GA4 ASC Wishlist

[KodyVoyles]

Yes, we've created a lot of these events ourselves using Google Tag Manager, but getting them incorporated into the ASC specs is preferred because it makes events available to every dealer regardless of skill level and standardizes them across all vendors - which is absolutely critical considering GA4's limit of 50 custom definitions.

Regarding the $500 ASC annual membership dues, that is a nominal fee that vendors choose to pay to support ASC and have a voice at the table. This is a per-vendor fee, not a per-client fee.

I would not consider a $500 annual fee a "gatekeeping" type of expense, especially spread across hundreds or thousands of clients. That being said, I believe any vendor is free to download and use the ASC specs even if they aren't a paying member.

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Don't get me wrong, I think ASC is great. But I don't think it is viable for everyone.

If they truly wanted every dealer, regardless of skill (or profit), why charge?

When it comes to a mom and pop used car lot who bought a website off of Fiverr, Likely, they won't be able to afford that $500 extra yearly cost when they are struggling as it is.

Maybe if they had a different type of membership for those types of people and made the vendors who could afford it pay, I think we'd be in the perfect spot where it is affordable and usable at every dealership, regardless of size.

If it is free my whole argument is null and void lol.

Update: Signed up and went to the ASC-Specification-Document they emailed me and went to the Mapping and Formatting section but the google sheet is nonexistent.

 

[Mark A Hoffman]

Why not just create these events yourself working with your website vendor?

GA4 is so good at handling custom events, it's kinda wild that ASC gatekeeps with a $500 yearly fee to use them.

Here is an example for you for vehicle location on a page view fire this JavaScript event:

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 breaks, it usually doesn't get noticed for a while, but by then, data has been lost. Nevermind that creating those tags is beyond the scope of most dealerships unless they have dedicated staff for that.

That's exactly the problem that the ASC spec solves; not only for website vendors, but also for call tracking, trade-in tools, etc. The vendors bake in support for that in their tooling, dealers are free to use that data in GA4. Without any cost.

There's no gatekeeping; no fees to dealers to use the data, etc. This is merely a standard that the community created and most major automotive vendors support it. The vendors push the ASC events into GA4 and the dealers are free to do whatever they want with that data.

 

[Mark A Hoffman]

Don't get me wrong, I think ASC is great. But I don't think it is viable for everyone.

If they truly wanted every dealer, regardless of skill (or profit), why charge?

When it comes to a mom and pop used car lot who bought a website off of Fiverr, Likely, they won't be able to afford that $500 extra yearly cost when they are struggling as it is.

Maybe if they had a different type of membership for those types of people and made the vendors who could afford it pay, I think we'd be in the perfect spot where it is affordable and usable at every dealership, regardless of size.

If it is free my whole argument is null and void lol.

Update: Signed up and went to the ASC-Specification-Document they emailed me and went to the Mapping and Formatting section but the google sheet is nonexistent.

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.

 

[Ryan Everson]

Don't get me wrong, I think ASC is great. But I don't think it is viable for everyone.

If they truly wanted every dealer, regardless of skill (or profit), why charge?

When it comes to a mom and pop used car lot who bought a website off of Fiverr, Likely, they won't be able to afford that $500 extra yearly cost when they are struggling as it is.

Maybe if they had a different type of membership for those types of people and made the vendors who could afford it pay, I think we'd be in the perfect spot where it is affordable and usable at every dealership, regardless of size.

If it is free my whole argument is null and void lol.

Now, that's a unicorn if I've ever heard of one - a dealer who buys a website off of Fiverr, wants advanced GA4 analytics, and doesn't have $500.

ASC was created for the majority and covers thousands of dealers, all of whom don't have to pay anything additional for the benefit.

 

[Ryan Everson]

Update: Signed up and went to the ASC-Specification-Document they emailed me and went to the Mapping and Formatting section but the google sheet is nonexistent.

If you reach out to Brian or the ASC committee they can get you access to the Google Sheet, the link probably just changed and wasn't updated in the pdf.

 

[joe.pistell]

wow, what a thread this is. DR is an amazing resource, a collection of some of the brightest minds in auto retail tech, freely sharing for the improvement of all.

ty @Jeff Kershner & @Alex Snyder

 

[KodyVoyles]

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 breaks, it usually doesn't get noticed for a while, but by then, data has been lost. Nevermind that creating those tags is beyond the scope of most dealerships unless they have dedicated staff for that.

That's exactly the problem that the ASC spec solves; not only for website vendors, but also for call tracking, trade-in tools, etc. The vendors bake in support for that in their tooling, dealers are free to use that data in GA4. Without any cost.

