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Let's do this by the numbers. 6 month sample size from most active store for sake of discussion (not for sake of conclusions).

Landing Page - Bounce - Time on Site - Pages Per Session
--------------------------------------------------------------------
VLP - 34.81% - 03:24 - 4.47
UVDP - 68.52% - 02:21 - 2.49
NVDP - 64.35% - 03:15 - 2.79
Home - 28.36% - 03:46 - 5.26
Other - 56.55 - 02:26 - 3.14

Based on this "logic" I would be pushing traffic to my VLP or my Homepage more often than VDP.
The more I dig into it, the more I think that VDP targeting has a higher chance of failure, whereas home and VLP are a softer landing with a lower chance of being wrong. At the same time, these stats won't show me if I'm bang on - if I get them to exactly the vehicle they want, maybe they just call the dealership and "bounce" off the page.

I'll keep digging here. I'm curious now...

Screen Shot 2016-07-14 at 4.39.31 PM.png



Screen Shot 2016-07-14 at 4.40.29 PM.png
 
I like where your head is! We will see where this goes, but for the sake of the discussion, let's assume the ads in question are lower funnel, retail oriented. We might want to filter out ads with an expected higher conversion/engagement rate (i.e. dealer's name) and landing on the home page.
 
Here's an idea. Dynamically build out Landing pages for all new and used vehicles in inventory. You would only need one or two pages. <Example> Your a Nissan dealer and you have a couple used Honda civic's in stock. We can build the SEM ad dynamically based on an inventory feed( mileage, color, starting price, etc...). Customer clicks the ad and instead of the click leading to a SRP or VDP, take them to a dynamic landing page. As the page renders, it pings edmunds api and pulls pic's, reviews, options, market data and other items pertaining to that specific Year, make and model or Make, model in general. Load a video talking about the Used Car inspection process at the dealership, dynamically Load a Payment caculator widget powered by the website provider and load an inventory widget for those specific used Honda civic's. Populate a tradein widget like KBB or Blackbook. Customer can click on a vehicle in the inventory widget and go straight to the VDP for that specific vehicle.</Example>

You can ping the API and return back almost any data for any type of vehicle in your inventory. The customer experience goes through the roof because now they have all the research data and Instock inventory to make a decision on and they didn't have to search an entire website just find the info they were looking for and you as the dealer provided the customer a little more data about the vehicle that they are interested about even though your not a Honda dealer.


Thoughts????
 
Let's do this by the numbers. 6 month sample size from most active store for sake of discussion (not for sake of conclusions).

Landing Page - Bounce - Time on Site - Pages Per Session
--------------------------------------------------------------------
VLP - 34.81% - 03:24 - 4.47
UVDP - 68.52% - 02:21 - 2.49
NVDP - 64.35% - 03:15 - 2.79
Home - 28.36% - 03:46 - 5.26
Other - 56.55 - 02:26 - 3.14

Based on this "logic" I would be pushing traffic to my VLP or my Homepage more often than VDP.
The more I dig into it, the more I think that VDP targeting has a higher chance of failure, whereas home and VLP are a softer landing with a lower chance of being wrong. At the same time, these stats won't show me if I'm bang on - if I get them to exactly the vehicle they want, maybe they just call the dealership and "bounce" off the page.

I'll keep digging here. I'm curious now...

View attachment 2980



View attachment 2979
Greg Gifford has looked at this in depth as well, here- "You May Actually WANT a High Bounce Rate!"
Great talk!
 
I believe that the VDP can be a great landing page, and it can be a poor landing page. It depends upon the VDP and how it is structured.

The way that my website is structured, the customer journey needs to start at the homepage. This is where our dealership message is. This is where we tell shoppers what is different about us, the commitment that we have to our customers, and what they can expect when they include our store as part of their shopping journey. My VDP does not share this information.

Direct clicks to the VDP will often result in a bounce, because the customer got to look at the exact vehicle they were looking for. This will really skew the Time on Site and Session Duration analytic. They both get logged as zero in Google Analytics. A customer may stare at all of the pictures, read the comments, look at the features, have their wife come into the kitchen to look over their shoulder, and who knows what else...only to click the back arrow and return to where they came from. This may be a good visit but not reflect as such in GA. This is one reason that I use Clicky as well as Google Analytics.

If your VDP includes "similar vehicles", the VDP can be even stronger as a Landing Page.

For me, I don't believe the VDP is a good landing page. It could be, but the way we have it structured now...no.
 
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Well said @Tallcool1 my thoughts exactly and it reminded me that I found this the other day and have been meaning to share it.

perfectly-optimized-local-landing-page.png
 
Here's an idea. Dynamically build out Landing pages for all new and used vehicles in inventory. You would only need one or two pages. <Example> Your a Nissan dealer and you have a couple used Honda civic's in stock. We can build the SEM ad dynamically based on an inventory feed( mileage, color, starting price, etc...). Customer clicks the ad and instead of the click leading to a SRP or VDP, take them to a dynamic landing page. As the page renders, it pings edmunds api and pulls pic's, reviews, options, market data and other items pertaining to that specific Year, make and model or Make, model in general. Load a video talking about the Used Car inspection process at the dealership, dynamically Load a Payment caculator widget powered by the website provider and load an inventory widget for those specific used Honda civic's. Populate a tradein widget like KBB or Blackbook. Customer can click on a vehicle in the inventory widget and go straight to the VDP for that specific vehicle.</Example>

You can ping the API and return back almost any data for any type of vehicle in your inventory. The customer experience goes through the roof because now they have all the research data and Instock inventory to make a decision on and they didn't have to search an entire website just find the info they were looking for and you as the dealer provided the customer a little more data about the vehicle that they are interested about even though your not a Honda dealer.


Thoughts????

Really smart! You are selling more service than unique product. Also allows you to create more sales event merchandising opportunities!
 
I believe that the VDP can be a great landing page, and it can be a poor landing page. It depends upon the VDP and how it is structured.

The way that my website is structured, the customer journey needs to start at the homepage. This is where our dealership message is. This is where we tell shoppers what is different about us, the commitment that we have to our customers, and what they can expect when they include our store as part of their shopping journey. My VDP does not share this information.

Direct clicks to the VDP will often result in a bounce, because the customer got to look at the exact vehicle they were looking for. This will really skew the Time on Site and Session Duration analytic. They both get logged as zero in Google Analytics. A customer may stare at all of the pictures, read the comments, look at the features, have their wife come into the kitchen to look over their shoulder, and who knows what else...only to click the back arrow and return to where they came from. This may be a good visit but not reflect as such in GA. This is one reason that I use Clicky as well as Google Analytics.

If your VDP includes "similar vehicles", the VDP can be even stronger as a Landing Page.

For me, I don't believe the VDP is a good landing page. It could be, but the way we have it structured now...no.

Does that mean that your VDP should include more "Why Me" info or that it's just a bad landing page?