"In the age of information, ignorance is a choice."  ~ Donny Miller

Would you consider baking a cake before reading the recipe?  Would you play a new board game before reading the rules?  When you make digital marketing decisions before consulting the data in your Google Analytics, you're not only being just as short-sighted, you're setting yourself up for failure.  And the stakes are much higher than ruining a cake or losing a game.

It's easy to become overwhelmed with the new tools that bombard us weekly, all of which claim to be the magic bullet you've been looking for.  But at the core of everything you want to accomplish on your website, is the impartial data contained in your Google Analytics.

Is that new chat program engaging the visitors on my website better than my old one?  Analytics knows.  Is that vendor sending traffic that's converting to leads?  Are visitors spending enough time looking through my VDPs?  What was the response to that email blast I sent?  Analytics knows all of this, and much more.

Remaining oblivious to the important information that your Analytics is trying to tell you could be a death sentence for your dealership.  You can only fix a problem if you know it exists.  You can only build on lucrative strategies if you know they're working.

If there isn't someone at your dealership who has already been tasked with overseeing your Google Analytics, appoint someone today.  Don't wait!  Typically Analytics are the purview of the Internet Manager, but the GSM or the GM could step into this role if need be.  If none of these people are educated about Analytics, consider hiring an outside company, or, at minimum, a consultant who can share their knowledge and get your Analytics point person set up with the basics.

If you do nothing else in your Analytics, at the very least you must set up some Goals.  Why?  What are Goals?  Setting a Goal in Analytics is a way to tell Google that there is a specific action you want to get data for.  Some examples are lead form submissions, VDP views, service appointments, and call, chat and text interactions.  These metrics are especially useful when evaluating the quality of traffic coming to your site from your various vendors.

As the saying goes, knowledge is power, and in the age of information, if you choose ignorance, you also choose to be powerless in driving traffic, leads and sales for your store.  Take charge of your data and use that power to build a stronger, more lucrative dealership.

It's the end of the second quarter, do you know where your digital marketing dollars went?  If you've been utilizing your best source of free information about your web traffic, Google Analytics, you bet your boots you do.

Tracking performance metrics in Google Analytics is the quickest, simplest way to hold your vendors accountable.  But how can you tell who's bringing the goods and who's blowing smoke?  Your Analytics automatically has all the information you need.

All aboard the vendor evaluation express train!

Open your Analytics and choose a View that contains Goals that are important to you.  Navigate to your primary reporting page by clicking Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium.  A table will appear filled with numbers.  Don't be intimidated!  You're the conductor of this express train, and you are about to take your most lucrative route.

Before you start your train moving, check the date range on the upper right of the screen.  The last 30 days is a reasonable time frame for evaluating vendor performance.  Remember to click "apply" after choosing your date range.  You also want to make sure you're viewing all the of Goals in the View you've chosen.  Just above the third column from the right is a drop-down menu called "Conversions."  This lists all the Goals contained in that View.  Choose "All Goals."

The first column on the table will be a list of your crew, aka the sources of traffic to your website.  You'll almost certainly see "Google/Organic" and "Direct," as well as the vendors you've hired to drive traffic to your site.  You might see sources such as "Email," "PPC," or "Display."  These sources will be listed in order by the number of clicks each sent to your website for the time period chosen.

The column labeled, "Sessions," lets you know how many clicks came to your site from that source.  This is your first stop on the vendor evaluation train.  How did your vendors do?  Did they promise a certain amount of traffic?  Did they live up to that promise?  Are you paying by click?  Did they meet your budget?  Exceed it?  If they fell short of their promise, did they still charge you full price, or did you get a break on your invoice for the low performance?

Take that train to the next stop and check out each of your vendors' "Bounce Rates."  A "bounce" is counted when a visitor makes it to your website, but then immediately leaves without engaging the site at all, so the lower the bounce rate, the better.  How did your vendors do?  Did 90% of their traffic bounce out?  If so, you paid for a lot of worthless clicks.  The internet is full of, ahem, interesting folks, who do strange and unusual things, but if your vendors are targeting the right people, they should be able to keep their Bounce Rate below 40%.  If your vendor offers a Bounce Rate guarantee (there's only one vendor I'm aware of who offers this), how did they measure up to their promise?

