Key website metrics to track to ensure online success for your dealership
A website is an essential tool for generating leads, building your subscriber list, and raising brand awareness. But are you sure you’re looking at the right metrics to determine how well you’re doing?
Google Analytics can provide loads of data on all kinds of metrics, but some provide more value than others. Of all the dozens of different KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you can look at, it’s best to narrow it down to at least five metrics which give you the most insight into how effective your dealership’s website is at converting visitors into paying customers.
While things like social media likes and total page views are nice to know, seeing high numbers there might not do much more than stroke your ego a little bit. Here are the five most important website performance metrics for car dealerships that will actually help you grow your audience.
CarGurus helps dealers gain insight into shopper activity with key industry partnerships
With so many different touchpoints along a car buyer’s path to purchase—more than 24, according to Google—it can be difficult for dealers to make sense of which are most influential throughout a consumer’s buying journey. Attribution is one of the biggest challenges dealers face today—and it’s something that we at CarGurus are continually looking to provide a solution to for our dealers. And, today we’re turning a corner.
CarGurus is thrilled to announce that we have teamed up with vAuto, Clarivoy, and Vistadash, three game-changing analytics platforms, to help dealers learn more about their inventory performance. Through these partnerships, we will be able to provide more data than ever to our dealers, increasing transparency and giving dealers a more holistic view of their online listing performance including VDP views, map clicks, and more.
Digital Dealer 25 recap
Last week, a team of Gurus and I made the trip to Las Vegas for Digital Dealer 25. The annual conference is one of our favorites, and this year was no exception. The exhibit hall was packed, we had great conversations with many dealers, and we were happy to hear some of the themes speakers kept coming back to during the educational sessions. Here are our five takeaways from the event.
Buying cars at an auction? Use tools in your CarGurus dashboard to prepare
Car auctions are an essential way to increase and improve used inventory—and they are the bread and butter for many dealers. Because they can be fast-paced, high-intensity settings though, knowing which vehicles you are going to bid on and how much you are willing to pay before you get to the car auction is crucial.
Within your CarGurus dashboard are a number of tools to help you prepare so you can find the perfect cars to buy at the auction for your lot. In this post, we are going to look at how you can use those tools—and the data they provide—to set yourself up for success.
Consider the following questions before and during an auction and use CarGurus tools to stock the right cars and set up your lot for a quicker turn rate.
Podcast: COO Sam Zales talks with Brian Pasch about how “CarGurus leads the pack” for dealers
Sam Zales, Chief Operating Officer of CarGurus, recently joined Brian Pasch, founder of PCG Companies, for a discussion about dealership marketing strategies and the value CarGurus offers dealers. In the podcast, they cover:
- CarGurus’ market momentum and the foundational elements of our growth strategy
- Why winning the consumer experience is crucial to winning the marketplace battle
- What’s ahead in the coming months for automotive dealers
- Plus, a lot more!
Why every dealership should embrace mobile marketing
Mobile puts a wealth of information at shoppers’ fingertips, and it is disrupting the way people find and engage with brands throughout their buying journey. And mobile use only continues to rise among shoppers in the United States, according to eMarketer.
To connect with these potential customers, your dealership needs to invest in an effective mobile marketing strategy. Mobile marketing goes beyond email marketing—it brings your inventory to your buyer’s mobile devices and makes all of your content easily accessible. If your business is not marketing effectively on mobile, it’s missing its chance to stay competitive and reach shoppers where they feel comfortable.
Survey says: driving is the most popular means of commuting in the US
Driving is the most popular means of commuting for Americans—and 72% drive every day—according to a recent CarGurus survey. And of those who drive, the most popular reasons for doing so are convenience (34%) and speed (20%).
For dealers, understanding car shoppers’ commuting behaviors and sentiments provides an opportunity to stock the right cars and act as informed consultants for those in the market to buy a car. Check out our interactive map with location-specific car recommendations based on area commuting conditions to see if you have these cars in your inventory.
Carefully measuring the performance of your email newsletter leads to better content and more engaged customers
As a car dealer who wants to engage customers and nurture loyalty, you probably send a regular e-newsletter (and if you don’t, you really should). But too many customer newsletters are bland, self-serving, and easily ignored. Great dealers set their newsletters apart by using key metrics to continually fine tune everything from core content to the time of day they send them. Customers value their newsletters, which makes them a potent weapon in your marketing mix.
Refining your own newsletter isn’t complicated, and it will never be wasted effort. Email marketing—of which an e-newsletter is an important component—remains an extremely effective marketing channel. According to Campaign Monitor, every $1 spent on email marketing earns $44 in return.
In other words, an effective e-newsletter is a key part of your marketing strategy. But measuring that effectiveness and tweaking it accordingly is vital. Newsletters that offer no value annoy consumers, who are increasingly prepared to report irrelevant emails as spam and unsubscribe from contact lists.
A blueprint for a successful lead follow-up process
The car business attracts all types of buyers: some folks buy cars on impulse, like a bag of chips in the checkout line, while others spend days, weeks, or even months searching for the right car, deal, and dealership. Regardless of the type of buyer though, life can get in the way sometimes, causing car shopping to get put on the back burner.
In my former life as a BDC Director at a six-store dealer group, I found that timing was one of the main reasons why even our most effective lead sources converted at only 10%-12%. It wasn’t because the customers weren’t serious or decided to buy elsewhere—it was because they didn’t have time, and my dealership was giving up too soon.
Why does that matter to you? If you want to drive more sales from existing leads, you need to optimize your lead follow-up strategy.
PCG Research: “CarGurus has become the hottest auto shopping site in the US”
In a market where customer expectations are evolving rapidly and the shopping journey continues to become more disconnected, CarGurus has remained steadfast in its goal: building the world’s most trusted and transparent automotive marketplace—and it’s working. CarGurus is now the most visited and most used car shopping site in the US.*