up any goals or events in your Google Analytics, the “Time on VDP” metric can easily be calculated using standard Google Analytics fields.  In fact, we have a tutorial on how to measure this.

VDP per Session

The more cars an online shopper views per site visit, the more interested they are in the cars you have on your lot. Like Time on VDP, this is yet another metric that can be seen even if you have not set up any Google Analytic Goals. We have a tutorial on how to measure this too.

Photo/Video Gallery Engagement

Like many complex purchases, scrolling through the photos is a high indicator of interest. Think about an apartment you want to rent or a house you’d like to buy. It’s easy to infer that the more pictures you view in the gallery the more interested you are.

Return Visit Performance

We all know that car buying is a complex decision that requires a significant amount of consideration. As a result, it’s very likely that the buyer will return to the car multiple times. This means that one of the best indicators of interest is the car shopper returning to the site to view the car again.

Dealerships Need to Move from Explicit to Implicit Measurements of Interest

Dealers need to understand that looking at the wrong metrics can have unintended consequences on their results.

By shifting measurement from explicit interest indicators (like form fills) to implicit behavioral metrics (like those mentioned here), dealers are aligning their measurement with the way their buyers are interacting with their website.

This will allow dealers to better invest into products that help drive more traffic and ultimately more sales into their stores.