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Local Market Data

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Michael Blake Powell

Michael Blake Powell

Full Sticker
Feb 14, 2012
19
8
First Name
Blake
#1
I'm putting together a session for an upcoming conference and I was hoping to get some very basic data from those willing to give it. The idea behind the presentation is that there is significant local data that can influence what type of vendors would be a good fit for your dealership. First off, I'm wanting to find out what % of your web traffic is direct. So if you would, please answer the following questions:

1. What new product lines do you carry under your roof?
2. What is est population of your city or metro area?
3. What % of your web traffic is direct?

Thanks in advance!

Blake Powell
Chevyland

I'll kick it off.

1. Chevrolet
2. 450k
3. 45%
 
#2
Michael Blake Powell said:
...is that there is significant local data that can influence what type of vendors would be a good fit for your dealership. First off, I'm wanting to find out what % of your web traffic is direct.
Click to expand...


Mike,

You see something in :"local data that can influence what type of vendors would be a good fit". Not sure what you mean here and how direct traffic is a significant signal in this idea of yours.
 
#3
I was pretty interested in this thread simply because direct traffic in Google Analytics isn't necessarily direct traffic. It refers to any visit that failed to pass a referral string. This could be heavily influenced if you:

1. Forget to filter out your own I.P.
2. Do lots of email marketing without UTMs
3. Lots of direct mail without UTMS
4. Use display on sites that don't pass referral strings
5. Bots

If you wanted to send me a direct message about what you are trying to deduce I could talk to my clients.
 
#4
JoePistell said:
Mike,

You see something in :"local data that can influence what type of vendorswould be a good fit". Not sure what you mean here and how direct trafficis a significant signal in this idea of yours.
Click to expand...

This one piece of data is not significant. Its only one piece of the puzzle.Several months ago we dropped ppc campaigns. I can detect no negative effectsas a result. Website traffic has increased. Organic referrals haveincreased. I think we are one of the few dealerships that can get awaywith something like this. You have to look at the local data to see thereasons. Smaller market of 450,000 metro. Closest major metro is Dallas 3hrs away. Only one major same make competitor. Very recognizable name.Chevyland. I mean can you get any better?! I think ppc steals away ALOT ofwhat I would have gotten organically. Can you see this in google analytics? That's what I'm trying to find out.

But yet how many different companies factor any of this into their presentationto me for their product? Very, very few. They either use nationwide studies oruse whichever market makes their solution look best. I'm not trying to vendor bash here, I love my partners I do business with and refer lots of business to them. Not all markets are the same. I think we can all agree on that. When a vendor comes in and really looks at my local market, they earn my respect. But it is up to people like me to really know my market so I can be responsible with how I direct my dealer to spend his money.

Keep in mind there are two things that I'm not trying to do.

1. There is no local market data to determine which vendor is better than the other. I guess there might be, but I'm not looking for it.

2. Every dealer needs a good website and a good crm. Its after that point that products become kinda ancillary.

Does that make sense? Any ideas?


 
#5
Michael Blake Powell said:


This one piece of data is not significant. Its only one piece of the puzzle.Several months ago we dropped ppc campaigns. I can detect no negative effectsas a result. Website traffic has increased. Organic referrals haveincreased. I think we are one of the few dealerships that can get awaywith something like this. You have to look at the local data to see thereasons. Smaller market of 450,000 metro. Closest major metro is Dallas 3hrs away. Only one major same make competitor. Very recognizable name.Chevyland. I mean can you get any better?! I think ppc steals away ALOT ofwhat I would have gotten organically. Can you see this in google analytics? That's what I'm trying to find out.

But yet how many different companies factor any of this into their presentationto me for their product? Very, very few. They either use nationwide studies oruse whichever market makes their solution look best. I'm not trying to vendor bash here, I love my partners I do business with and refer lots of business to them. Not all markets are the same. I think we can all agree on that. When a vendor comes in and really looks at my local market, they earn my respect. But it is up to people like me to really know my market so I can be responsible with how I direct my dealer to spend his money.

Keep in mind there are two things that I'm not trying to do.

1. There is no local market data to determine which vendor is better than the other. I guess there might be, but I'm not looking for it.

2. Every dealer needs a good website and a good crm. Its after that point that products become kinda ancillary.

Does that make sense? Any ideas?
Click to expand...