Your express train's final stop will be the next to last column, "Conversion Rate."  This measures the rate at which the clicks turned into completed Goals, whether you're hoping to measure behavioral engagement like looking at SRPs, VDPs and watching videos, or hard lead conversions through the use of forms, chat, text or click to call.  Again, how did your vendors do?  If they sent a lot of traffic, but no one did anything worthwhile while they were on your site, it's likely that vendor isn't going after the right shoppers.

Once you have enough experience as a conductor, you can take the longer, more scenic route through Analytics to help you determine if traffic is working, but total clicks, bounce rate and conversion rate are far and away the three most popular stops.  Your vendors should jump at the chance to take a trip on the vendor evaluation train with you.

Any back end report can show that a vendor is the greatest thing since trains went electric.  But Google is an impartial third party who is beholden to no one, and being able to measure each vendor's performance using the same set of metrics gives you an apples to apples comparison on quality that you won't get from any vendor dashboard.

If your final destination is more car sales, the data provided by Google Analytics can take your there.

All aboard!

You want to sell more cars.  You're confident you've covered all the bases - radio, TV, print, digital, and a well-stocked lot that dazzles like a bicentennial celebration.  But you're not selling more cars.  Where are you going wrong?  Who holds the elusive last piece to your selling puzzle?  The short answer?  Google.

Google automatically records a huge variety of data on every click that makes it to your website.  But which data is helpful in targeting potential buyers, and where can you find it?

CITIES - Let's say you want to send out some promotional mailers.  Knowing how to find the data that will tell you exactly where your engaged and high-converting traffic is coming from will give you the ability to microtarget your advertising efforts like never before.

The most representative source of traffic to your website is Google Organic.  Navigate to your main reporting page in your Analytics. (Acquisition > All Traffic > Source Medium) Ideally you should use a View that is already set up with some Goals that matter to you.  Lead form submission Goals are an especially valuable metric.  If you're not sure how to set up Goals, reach out to your high performing vendors.  Many offer free Goal setup.  Single out Google's traffic by clicking on their name.  Just above the first column is a drop-down menu called, "Secondary Dimension."

Secondary Dimension is your new best friend!

Suppose you want your mailer to cover towns A, B, C, and D which encircle your dealership.  Before you spend that money, take a peek into your Analytics.  You may find that cities B and C are your highest converters, whereas A and D are not even a blip on your radar screen.  Using this data, you can save 50% on the cost of those mailers by only sending them to the cities that have shoppers who are more likely to engage your site and fill out a lead form.  Another option would be to spend the whole amount and double up on coverage in the high-converting cities.

To find this data, click on Secondary Dimension and in the search box type "City."  When you see "City" as an option, click on it.  Your Google Organic traffic is now displayed using the areas from where the clicks originated, in descending order by volume.  You can rate the quality of the traffic using whatever metrics or KPIs are most important to you - time on site, pages per session, bounce rate, conversion rate, etc.

Utilizing this data will keep you from spending your precious marketing dollars in areas that aren't interested in what you have to offer.  You may even discover a high-converting city that you had never considered marketing to before.  Bonus!

MOBILE - Let's say you want to run a contest and are not sure what to offer as a prize.  Continuing with your Google Organic traffic, use your new best friend Secondary Dimension, and choose "Mobile device branding."  This gives you insight into the brands of mobile devices visitors are using.  If you know that most of your visitors come to your website using Apple products, you wouldn't run a contest to win a new Samsung tablet.

You can also check on how much of your traffic is utilizing a mobile device to visit your site.  Use the Secondary Dimension "Mobile (including tablet)."  Your sessions are now split out between visitor who came in on mobile, and visitors who came in on desktop.  Most dealerships have approximately 50% - 75% (sometimes more) of their traffic coming from mobile devices.

