The following is a guest blog from Brian Pasch, Founder of PCG Companies, Author, and Keynote Speaker.
I wanted to share a quick update on the Photo Engagement Rate (PER) metric that was defined by the PCG Engagement Project. If a consumer visits a dealership website and clicks to view photos of a vehicle on a Search Results Page (SRP) or Vehicle Details Page (VDP) we record that event in Google Analytics. The percentage of visitors that look at photos creates the Photo Engagement Rate (PER) metric.
In the past 90 days, I have been inspecting paid advertising campaigns that claim to bring engaged shoppers to dealership websites. I recently stated that it is difficult for dealers to attract engaged shoppers, to their own websites, using common digital advertising strategies. Download a copy of my latest research report that exposes the truth behind online advertising outcomes.
In the VistaDash Engagement report shown below, I sorted campaign performance by PER and these are the top 3 campaigns for this dealer:
*Sensitive data blurred purposefully*
The advertising partners that brought highly engaged shoppers who looked at vehicle photos to the dealer’s website are Lotlinx* and Cars.com. The campaign called “deeplink” is the new feature Cars.com recently added to allow deep linking from their VDPs to the dealership website.
The data is confirming that both of these companies have found ways to attract and connect with highly engaged shoppers, while other popular solutions have PER percentages under 5%! This pattern of high photo engagement from Lotlinx and Cars.com traffic has been recorded in dozens of dealers I have inspected in VistaDash this month.
Typical Google AdWords campaigns that target new or used vehicles have a PER under 20%.
I am preparing new data to release at the 2017 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) that shows how dealers can increase engagement, conversions, and showroom traffic. I will also be sharing an updated list of companies that are supporting the Google events and goals defined by the PCG Engagement Project. Dealers who use certified vendors can have clear, transparent, and actionable data to improve sales outcomes.
* PCG Digital Marketing is an authorized reseller for Lotlinx TURN software.
Learn About Increasing Online Engagement
Dealers who would like to learn more about measuring consumer engagement, and how to clean up their Google Analytics account to track conversion, and sales influence, are invited to attend the Automotive Engagement Conference (AEC) which will be held in seven cities in 2017. Check to see which city is closest to where you live: https://goo.gl/xcKWCw
Next Three Dates:
- New Jersey: May 9th
- Los Angeles: May 11th
- Chicago: June 1st
If you can’t attend one of the AEC Tour Dates, here are some other options:
- Attend the 2017 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) in the Napa Valley. Details here: http://digitalmarketingstrategies.org
- Get a demo of VistaDash by contacting Dan Moore: dan@vistadash.com
- Call me at 732-672-2356.