There's no gatekeeping; no fees to dealers to use the data, etc. This is merely a standard that the community created and most major automotive vendors support it. The vendors push the ASC events into GA4 and the dealers are free to do whatever they want with that data.

Before GA4 was a required thing, I'd been apart of switching website vendors multiple times. It really wasn't that big of a deal to have conversions under different names; they all pretty much tracked the same things across vendors.

I never ran into an update that broke a gtag script, but I suppose it could happen, but it is highly unlikely due to the fact that it latches onto things via classes or IDs. Example:

var clickToCallLinks = document.querySelectorAll('.phone-number');
  if (clickToCallLinks) {
    clickToCallLinks.forEach(function(link) {
      link.addEventListener('click', function() {
        gtag('event', 'click_to_call');
      });
    });
  }

I am in a group with multiple OEM website providers and have never had this issue. If there isn't someone looking at their analytics often, you have a much bigger problem than conversion tracking.

Back before GA4, if you reached out to any vendor, they would have the team or manpower to get any conversion made that you could want. It would be a simple phone call or email asking for it.

Now, that's a unicorn if I've ever heard of one - a dealer who buys a website off of Fiverr, wants advanced GA4 analytics, and doesn't have $500.

ASC was created for the majority and covers thousands of dealers, all of whom don't have to pay anything additional for the benefit.

Unicorn or not, it's a situation I've seen firsthand where they wanted reporting (all be it before GA4) setup and couldn't afford to pay someone to set it up. I ended up doing it for them for a discount on a vehicle before I even worked in the automotive world.

If you reach out to Brian or the ASC committee they can get you access to the Google Sheet, the link probably just changed and wasn't updated in the pdf.

Will look into it, thanks.

 

[Mark A Hoffman]

I am in a group with multiple OEM website providers and have never had this issue. If there isn't someone looking at their analytics often, you have a much bigger problem than conversion tracking.

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 usually have the skills to diagnose or debug a JS issue. But sounds likes your group does, which is great!

But even with your example, if the vendor decides one day to start using the .phone CSS class instead of .phone_number, then your script breaks. That's just the fragile nature of scripts that are effectively tied to the DOM.

I'd still argue that it's rapidly becoming unnecessary, or even undesirable, to roll your own solutions for things that the larger community is now agreeing to bake into their products. Just makes reporting and analytics so much easier, and more powerful, when everyone is using the same standard.

Back before GA4, if you reached out to any vendor, they would have the team or manpower to get any conversion made that you could want. It would be a simple phone call or email asking for it.

Your experience is vastly better than mine has been. Not knocking the vendors, but their support staff are usually overworked & understaffed and even getting simple changes can sometimes take forever.

If you aren't able to get the docs you want for ASC, let me know and I can send them over to you.

 

[Ryan Everson]

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 usually have the skills to diagnose or debug a JS issue. But sounds likes your group does, which is great!

But even with your example, if the vendor decides one day to start using the .phone CSS class instead of .phone_number, then your script breaks. That's just the fragile nature of scripts that are effectively tied to the DOM.

I'd still argue that it's rapidly becoming unnecessary, or even undesirable, to roll your own solutions for things that the larger community is now agreeing to bake into their products. Just makes reporting and analytics so much easier, and more powerful, when everyone is using the same standard.



Your experience is vastly better than mine has been. Not knocking the vendors, but their support staff are usually overworked & understaffed and even getting simple changes can sometimes take forever.

If you aren't able to get the docs you want for ASC, let me know and I can send them over to you.

And even though some of us are more than capable of doing it on our own, there's no sense in recreating the wheel when the solution already exists and is free.

I have plenty on my plate already, so I'll gladly offload the setup (and more importantly, the ongoing maintenance) of GA4 ASC events over to our vendor partners

 

[KodyVoyles]

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 usually have the skills to diagnose or debug a JS issue. But sounds likes your group does, which is great!

But even with your example, if the vendor decides one day to start using the .phone CSS class instead of .phone_number, then your script breaks. That's just the fragile nature of scripts that are effectively tied to the DOM.

I'd still argue that it's rapidly becoming unnecessary, or even undesirable, to roll your own solutions for things that the larger community is now agreeing to bake into their products. Just makes reporting and analytics so much easier, and more powerful, when everyone is using the same standard.



Your experience is vastly better than mine has been. Not knocking the vendors, but their support staff are usually overworked & understaffed and even getting simple changes can sometimes take forever.

If you aren't able to get the docs you want for ASC, let me know and I can send them over to you.

Tried messaging Brian, no response yet.