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  1. Mark A Hoffman

    Who Loves Them Some Data

    Hey Bill - I'm a complete data-nerd and love geeking out on numbers. I'm also a developer with a math background, so I'd be interested in taking a look and seeing what kind of insights we can come up with.
  2. Mark A Hoffman

    BigQuery | ASC Events | Custom Definitions Schema

    It's not actually the custom definitions from GA4 being pushed into the event_params field; it's whatever was being pushed into GA4 is being sent to BigQuery. Even if you don't have an attribute setup as a custom dimension or metric in GA4, it will still be available in BigQuery. Also keep in...
  3. Mark A Hoffman

    PR & News Pasch's AWA Awards Canceled for 2024

    Well, I don't mean a page where people leave reviews. But a voting body or some such. Not sure what the ideal method is, but my point is that, ideally, dealers are the ones deciding and not the people counting how much cash they received from vendors..
  4. Mark A Hoffman

    PR & News Pasch's AWA Awards Canceled for 2024

    ..as a vendor, I can assure you that virtually all industry awards are "pay-to-play" and is a marketing expense to the vendor, and a revenue item for the person handing out the awards... I receive numerous emails regarding these awards, and similar other activities that are supposedly about...
  5. Mark A Hoffman

    GA4 ASC Wishlist

    Sounds like it's working for you; you also seem to have more technical expertise than is available in many dealer groups. I've met with quite literally hundreds of dealers and most do not have the staff on-hand to do things like that. They may be in their analytics every day, but they don't...
  6. Mark A Hoffman

    GA4 ASC Wishlist

    The vendors who want their products certified as ASC compliant, or dealers / vendors who want a seat at the table to guide the specification are the ones paying the fees. Not dealers using the data. It's free for them.
  7. Mark A Hoffman

    GA4 ASC Wishlist

    And what happens when you change website providers? Or the website vendor rolls out an update and now that script has to be updated. On every site. Or when you're in a group that has multiple OEM mandated website providers? Maintaining all of that becomes a significant problem. And when it...
  8. Mark A Hoffman

    What Are In-House SEO's & Marketers making?

    I know its not what you asked for, but...have you considered just going the consulting route and leveraging your skillsets across multiple dealers? Like Ryan said, the SEO folks are likely the first to go during a down-turn when everyone is hunkering down for the storm, but having a larger...
  9. Mark A Hoffman

    Here are some sample BigQuery queries to pull GA4 data based on the ASC standard.

    With the recent push for the ASC standard for GA4, and with more people dipping their toes into the BigQuery waters, I thought it would be a good time to share some helpful queries that highlight what you can do with BigQuery and the ASC standard. I built a simple tool that lets you enter your...
  10. Mark A Hoffman

    GA4 ASC Wishlist

    We've definitely seen some of that, with a few vendors flat-out refusing to support it. Fortunately, I think the market will speak loudly and they will find that their customers choose a platform that provides the transparency that ASC provides. It's great to see dealers that are excited about...
  11. Mark A Hoffman

    GA4 ASC Wishlist

    Definitely agree about item_location, and it's something that we'll be pushing for for version 2. I know that many of the website vendors have pushed back against having to include too much information that would be tough for them to track and maintain, and understandably so, because it pushes...
  12. Mark A Hoffman

    BigQuery | ASC Events | Custom Definitions Schema

    Glad to help! And when you start looking at ASC events, you will probably find some that aren't sending the right parameters, not firing off the right events, etc (Just the way it goes with new software). I built a tool that can help validate the ASC event data. You upload a CSV (based on...
  13. Mark A Hoffman

    BigQuery | ASC Events | Custom Definitions Schema

    Hey Bill - Yes, the way that we're pulling ASC data is to just query it straight from the Events table in BiqQuery and unnest all the parameters.(We're using the native link between GA4 and BigQuery as well.) I've not done anything with the custom definitions, because for us, we just pull the...
  14. Mark A Hoffman

    BigQuery | ASC Events | Custom Definitions Schema

    Hey Bill - A bit late to this, but let me know if you didn't get the query you need. I'm routinely pulling down GA4 data from BiqQuery for using the ASC events and I can hook you up with whatever query you need. If you are just looking to leverage the ASC event data, you might be better served...
  15. Mark A Hoffman

    Our DMS appears to be taking advantage of us - WHAT ARE YOU PAYING FOR API INTEGRATION?

    " I truly don't know what it takes to maintain REY security." Oh, I have a really good idea of what it should cost. And based on what I know about their fee structure, they are making mountains of cash. Exposing sensitive data via APIs and protecting it is relatively routine stuff. Look at...
  16. Mark A Hoffman

    Our DMS appears to be taking advantage of us - WHAT ARE YOU PAYING FOR API INTEGRATION?

    I'll add that in my own discussion with other vendors, there is a certain amount of fear and hesitation amongst vendors to publicly discuss or criticize the fee structure the DMS companies have put in place because they fear being kicked out of the "certified vendor program", or having their...
  17. Mark A Hoffman

    Inventory Website Software for small dealer

    For a small dealer, you really can't beat CarsForSale.
  18. Mark A Hoffman

    Is Anyone using Store Visit Conversions In Google Adwords???

    There is no bad data; there is only poorly interpreted data. Google's data is merely a metric and it's useful from that standpoint. Attribution models are just that; models. It's nice when we can easily attribute a sale or visitor, but even without that, there are still proven ways to measure...
  19. Mark A Hoffman

    Are Dealers Spending Too Much On Paid Search?

    I'd be curious to see a cost / benefit analysis in determining the ROI for those harder to track channels such as TV, radio, billboards, etc. Given how more and more demographics rely on online information for car research and buying, how much money should a dealer invest in tracking the...
  20. Mark A Hoffman

    Are Dealers Spending Too Much On Paid Search?

    I'd be curious to hear how some of you are tracking the ROI on your SEM efforts. With the dealers that I've worked with it's ranged from "Throw money at it and hope something sticks" to "measure VDP views, form submissions from SEM and hope that impacts sales" to "DMS matchbacks via email...