Click-to-call campaigns are everywhere. Your dealership is likely running several now. As such, you’re familiar with Google reports that show your click-to-call rate and cost-per-click. You likely base some of your future ad spend on these metrics. But what if I told you this is flawed data that doesn’t accurately reflect what makes your phones ring?

The fact is, there is a discrepancy between the “clicks” Google reports and actual real-life phone calls. The discrepancy is due to the mechanics of how click-to-call works. When you tap a click-to-call button, you are not instantly making a call. The number will show up on your mobile phone screen, but you have to tap again to connect the call. Between those two steps is where the discrepancy in reporting comes into play. 

Take an example from the online advertising agency StubGroup. Over a three-month period, the agency compared the number of clicks from campaigns for a wide range of client accounts to the number of phone calls Google tracked from each campaign.

It found there were 18% more clicks than calls from click-to-call campaigns. That's a significant discrepancy! Not only does that throw off conversion rates by 18%, but it also means the clients' actual average cost-per-call was 18% higher than Google metrics reported.

It’s also important to note that just because the phone rang, it doesn’t mean it was in response to that advertisement. Ads placed for variable ops still generate as much as 80% call rate for fixed ops. That means if the dealer is using click-to-call in calculating ad ROI, this data becomes unreliable, and each of those calls needs to be listened to in order to see the actual return.  

Of course, I’m not suggesting you abandon click-to-call campaigns. Far from it. What needs to change is how you measure the effectiveness of those campaigns. Instead of focusing on the number of clicks and cost-per-click, the metric that matters are real-live phone calls.

How do you measure this metric? The most effective way is with Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI). A DNI solution assigns every individual accessing your webpage a unique phone number, so you know the exact online path the consumer followed to find you. The best part is that DNI can be funneled through Google Analytics, so it's easy to track and review the results.

DNI reports actual phone calls and where they originated so you know which campaigns are delivering real phone-calls, not just clicks. This information is invaluable when it comes to planning. You can confidently shift ad spend to campaigns that trigger phone calls, and away from those that don’t.

Budget decisions should be made on sound metrics. You should set up tracking numbers and consider implementing a DNI solution so you can attribute every phone call to its original lead source. If you don’t, you may be throwing money away on campaigns that look good in Google Analytics but rarely make your phones ring.

Every dealership wants to increase website traffic, that’s why they spend thousands of dollars per month on advertising agencies to run email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, and social media campaigns. Typically, agencies include search engine optimization in service packages to snag organic search traffic. Yet, organic search often feels like the red-headed stepchild. It doesn’t get the attention it deserves. This is a mistake.

Organic search traffic should and can be the dominating traffic source for your website. This traffic is more relevant, and the leads are high-quality. Think about it: traffic that flows from search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, delivers visitors who are specifically searching for what you offer. They are essentially using these search engines as a phonebook to find your business (whether because of location, vehicles in inventory, service specials, etc.).

In my experience, dealers know SEO is important, but they sometimes forget why or lose sight of its impact. So, they go ahead and earmark marketing funds to optimize their websites. The problem is that too few agencies and dealers effectively monitor and measure what they’re getting for that ad spend. If you can’t measure it, how do you know if it’s working?

Ensure you’re getting the most out of your SEO investment with the following three strategies.

Know What You’re Buying

Consistently hitting the top of search engine results requires a constant stream of fresh content. This can include blog posts, relevant keywords, or changes to existing webpages. Many agencies offer packages to optimize your top five pages, for example. Before you enter into a contract, get a grasp on what kinds of changes the agency will be implementing.

Will it be minor changes to vehicle pages? Adding pages? Posting blog articles? Is the agency staying up to date with search engine best practices? Will they include an expiration so you can see what pages are relevant? You can only hold your agency accountable if you know what you're buying. 

Monitor and Measure Traffic

You need to be able to directly attribute phone calls, appointments, and sales to your SEO spend. These are the metrics that matter. Reporting on cost-per-click, bounce rate, and pages per session don't tell you what actions are actually working to convert customers.

The best way to track performance is to tie Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) technology into your Google Analytics. DNI assigns every individual consumer accessing your web pages a unique number, so you know precisely the online route they followed to land on your site.

A good SEO strategy should increase your organic traffic and conversions. After all, this traffic is already looking for your dealership in the first place. If DNI analysis reveals that organic behavior is not increasing over time, your money is not being well spent. 

Participate in the Process

You can't put the blame for lackluster organic search results solely on the shoulders of your agency. Too many dealers set-up an SEO strategy and then forget about it. The agency may reach out for help narrowing down keywords or brainstorming relevant and timely blog topics but never get a response. This leads to the agency merely doing the bare minimum to keep campaigns running. To get better results, you need to participate in the process. Remember, organic search delivers your highest-quality, lowest-funnel leads. It pays to put the time in to make sure customers can find you online.

Organic SEO is the clear champion of website traffic because visitors are deliberately looking for your dealership. Don’t make the mistake of setting and forgetting your SEO strategy. Put the processes and tools in place to review your strategy, measure results, and participate in planning to increase your organic web traffic year-over-year.

Rising interest rates and stagnant incentives point to a slowing new vehicle market through the end of the year. NADA predicts new vehicle sales will decline at least one percent, and probably more. Used car sales are picking up. But not at a velocity to make up for the loss of new vehicle sales. What should a dealer do? Some may need to lean on the parts and service departments.

Parts and service is your bread and butter to pull you through slow times. But how do you get more people into your shop, so your team is turning wrenches and not sitting on toolboxes? Before you shift service hours or hire more techs, take the time to scrutinize your phone system and your service marketing. Opportunity may be at your fingertips if you know where to look.