This information is especially helpful for website design, i.e. making sure that your website is mobile responsive.  You wouldn't want to miss out on bringing your message to all those mobile shoppers!

DATES - Let's say you need to decide when to run some online ads.  Secondary Dimension can show you how your traffic behaves during various times of the month, week, or day, so that you can get maximum visibility on your ad.

Tell your new best friend Secondary Dimension that you want to know what time of day most visitors come to your site by choosing "Hour of day."  Data is presented in the following format:  year month day hour (24 -hour military clock), so an entry of "2018060513" means June 5, 2018 at 1:00pm.

A Secondary Dimension of "Day of the month" will show you which days are the most heavily traveled.  This data set is very straightforward, with numbers exactly representing the days of a month.

Lastly, a Secondary Dimension of "Day of week" can be useful as well.  A "0" indicates Sunday, "1" is Monday, and so on.

With this data, you might discover that you get most of your traffic on weekends in mid-month between 8:00am and 12:00pm.  You can now get the most out of your advertising dollars by concentrating your ads when you know they are most likely to be seen, and pulling back during times when traffic is not as heavy.

As Einstein once said, "Know where to find the information and know how to use it - that's the secret of success."  With your trusty new best friend Secondary Dimension at your side, you are now armed with a multitude of ways to ensure that you are spending your limited financial resources effectively.  Use these tools to go after the customers who are most likely to seal the deal and drive off in one of your shiny new bonuses, I mean, beauties.

Honored to speak with Kelly at DealershipNews.com regarding the origins and future of our company.  Have a quick listen and get to know us!  

Chances are your dealership has already signed up with Google Analytics.  And why not?  It’s free!  But what exactly does it do?  Why do you need it?  How can you use it to make better decisions about your digital marketing?  Who at your dealership should be overseeing this?

By now you have realized that monitoring your web traffic is critical to maintaining and improving your site.  But without the insights provided by Google Analytics, you won’t see the whole picture.

Simply put, Google Analytics is your key to maximizing every marketing dollar you spend.  It gives you detailed information about the traffic your vendors are sending, so you can analyze each vendor’s performance and keep only those who are providing quality traffic.  Analytics can tell you who comes to your site, who sent them there, what they do while they’re there, how long they stay, where they live, what time they visited, and a host of other useful information that can help you more effectively target potential customers.

Typically a dealership’s Internet Director oversees implementation and reporting through Google Analytics.  If your dealership doesn’t have a dedicated internet executive, the GSM or GM should step into this role.  No matter who takes charge of your Analytics, it’s crucial that someone is monitoring the information if you want to utilize it to its full advantage and keep your dealership from wasting any of its precious digital marketing dollars.

There are some high performing vendors who will give their clients a free Analytics tutorial.  It’s worth asking.  In the meantime, here is a quick and easy tutorial on the basics of Google Analytics to get you started.  Once you master these, you can branch out and explore all the other options Analytics has to offer.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS 10 MINUTE TUTORIAL

Sign onto your Analytics account at analytics.google.com.  Your dealership should already have a Gmail email address to access your Analytics.  Use that email and its password to sign in.

1. Listed under your dealership’s name will be the various Views that have been set up on your account.  If you, or your outside marketing company, have set up a View containing Goals, that would be the best place to start.  If not, start with the View titled “All Website Data” or your web address.   Click on your desired View.
2. Using the menu on the left, click on Acquisition > All Traffic > Source Medium.  This is your main information page, called your Reporting Page.  This is where you will spend most of your time in Analytics.
3. On the top right of the page, choose the date range you are interested in viewing.  You can choose any date range you like, from one day to multiple years.  Click on the start and end dates, then click “apply.” 
4. The blue graph across the center of the page shows your overall web traffic for the time period chosen.  This is a quick and easy way to detect dramatic spikes or drop-offs in traffic that may need to be addressed.

