You’ve probably noticed by now that we live in a world of multi-channel marketing. Customers are researching products and services online using multiple devices, multiple screens, multiple platforms and you’re working hard to reach the people where they are. You might be on social media utilizing popular channels like Facebook and Instagram, you could be running campaigns on Google Adwords and Bing, or even going after organic traffic with a search engine optimization strategy. With all of that advertising and promotion do you have any idea what you’re actually getting back?

Social media advocates will argue that their efforts create branding and engagement value that go beyond hard conversions and they’re probably at least a little bit right so let’s focus on organic and paid channels. Do you know how many phone calls were generated this month by customers who found your new or used car dealership in search or from your Facebook ad etc..? How does that compare to last month or last year? What’s the cost per lead on those channels or better yet, the cost per acquisition?

If you don’t know how well your channels are performing it’s very unlikely you’re going to do anything to improve them. However, with the help tools like Google Analytics and your favourite call-tracking software ( I like CallRail ) you can better understand what’s happening to your ad dollars and you can make the necessary changes to make your dealership marketing better than ever. Check out a case study for Mercedes-Benz dealership in Alberta. 

For those who don't know software like CallRail uses dynamic number insertion to dynamically change the phone number displaying on your website based on the channel your visitor came from. It’s not flawless but it will give you some great insight about which channels are creating those valuable phone conversions. For example if you’re running an adwords campaign, now we can see which keywords are generating the most phone calls and form submissions so next month you can spend more on higher-performing keywords and less on the keywords that just aren’t working. Sounds a like good idea doesn’t it?

Your Google analytics dashboard not only integrates with tools like CallRail but also allows you to track all kinds of conversions and behaviour metrics on your website so you can learn how to serve your customers better. Some dealership website providers are a little inhospitable in this environment ( if you’re on CDK you can forget all about dynamic number insertion, at least for now ) but for the most part there’s nothing holding you back from a better performing digital strategy. How well are your digital campaigns really performing? If you don’t already know the answer it’s time you did the work to find out.