Google Store Visits Attribution Now Available in Google ANALYTICS!

[Alexander Lau]

Not quite Ed. Google recently admitted that even if users turn off Location Services, they can still get the data because they partner with a bunch of other apps that use Location Services whether people know it or not. The reality is that it's almost impossible to turn all Location Services off. So the percentage of people trackable by them is going to be in the high 90's. And while it's not a hard one to one sales attribution, it's the most powerful metric available to automotive marketers today. It totally blows every other metric out of the water. And, you can actually track back a high percentage of sales directly if you know what you're doing. In fact, part of your company has done it and the results are amazing, but I'm guessing they don't want to advertise the fact because it more than likely violates Google's Terms of Service. I've included a slide from their presentation below.

And judging from the 3,000 people who have viewed my post on LinkedIn in less than 2 days, and the numbers of people at OEMs and automotive vendors that have viewed it, they are taking it very seriously. As well they should, because it makes them look bad and exposes a lot of them for providing lousy and overpriced services.

Quite simply, Store Visits, and even harder attribution metrics to come, are going to change the game. No more BS about meaningless metrics like exposure, impressions, engagements, etc. Dealers have struggled with that BS for long enough. Now they can demand that you show them what you do drives visits and sales.

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Fantastic post and image. Additionally, @Dan Sayer, you're looking at some of those KPIs in that image. Of course, it's going to be Cost Per Something, in this instance an attempt to calculate Cost Per Visit. I mentioned, in another thread the ability to break down specific auto channels through Custom Channel Grouping is going to be vital. In theory, auto dealers should be able to break down Cost Per Visits against automotive channels with granularity, not default channels.

 

[C Dorman]

Ryan, how would you envision using the data to make decisions regarding your marketing efforts/vendor relationships? Have you come up with any KPIs using the store visit data you have so far?

How about this for a KPI, Cost Per Up? You're going to have to include Service as part of your calculations, because like it or not the majority of responses and visits to a dealership are for Service, but that's ok, dealerships make half their profits there anyways.

 

[C Dorman]

Fantastic post and image. Additionally, @Dan Sayer, you're looking at some of those KPIs in that image. Of course, it's going to be Cost Per Something, in this instance an attempt to calculate Cost Per Visit. I mentioned, in another thread the ability to break down specific auto channels through Custom Channel Grouping is going to be vital. In theory, auto dealers should be able to break down Cost Per Visits against automotive channels with granularity, not default channels.

I'll suggest that dealers change the definitions of their Default Channels because Google Analytics uses them for their reports. It's possible to switch to Custom Channels, but you have to remember to and it's just easier for a lot of people if you customize the defaults.

 

[ed.brooks]

According to Google, they are counting an ad conversion where 50% of the ad is onscreen for at least 1 second in the 30 days before the store visit. 50% of the ad is onscreen for at least 1 second...
Some Magic Bullet -- Sounds more like Magic Bullshit

 

[C Dorman]

According to Google, they are counting an ad conversion where 50% of the ad is onscreen for at least 1 second in the 30 days before the store visit. 50% of the ad is onscreen for at least 1 second...
Some Magic Bullet -- Sounds more like Magic Bullshit

Once again Ed, you're wrong. I don't know where you get your information, but it sounds like you're confusing GoogleAds with Google Analytics. This report is based off of traffic to your website in Google Analytics. For somebody to be counted, they had to visit your site. This is what allows them to show the Store Visits for all sources/mediums/channels. It is not based off of impressions or clicks. The only conversion is a Store Visit. Is it going to be 100% accurate? No, but it's going to beat the living crap out of anything else available. Please, do your homework before you post. There's already enough bullshit out there from vendors that dealers to wade through and I'm sure you don't want to be adding more to it.

 

[ed.brooks]

All I know is that the info I've seen defines a Store Visit as "someone who physically walked into a dealership after clicking on a paid search ad or being shown a viewable impression* of a display ad within the past 30 days."

Now they are adding "every single website traffic source / medium (organic, bing, facebook, etc)" into the Store Visits metric.

Far from adding clarity, this just adds more folks who can conceivably claim some credit. Think about it, if a customer saw 50% of an ad that was onscreen for at least 1 second in the 30 days before the store visit, that source can claim some credit.

*viewable impression is defined as 50% of the ad is onscreen for at least 1 second

 

[ed.brooks]

...or do you just want to look at the 'last click' into a dealer's website, leading to a Store Visit. I can argue the last click quite often comes from a search for the dealer's name. They may have visited the website before or they may have been exposed to the dealership through other sites. But Google will claim credit for the visit based on the 'last click'.
And I can argue that a consumer never has to visit a dealer's website to buy a car.

 

[csabatka1]

This is good, but extremely dangerous data, especially the attribution of a store visit to SEO and SEM channels. I see those vendors miss representing this data and stores misusing this store visit data with dealer brand campaigns or searches.

Random thoughts on data's reliability.
1. Mobile traffic is around 55% of a site's traffic. We will only seeing store visits for just over half of a site's traffic. Multi-device customers really screw this up as usual with GA.
2. Service, parts, bodyshop, car wash, etc customers getting counted. Most dealerships will try and use this store visit data for sales attribution.
3. Service customers will get counted twice - drop off and pickup.
4. Be-backs are duplicate store visits
5. Husband/wife who are both on site getting counted twice
6. What is the reset time of a store visit? If it's short enough, test drives can be multiple visits

About the only thing these store visits can be used for:
1. Proper UTM parameters on advertising (AdWords by Campaign/AdGroup, Email Campaigns, Facebook Ads)
2. Referral traffic from 3rd party listing sites

 

[C Dorman]

All I know is that the info I've seen defines a Store Visit as "someone who physically walked into a dealership after clicking on a paid search ad or being shown a viewable impression* of a display ad within the past 30 days."

Now they are adding "every single website traffic source / medium (organic, bing, facebook, etc)" into the Store Visits metric.

Far from adding clarity, this just adds more folks who can conceivably claim some credit. Think about it, if a customer saw 50% of an ad that was onscreen for at least 1 second in the 30 days before the store visit, that source can claim some credit.

*viewable impression is defined as 50% of the ad is onscreen for at least 1 second

See Ed, there's your problem. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't understand that this is a NEW report that is different from anything that you think you know about. If you knew what you were talking about, then you'd understand this is completely different from what you're familiar with. Far from confusing people, it will provide clarity as to what really drives people into a dealership and what doesn't.

I understand keeping up with changes in digital marketing can be hard, but honestly you should either keep up and know what you're posting about or learn from those that do.

 

[ed.brooks]

See Ed, there's your problem. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't understand that this is a NEW report that is different from anything that you think you know about. If you knew what you were talking about, then you'd understand this is completely different from what you're familiar with. Far from confusing people, it will provide clarity as to what really drives people into a dealership and what doesn't.

I understand keeping up with changes in digital marketing can be hard, but honestly you should either keep up and know what you're posting about or learn from those that do.

They aren't adding "every single website traffic source / medium (organic, bing, facebook, etc)" into the Store Visits metric. as @reverson said in the original post?

I think, down the road, this could give some valuable insights. But, just as Google Attribution isn't really helping any dealers today, this is just a way for a vendor (Google -- they are the biggest vendor) to justify their value. In three years, maybe it will give some usable insight -- if it is improved on dramatically.