Get a Grip on Your Marketing Efforts
Tips for How to Better Manage Your Web Analytics Written by Al Carl
With any dealership marketing campaign, gaining a better understanding of the results will show you where and what to plan for in the future — and likely gain more success for your business. This fact is true whether your campaign is in a newspaper or on your Web site — measuring results is a fundamental and essential part of any marketing effort.
Savvy dealership Internet and marketing managers have learned that paid (payper- click) ads on search engine sites yield more valuable visitors than free (organic) listings. In fact, a 2008 online retailers’ study conducted by Engine Ready showed that paid traffi c converts at a 20 percent higher rate and results in an 18 percent higher order value on average than free listings. The results of this survey — and a multitude of others — illustrate that using paid search has grown in prominence as an important component of successful Web marketing. However, while creating a pay-per-click campaign with one of the major search engine sites is a simple task, maximizing the return from one is fraught with challenges.
Maximizing the return on your paid search investment begins with knowing where Web traffi c comes from and whether it “bounces” or not. The answer is found in Web analytics, which is simply the study of online behavior in order to improve it.
One of the better known – and free – analytic programs is Google Analytics, with other major players such as Omniture, WebTrends and Core Metrics. These major players deliver more robust data, but also require an investment to use their services. There are hundreds of analytic systems available today with varying degrees of data elements and cost. In fact, nearly every major dealership management system provider who offers a Web solution has a Web analytics system available with that solution. Selecting an analytics program and learning how to use it prior to implementing your paid search campaign is a wise investment of your time.
So what’s important to measure with an analytics system? In a word, everything! Every element of information has the potential to be of value in a Web campaign and needs be studied and analyzed. Here are a few key points to consider for measuring with your analytics system:
Conversion RateConversion rate speaks to the number of visitors that come to your site and act in a manner you desire out of the total number of visitors. For your dealership, this would include visitors who fi lled out a lead form, requested a bid quote, made a phone call or scheduled a service appointment online. You can effectively generate traffi c to your Web site, but if you cannot identify what that traffi c does once it arrives, you cannot effectively manage or grade the performance of your paid search efforts. Answering the questions “How many leads did we see out of our efforts?” and “How much did it cost to generate x number of leads?” will enable you to place value on the campaign, and tracking the conversion rate will accomplish this.
Tracking the Source of the LeadThe lead source can speak volumes about the quality of Web traffi c. Studies have shown that the most productive and profi table traffi c typically fl ows in this order:
- Other sites referral traffic
Additionally, search engine traffi c can vary in quality from one search engine to another, with one providing a signifi cantly higher level of productive traffi c than another, and even this can vary by region and industry. The use of a good analytics system will uncover these trends and give you the ability to make the necessary adjustments to your Web campaigns, making them more effective and profitable.
Track the Performance of Keyword-Specific TrafficPay-per-click ads run on keywords, and the difference in conversion rates can vary dramatically from keyword to keyword; where one can sometimes deliver 200 to 300 percent more than another. Once you are able to evaluate the performance level of keyword-specifi c traffi c, you will be able to make adjustments to your bid rates and emphasis accordingly, focusing on the most cost effi cient and useful keywords. Keep in mind that the more productive a keyword is the more you should be willing to pay for it, and that any non-performing keywords should be eliminated from the campaign.
Working with a good analytics system will also help you identify keywords that current customers are using to fi nd your site through organic search, and can help you identify keywords used on your site’s internal search engine. Using these search terms in your pay-per-click campaign will give you the opportunity to capture new customers similar to your existing ones.
Paid search is an extremely effective way to market your dealership, but it’s only as good as your performance tracking tool. If you don’t know the results you’re getting — and why — from your Web campaigns, then you are wasting money and opportunity. Proper use of an analytics tool and ongoing performance assessment will help dealership Internet and marketing managers generate value for their dealerships, and better understand what works for their business. Spend time getting to know and understand your analytics system of choice. Review the information on a daily basis. Modify your campaigns accordingly, and, ultimately, add more to your bottom line.
That’s what any marketing campaign is all about.
Al Carl is the search engine optimization (SEO) / search engine marketing (SEM) product planning manager of Web Solutions at Reynolds and Reynolds. He can be contacted by e-mail at Aloysius_Carl@reyrey.com. Appeared in AutoSuccess Magazine December 2008
