The importance of using Google Analytics to inspect marketing partners

On the latest episode of Auto Marketing Now, host Brian Pasch, founder of PCG Companies, demonstrates the benefits of using Google Analytics to inspect your marketing partners and he shares new research on a project called AutoWeb, which was once misunderstood by dealers but now is understood as high-quality traffic.

For years on Auto Marketing Now, we’ve discussed Google Analytics as part of the DNA of any dealership that wants to understand if their digital marketing is working. Someone in the dealership should have the desire to inspect marketing outcomes and traffic quality of the campaigns to help you sell more cars and services in the digital age.

Pasch says, AutoWeb leverages third-party marketplaces and other partners to double opt-in and drive traffic to their client’s websites. The websites themselves generate leads but they have a special platform and process to get an engaged shopper to visit a local dealer’s website.

Pasch says it doesn’t matter what website platform you use. But he says, he wouldn’t select a website platform that would not record into Google Analytics and the actions that shoppers take.  It seems that there is a continued lack of understanding of how important Google Analytics is. Dealers spend thousands on Google ads, yet they don’t have the right goals set up to optimize the bidding. Pasch says, we have to rethink what we’re telling Google to optimize and inspect what consumers are doing on your websites.

Engagement is one element of the inspection of traffic. Conversion is another aspect of the engagement. The challenge is dealer’s websites aren’t set up properly to measure those qualities. Dealers have to remember, consumers, go to third-party marketplaces for shopping for vehicles, not for service. Since there are no standards for engagement measurement on dealership’s websites, third-party marketplaces have always got the short end of the stick. Pasch says until you set an equal playing field, products like AutoWeb have a hard time of showing their value.

The second reason why the study was groundbreaking is that traffic from third-party marketplaces is far more engaged than Google SEM. Pasch says, dealers are more focused on quantity, not quality. Products that require engagement tracking and goals to be set up properly get disadvantaged when people are selling quantity over quality. When you do like quality, Pasch says wouldn’t you want to be investing money in sources that generate the highest quality and highest engagement shopper traffic?  You need to inspect the outcome of those marketing visits. Don’t count conversions.

For more information on the Google SEM report, click here.

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