Tracking Software for 3rd party leads and more

[lisamasariu]

I'm in the reporting war! We're doing 'all this digital stuff' and can't determine a conversion rate. I know how many people are clicking to the site, emailing or phoning us, but I can't easily determine how many of these leads convert to sales. Easily is the key word. Sure I could compare all solds to lead name/address/phone/email, but we are an 8 rooftop group and understaffed. There isn't enough time in the day to muddle through that! Need some help to better track conversion of our digital clicks/leads. Anyone have any secret sauce?? Let me know. Thanks in advance.

 

[cmjerry4531]

Hi Lisa,

Are you asking how to tell how many of leads of a specific source convert to sales? As in:

I got 10 leads from Cars.com, and I want to know how many I sold? If that's the case, then you should be able to do that through your CRM. You just have to make sure that whomever recorded the lead reported the right source. Most CRM's allow you to build reports based on source, and you'll be able to get the data in a snap!

If you are trying to determine the source of the leads on your own website (Google, Cars.com, etc), then you will need to set up goals in your Google Analytics. Dealer.com sites are the easiest to work with on this since you just have to punch in the URL within the Goals you set. Some other websites you have to place a small piece of javascript in the page to be able to track it. Raven Tools has a program that creates the script for you so you would just have to email it to your website provider to install on your VDP's.

This will allow you to see exactly where your leads came from on your website, but won't provide a name to the lead. The only way to get both is by utilizing cookies/session ID's, and working with your website company to set up the reporting. I did this with Autofusion when I worked at a dealership in Montana, but any of the main website companies should be able to do it. This will allow you to see who submitted a lead on your website, where they came from and then you'll be able to track to see if they bought. This is a fantastic resource for banner advertising.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Why aren't more dealer website vendors offering a service that includes the history of behavioral that happened on the website within the consumer lead?

Its not difficult to do.

Who is currently offering this?
What would you really do once you have this data available in near real time?

Lisa, please elaborate on your question a little more. I have some additional information around this subject but want to be sure I understand what you're asking.

Thanks!

 

[Chris Cachor]

Why aren't more dealer website vendors offering a service that includes the history of behavioral that happened on the website within the consumer lead?

I agree, surprised I haven't seen this yet. Maybe Vin Solutions has something like this? Web vendors simply need to track the users session data, and upon identifying themselves in the lead, tie that session data back to a user/lead. I've seen this done frequently in the real estate market for their web applications.

There's also another form of lead tracking that has a bit more to do with the lead market in general to combat fraud. Their name is LeadID and they offer solutions in many different markets. It's some pretty interesting technology, but a little bit difficult to implement. I'd say getting your web vendors to implement this sort of thing would be next to impossible. For buying leads from Cars.com, AutoTrader, etc. I think it's a great solution.

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