What is Google Analytics 4 and why does your car dealership need it?

Google Analytics is critical for auto dealers to measure the effectiveness of their marketing strategies. It can also track where consumers go on your website and what tools they use.  On the latest episode of Auto Marketing Now, host Brian Pasch, founder of PCG Companies and BPE Enterprises, discusses features of the new Google Analytics 4 iteration, and how car dealers can utilize the platform’s functions for better website engagement. 

Now that digital retailing tools are on dealer websites, it’s more important than ever to know how consumers are coming into the website and when they drop off. The new version of Google Analytics 4 is an event, or action, based system that provides insights into how customers navigate your website and bridges the gap between user and device.

This allows dealer groups to develop a much more strategic plan for how they market their stores. Data-driven decisions will produce the best outcomes. However, Pasch is concerned that website platform providers and builders in the automotive space are not talking enough about Google Analytics 4. What does this migration mean for car dealers?

Google Analytics 4 is free to use and available for your website at any time, but the scripts that digital retailing and chat tools use, all have to be updated. Pasch recommends getting in touch with your website provider, and the providers of your various other tools, and ask when they will start supporting Google Analytics 4. Ask your website company to set up a Google Analytics 4 view in your account so you can get acquainted with the platform.

As your website continues to grow into a full-retail experience, the tools you have will need to be completely transparent with Google Analytics 4. Ask your website provider to send actions into GA4. This will offer you better tracking and visibility down the line.

“We need to prepare. It’s not going to happen overnight,” says Pasch. “But I would say by the end of this year, you have a clean GA4 instance up and running on your website with all of your tools contributing to that data stream. So that you can be testing the new reporting and the new insights that GA4 has.”

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