Call Tracking Facts Every Dealership Should Know

[Guest Poster]

Car Dealer Call Tracking FAQ's

With so much buzz in the automotive world about what marketing tools are now at your disposal, I feel I owe it to the DealerRefresh community to share some of the insights on the tool I know best – call tracking.

DealerRefresh readers are entrepreneurs. We don’t get out bed for general trends, but rather for insights that allow us to take action right now to improve our sales and marketing performance. As such, I put together this list of “what’s going on right now” topics in call tracking that may be just the nugget to help you make a more informed decision on how to implement a new measurement tool.

1. Can I put a tracking number in my Google Places (Maps, Local Listings, 7-pack, whatever your name for it is) entry?

You absolutely can. SEO bloggers publish theories to the contrary, but I’ve never seen a local merchant displeased with using a tracking number in Google Places. Let’s think about the big picture; if a meaningful amount of calls are coming from a particular listing site, you need to know about it. And it’s not just Google. Cars.com, AutoTrader, EveryCarListed etc are all asking for a greater percentage of your budget. Some of these are, in fact, worthy of upgrading to the premium package. Know which ones you should be serious about.

2. What’s the deal with keyword-level tracking? Wait, organic too?

Yes, you can see search queries from callers from your website who clicked on an organic link as well. The “keyword-level call tracking” service most commonly offered by call tracking vendors shows a unique phone number just for paid click visits. While this is useful, the preferred way to track calls from your website is to capture every referring source (PPC, organic, listing site referral, email and display). Intellectually, it’s more honest to take a holistic approach to call tracking rather than isolate and over- spotlight one particular lead source.

3. Can I get my own numbers?

I’m tired of people who are trying to sell me stuff owning the numbers. All things being equal, the publisher (directory site, website company, newspaper etc.) will own the numbers and use it as a churn reduction tool. Hey, they introduced you to the idea of call tracking, right? While this is part of doing business, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can have access to your own inventory of tracking lines, to add / cancel as you wish. It’s just a matter of opening your own account with a car dealer call tracking service provider.

4. Can I get call data to integrate with Application X?

I saved the most commonly asked question for last, “Do you integrate with Google Analytics?” For better or worse, Google doesn’t have an inbound API, so the integration is crude and less than ideal. Call counts are the extent of it, which is why I would suggest you choose the call tracking provider with a robust analytics package. Get the most out of what call tracking specialists can offer first, and then decide if a third-party integration will provide the missing piece (if there even is a missing piece). There are providers who can break out phone calls from web sessions in a compelling fashion. However, if you are set on an AdWords integration, your best bet will be via a PPC management platform like Marin, Clickable or Acquisio, each of whom integrates call data.

My goal each day is to help dealers fit technology into their own unique set of operations. I’m on the front lines of receiving feedback from dealers while simultaneously pushing and testing development realities in-house to find the optimal balance. Point being, there’s lots of innovation and compromise I live and die by everyday. Enough, at least, to have perspective on what will move the needle versus what’s yet another meaningless feature.

 

[Joe Pistell]

Woa Stephen! Wow, you really need to re-think comment #1, you ask:

"...Can I put a tracking number in my Google Places (Maps, Local Listings, 7-pack, whatever your name for it is) entry?"

I about fell out of my chair when you replied:

"...You absolutely can. SEO bloggers publish theories to the contrary, but I’ve never seen a local merchant displeased with using a tracking number in Google Places...."

Gulp! A bold ASSUMPTION on your part Stephen, but, in this example only, I'll step up and WARN Dealer Refresh readers that (from my seat) this is flawed advice with a great deal of risk..

DO NOT USE TOLL FREE NUMBERS IN GOOGLE PLACES (aka Google Local).

First, there are 2 types of traffic from Google Places.
#1). Your business name (i.e. a phone book search)
#2). A general product search (i.e. "used cars for sale")
Both searches fire off the Google Maps results (with push pins).

In example #1, the "white pages" phone book request, there is little competition and using a toll free number should not impact the Dealer from being seen.

but...

Example #2 is like a "yellow pages" phone book request and the competition is far greater and more difficult for Google to figure out how to reward the winners. In this example, this is where having a toll free number on your google places listing can result in a total FAIL.

My stores have many listing challenges and my Google Places ranking is far from perfect, yet, it's "yellow pages results" sends me several hundred shoppers per month... FREE. Getting strong local listings can make a huge impact on traffic to a website (which trickles down to sales). It's so important that over the years, I have a few hundred hours of research into Google Places. I've hired the best consultants in the biz to assist me along the way and read their blogs often.

Getting ranked on Google Local is not black or white... not win or lose, it's not yes or no, businesses are listed on a sliding scale of rank. Google looks for all kinds of "quality signals" to verify the businesses that go back all the way to the DBA's and telco white pages. Generally speaking, The more matches it finds the better quality.

Google and ALL of the Local Search Community will recommend that you don't use Toll Free numbers in Google's Place (local) listings.