Reading the columns left to right:

Source/Medium

Your list of vendors by number of clicks sent to your website from greatest to least.  Google / Organic and Direct are almost always in positions #1 and #2.  Google / Organic refers to people who typed a search into Google and came to your site through a link they found.  Direct refers to people who typed your web address directly into their browser.  All other vendors will be listed by Name / Type of Medium they used to generate traffic, for example Bing / CPC or DealerLeads / Referral.

Sessions

The actual number of clicks provided by each vendor for the time period chosen.  This metric only counts the click that brought the customer to your site, not every click they made while on your site.  Therefore, each click represents one unique visitor.  For this metric, the higher the number, the better.

% New Session

The percentage of clicks from that vendor who were brand new visitors to your site.  Google retains IP addresses for 30 days, so if a visitor comes back within those 30 days, they are counted as a return visitor.  You want to see a good mixture of new and return visitors, since it’s new people who “fill the pipeline” and returning visitors who do the actual buying.  This number should be in the 50%-75% range.

New Users

The actual number of new visitors out of the total clicks that were sent by that vendor.  It’s a numerical version of the percentage from the previous column.

Bounce Rate

A “bounce” is someone who came to your site and left immediately without engaging the site at all.  Therefore, the lower the bounce rate, the better.  Average bounce rates are between 35%-45%. 

Pages / Session

The average number of pages per visitor, per session.  For this metric, the higher, the better.  The more pages a visitor views, the higher the chance that they will complete a lead form or contact the dealership in some way.  Ideally you’d want to see a minimum of 3 pages per session.

Avg. Session Duration

The average amount of time each visitor spends on your site.  Again, the higher, the better.  The longer they stay, the higher the chances you will be able to connect with the visitor via a lead form, Click to Call, or your Hours & Directions page so they can pay you a visit in person.  It’s best if a vendor can achieve at least the 2 minute mark with the traffic they send to you.

Goal Conversion Rate

This metric only applies if you have set up specific Goals in the View you are using.  If no Goals have been set up, this column will read zeroes.  If Goals have been set up, this will show the percentage of that vendor’s visitors who completed a Goal.  The higher the percentage, the more Goals the visitor completed, meaning the more engaged that vendor’s visitors were.  High Goal Conversion Rates are an indication of quality traffic.

Now that you have the basics, you may have a few questions.  Such as,

What’s a Goal?

Goals are what Analytics uses to track activity.  For example, if you set a Goal for New VDP Views, Analytics will capture the visitor data for everyone who views a new VDP and that data will show up on your Reporting Page.  You can decide what items are important for your dealership and set Goals to track them.

How do I set up a Goal?

Decide what you’d like to track.  As an example we will use View New VDP. 

1. On the bottom left of your Reporting page, there is an option called Admin.  Click on it.
2. On the right hand side is a column of options.  Choose “Goals”.
3. Click on the red button that says, “New Goal.”
4. Choose Custom.  Click continue.
5. Enter the name of your Goal.  For our example, we’ll call it New VDP Views.
6. Choose Destination.  Click continue.
7. Enter the piece of your website’s url into the box that pertains specifically to New VDPs.  To get this, go to your dealership website and click on a new VDP.  Look at the url for the page and pick out a unique identifier.  For our example, we will use “vehicle-details/new.”  Copy and paste this into the box.  To the left of the box is a drop down menu.  Choose Regular Expression.  Click Save.

You should now see your Goal listed.  By setting this Goal, you have instructed Google to count every time someone makes it to this url on your website and capture information about them.  You can continue entering Goals up the limit per View, which is 20.  If you want to track more than 20 Goals, you need to set up a second View.

This list of Goals will show you how many times this Goal has been completed in the last 7 days.  Analytics data only records going forward, never backward, so it is not advisable to change a Goal once it has been set.  You will not get accurate recording data.  For this reason, it’s helpful to think of Goals as “set in stone” when you make them, so take your time and decide what Goals you really want / need before creating them.

Now that you are armed with hard numbers, you can evaluate the performance of all your vendors and decide who is delivering on their promises and who is falling short.  Check in on performance at least once a week and you will be able to ensure that only those vendors who are sending you high quality, high converting traffic will get your precious digital marking dollars.