Fix the Phones
Too many parts and service departments prioritize service over sales. It makes sense that your service advisors focus on the customers in front of them, but this could be costing you customers. Ringing phones that go unanswered or are sent right to voicemail are missed opportunities. The average customer may try to get a hold of you one or two times, but then they give up and call the shop down the street.

1. To see if this is happening in your department, walk the shop during the busiest time of day. Are staff busy in the bays and helping the customers in the drive? Do you hear phones ringing but no one is picking up? If so, here are some methods that can solve the problem:

2. When a customer drops off a vehicle, schedule a specific time to call them with an update rather than telling them vague times like, “after lunch.” Then, call them before the scheduled time. This exceeds expectations, customer satisfaction, and reduces call bottleneck.

3. Use an escalation method for inbound calls. If a call rings to the advisor first, and he or she does not answer, your phone system should be able to have it then ring to the foreman, the service manager, etc.

4. Good call tracking software will identify calls abandoned by the customer. Use this information to call the customer back. Many will appreciate your initiative as they want to do business with you.

5. Designate one person to answer phones during busy times. They should be in the service lane or able to see the service lane either directly or using a camera system. This way, they will not transfer calls blindly to an advisor who is not there or unavailable to take a call.

6. Get rid of cold transfers. Whenever a call is answered, ask for a customer’s name, a phone number (associated with the account), and if the call is to schedule an appointment or talk to an advisor about a vehicle currently being serviced. When transferring, don’t type in the extension and hang up. Instead, own the call. When the advisor picks up, supply the customer information. If the advisor is not ready for the call, transfer the customer to another available associate, or let them know when to expect a call back.

Your Service Advertising
The average dealership spends $10,000 a month on Pay-Per-Click or Search Engine Marketing. Less than one-fifth of that is allocated to promote the service department. This is a huge missed opportunity. Especially considering that fixed ops profits have the potential to cover the cost of all the other departments at your dealership.

Consider increasing your SEM spend on service campaigns. There's not a lot of competition for keywords in the service space, so there is a lot of opportunity. For a clear understanding of which campaigns and keywords are delivering phone calls, appointments, and sales, think about implementing a Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) solution.

Next generation DNI solutions assign every individual consumer accessing your webpage a unique phone number so you can track the exact online route they took to find your service department. This information allows you to shift money away from campaigns that aren’t producing results to those that are. Some DNI solutions even offer call transcriptions so you can listen to how calls are handled and provide more staff training where needed.

Declining new car sales don’t have to hurt your bottom-line if you focus on bumping up fixed ops revenue. Service customers are out there. Prioritize phone calls and service marketing to bring in more business and your service department will carry you through the slow times.

The shift from traditional advertising to digital advertising continues to grow. Today, it’s common for 90 percent of a dealer’s budget to be spent on digital channels. Yet, it’s very difficult for most dealers to directly attribute phone calls, appointments, and sales to that ad spend. Instead, you get metrics that don’t directly correlate to customer action like cost-per-click, bounce rate, and pages per session. As a result, you don’t know which campaigns and keywords are actually working to convert customers, and which are simply sucking money like a black hole.

It’s time to think about implementing Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) so you can attribute every phone call, appointment, and sale to its original lead source. Only this level of transparency will separate the high-performing campaigns from the weak, and ensure you’re maximizing your ad spend.

DNI is not a new solution. It’s been around for a while as a way to track phone calls from online referral sources and keywords. What is new are advanced capabilities that make DNI even more powerful. Today’s solutions assign every individual consumer accessing your webpage a unique number, so you know exactly the online route they took to find you. This information is funneled through Google Analytics for easy review and follow-up action. The phone tracking capabilities even record calls and capture how a call was handled for training opportunities.

This complete campaign visibility cuts through those metrics that don’t directly correlate to customer action so you can understand what’s truly going on and spend your money where it matters most. For example, I know of a dealership that was spending $10,000 per month on Google campaigns. Over that entire ad spend, Google Analytics showed the dealership received over 5,000 clicks, three pages per session, and a total cost-per-click of under $2. Sounds pretty good, right?

A deeper analysis using DNI unveiled that the metrics that really matter. It turned out that over 86 percent of all conversions happened in the Google Ads Campaign, centered around dealership general terms, like its name and location. This tells us that consumers were already planning to contact the dealership and essentially using Google as a phonebook. Spending on the campaign represented less than 14 percent of that $10,000 total ad spend.

The remaining $8,400 was spent on Google campaigns that ended up returning one phone call, 10 chats, and three completed lead forms. That’s over $600 per conversion! And that doesn’t even include agency fees. With this insight, the dealer shifted its ad spend away from campaigns that were eating money with little return and toward what was working.

Adopting new advertising processes can help you do the same. First, set up goals for all the different ways consumers can convert on your website. Second, set up tracking tools such as DNI through Google Analytics. Finally, regularly review and refine your plan.

I recommend reviewing campaigns at a minimum on a weekly basis. With DNI tied into your Google Analytics, its relatively simple to attribute the numbers that matter – phone calls, appointments, and sales – to specific keywords and campaigns. Then you can drop the campaigns and keywords that aren’t working and re-allocate that money to your top performers. Continual review also opens up opportunities to expand your reach with new keywords that can put your dealership in front of a whole new target market.

In our digital world it makes sense to funnel the majority of advertising dollars to digital channels. But don’t get caught up in the cost-per-click and bounce rate metrics that don’t directly correlate to customer action. Set a goal of attributing every phone call, appointment, and sale to its original lead source, because if you don’t, you may be throwing money away every day.