--Google Places Quality Guidelines--:
Phone: Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible.
* Use a local phone number instead of a call center number whenever possible. http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.p...

--2010 Local Search Ranking Factors--
SEE:
*Quality of Citations from Major Data Providers + IYP Portals
*Including Local Area Code Phone Number on Places Landing Page http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-fac...

Summary: If you're looking to get your business onto the 7pack for yellow-pages like listings (i.e. "car dealer near city, state"), or, if your business is already in the 7pack map listings and you don't want to risk falling off the 7 pack, DONT USE A TOLL FREE NUMBER.

TEST YOUR DEALERSHIP NOW: Moz Local - Your All-In-One local SEO tool and software

 

[@axsnyder]

Thanks for writing this article Stephen - definitely brings to light quite a few things many are puzzled by.

I do have to echo on a bit of what Joe is saying on the first point as it relates to Google Places. One of the key things Google uses to match your business to your places page and all those reputation websites is a phone number. When you have a differing phone number on these various sites Google doesn't link them together.

For Example: If you're paying for DealerRater, you should have the same number on your DealerRater page, your Google Places page, and your website.

It is up to you whether the customer experience or your ability to track things is more important.

 

[ryan.leslie]

Alex stole my thunder, numbers must match to get the data to flow reliably. One other quick note on this though. If you do decide to change the contact info on your places page it will take Google 4-6 weeks to accurately scrape and display review content on your places page. Decide what you want to do and stick with it. If you change your mind every 4 weeks, you'll never have review data post.

 

[Joe Pistell]

Phone numbers is but one part of the business record. For the highest quality scores, not only do phone numbers need to match, ALL records must match... letter perfect! Name, address, phone numbers & zips. Start at your business certificate filing at your local government level, then move that perfect info everywhere. Make sure the white pages has your info aligned, everything must be just right.

One of my Examples:
Sun Chevy (nope)
Sun Chevrolet (better)
Sun Chevrolet Inc. (almost)
Sun Chevrolet, Inc. (has comma now it's perfect!)

Take that letter perfect info and push it everywhere!
Here it is on this store's landing page: http://www.usedcarking.com/SunChevroletInc/

Sun Chevrolet, Inc.
104 West Genesee St. Chittenango, NY 13037
(315) 687-7231

What you see above Google calls a "citation". A citation is the complete business record. For the best possible score, YOU NEED IT ALL, LETTER PERFECT and COPIED EVERYWHERE. Local SEO's believe that the MORE citations you have the more authority your local listing has. This only works if your info matches everywhere.

 

[stevecravens]

Thank you for the impassioned response, Joe, and it's emblematic of the vibrancy of the DR forum! I'm not suggesting using toll-frees, but rather placing *local tracking numbers* in your Google Places and other listings. Google's intention is not to disallow phone response measurement, but rather to make sure you're not creating a ghost presence in metros across the country.

We have users all the time, every day put *local* tracking numbers in each listing site and therefore know with certainty how the phone lead pie breaks out. We monitor our clients campaigns closely and have never noticed any demonstrable harm.

I'm not saying the practice doesn't come without risks, but just like driving a car to work every day in the morning, the benefits of tracking far outweigh the potential downside. To read more, here's a post I wrote on the topic: http://www.centuryinteractive.com/you-really-can-...

 

[stevecravens]

And thank you, Alex and Jeff, for providing a stellar forum for discourse. We need more of it! Google's provides rules of the road to prevent abuse. If your Google Listing profile is who you say you are, in the physical address you're representing, I don't believe it's Google's will to harm your standing. Furthermore, I've never seen any test results that would suggest otherwise. My view of the bottom line is that a meaningful amount of traffic comes from listings sites, and it's worth knowing how it breaks out. This knowledge allows dealers to continuously go up the funnel to further optimize their marketing budgets.

 

[Joe Pistell]

Hmmm.... fascinating possibilities Stephen! Excellent info, I hope you're right! I'll read it up asap!

 

[stevecravens]

Thank you for reading the post, Ryan. From a very high level, there's a balance that must be struck. What if takes a report that says "10% of calls come from Google Places" before a dealer will lift a finger to optimize his Places page with pictures, hours of operation, customer reviews etc. If the dealer doesn't even appreciate Google Places in the first place and has a lackluster profile, isn't that worse than a rank of "C" versus "B" in the Map but having an engaging profile? I'm just suggesting that in many cases, knowing with certainty that Google Places deliver x% of your call volume resonates with business managers more so than the theoretical risks posed on the margin.

 

[@AlexinCA]

I disagree to a certain extent with #3. If you can get something from a vendor that gives you a leg up over the other call tracking services out there whether it's because it just works better with their product (better reporting) or they offer something you can't really get anywhere else, I think going through the vendor is worthwhile.

For example, what if you could tie salesperson's name, customer's name, and the specific piece of inventory the customer was calling about together and automatically kick that info into your CRM? Pardon the advertisement, but we can do that for a few different websites.