There is not enough knowledge about the Return on Investment on your marketing spend in the automotive industry!

When I am with dealers to show them the ‘Power of Marktplaats’, that is often the first time that these significant statistics are seen. The same applies to the other portals and their numbers. For many car companies, Google Analytics is the only real referee and that is fine.. in 2014. We are now three years on and it is time that we, as suppliers of leads, dealers and car companies, learn how to deal with all the data that is available.

The customer of 2017 has changed

The current customer behaves differently than the customer of 2014. Recent research from Google shows us that most car buyers, by far, have more than 19 ‘digital touch points’ before they buy. That alone makes the current calculation method of ‘last click attribution’ useless. More than 74% of buyers do not complete a form during the first visit and 56% doesn’t want to have contact at all. If you want to know if the car is still available, calls are preferable. Not surprising in a ‘mobile only’ world.

The second trend is that big brands win from small brands. In the automotive world this is no different and is caused by the way the customer searches. Bloomreach has done research and it appears that 55% of buyers are looking through platforms such as Amazon and, in the Netherlands, Marktplaats. 58% of the visitors of a dealer website return to the search platform because most websites, including those of dealers, do not give the experience that the customer of 2017 is accustomed to. In other words, Marktplaats as the largest Dutch website and Facebook and Instagram are gaining ground on engagement in 2017. People prefer to remain in a familiar environment, rather than going to a website where they have to search for information. The retailer therefore needs to build an existence on those popular platforms. He has to realize that the customer would rather be there. And stays there.

Has the dealer’s website been turned down?

No, not at all! However, the customer of 2017 expects the website to be ‘on par’, or to have the ‘user experience’ of a 2017 website. If you do not have that experience, it will stay with that one visit and you will not get a second chance on your own website, but perhaps you will on another platform, where you are also available.

The dealer website

It is too premature to conclude that the dealer website is out of favor. On the contrary, the customer today expects the website to be ‘on par’ and to offer the ‘user experience’ of a 2017 website. If you do not have that experience, it will stay with that one visit and you will not get a second chance. more on your own website. You might get that opportunity on a platform where you are also available.

Dealers and car companies have to start thinking about where they want to go with their website. After all, waiting until the importer provides you with a website that is 2017, is often waiting until 2019 and then we are, indeed, too late! Parties such as Autodata Nederland, DTC Media, Webuildretail and now also UnameIT can do this, and that will also be my advice. Go talk to parties that can switch and know that we are working and living in 2017.

Statistics

How do you look at all the statistics? The statistics of your website only tell a small part of the entire customer journey. If you do not have dynamic call tracking on your website, you only measure 10% of your effectiveness. Asking your customers where they found you does not lead to the right insights. Why not? Customers often give you desirable answers instead of sharing the entire cycle of an average of 19 sources.

You must therefore have all your marketing channels insightful and put on value. A visit to, for example, Gaspedaal.nl can lead to a conversion via direct traffic and then through a remarketing campaign. Without the attention on Gaspedaal it was not possible to retarget this visitor.

All those people who come in or call in a targeted manner do not just come. They are triggered by your inventory or action. By being active on the portals as a dealer, it becomes easier to find out where your customer is coming from. On the basis of a number of fixed units of measurement, a calculation of your ROI is then quickly made:

• How many visited VDP views on my inventory (not in the search results, but VDP views)
• How many e-mail leads
• How many call leads (clicks on phone number is 30%)
• How much traffic to your own website (is not a priority for a portal)

Nowadays, all other matters are much less relevant to determine the ROI. The printing of car data by the customer can indicate a purchase intention, but was especially important in 2005. Nowadays it doesn’t mean that much.

If you value everything, where a VDP view is worth € 0.05, an e-mail lead € 25, – and a call lead € 35, -, you can calculate the ROI from your marketing expenditure and determine whether the return on your investment is worth it. This is exactly what you need to learn if you are on the right track, or not.

Orginal article

About Paul de Vries

Paul de Vries became a Key Automotive Spokesperson at eBay (Marketplace) after selling Nieuweautokopen.nl to eBay back in 2015. Paul is the founder and CEO of the #DCDW Academy and the presenter of the #DCDW Podcast. He is also a by dealers and importers frequently asked speaker in the online automotive industry. Paul is the winner of the prestigious Lighthouse Award 2016 in the U.S.! `Lead the Way op de digitale snelweg’ is Paul’s new book, which can be used as a guide in the online automotive industry. More information is available at: DCDW.nl.