A certain amount of paid search allows you to influence the message above the fold. With no ppc, "pump in" competitors can steal more customers. This is especially true on mobile search results. Not sure if you have cancelled yet, but when I searched 'Chevrolet in Shreveport' on my iphone, Mansfield and Red River were above the fold with ads and map results. A lazy person not scrolling down might not see your organic result below. Frustrating, but it's a Google world.
 
#6
Michael Blake Powell said:


Several months ago we dropped ppc campaigns. I can detect no negative effects as a result. Website traffic has increased. Organic referrals have increased. I think we are one of the few dealerships that can get away with something like this. You have to look at the local data to see the reasons. Smaller market of 450,000 metro. Closest major metro is Dallas 3hrs away. Only one major same make competitor. Very recognizable name.Chevyland. I mean can you get any better?! I think ppc steals away A lot of what I would have gotten organically. Can you see this in google analytics? That's what I'm trying to find out.

Click to expand...

Google Analytics would be a bad source for this. I'd look at your queries in your Google Webmaster tools. % of queries that clicked organic while PPC was running, and % that clicked when PPC was off. Webmaster only goes back 3 months, so you might have missed the boat on that. The reason why I would choose Webmaster Tools is because you would be comparing the rate at which people click through, and not clicks, which are dependent on so many other variables - weather, marketing, time of year.

A good test would be done with keywords with a high volume that you rank in the top 3 for. Since you aren't currently doing any PPC you could get your base line stats right now. Make sure to download your webmaster tools data each month so you don't lose it forever. Once you have a month or three of data you could turn your PPC back on for those particular terms. The budget probably won't be very high since it will be so controlled. You would then measure the impact on click through rates on your organic, as well as how much it cost to increase the click through on those terms overall.

Specifically, let's say you had a 30% click through rate organically for "used cars Dallas," which in pretend land gets 1000 searches a month. So your website visits are 300. Now, you turned on PPC, because you heard it was so great, and now your organic click through rate dropped to 28%. This brings your organic down to 280. However, your PPC ads did really well, and garnered an additional 7%, or 70 clicks. Your total just went up to 350.

Moving into the real world, if your website converts to a sale at 2%, including online, phone and walk-in, not doing PPC got you 6 cars. Doing PPC could have possibly gotten you 7. Was that additional $300 worth another car sale? Depends on your dealership, but there are quite a few that would take it.

Now these numbers are made up, obviously, and you are unlikely to get 7% click through on your PPC, but that's how I'd analyze it. How much traffic do you really gain from PPC when you dominate the search results all ready, and is it worth it?

Edited: I wanted to mention that I'm pro PPC when done correctly. There is a lot of data you can get from it that can help benefit your SEO.
 
#7
Michael,

I've made a truck load of half baked decisions, most of my mistakes are behind me now ;-). Some thoughts I'd like to pass on to you:

1st question: How Are you paid? Sales commission or cost savings or salary? I don't expect you to tell us, but I ask this because it influences how you look at the world. I was paid by commission from sales of the entire org, so it was my job to help the owner manage the multi-million dollar marketing spend and push the owner into advertising that brought the biggest commission check I could make. My pay plan aligned with the owners ;-)

Your write:
Michael Blake Powell said:
...Several months ago we dropped ppc campaigns. I can detect no negative effects as a result.
Click to expand...


IMO, this is a serious warning sign. I'd like to know "Why nothing happened when I shut off traffic to my site?" You have to do detective work. Is PPC a waste of money, or, was the PPC campaign a P.O.S.? Are my website pages at fault? Are my measurements looking for success measuring the wrong things? If it were me, I'd be comparing engagement metrics of long tail SEO vs long tail PPC.

You write:
Michael Blake Powell said:
...Website traffic has increased. Organic referrals have increased.
Click to expand...

You've connected Increasing traffic & referrals to dropping PPC ads. I'd bet is related to seasonality or Chevy's marketing, or a competitor's marketing and/or ChevyLand's marketing.


You write:
Michael Blake Powell said:
I think ppc steals away ALOT of what I would have gotten organically. Can you see this in google analytics? That's what I'm trying to find out.
Click to expand...

I'm puzzled. Did you mean to say:

"I think the money spent on ppc I would have gotten organically. Can you see this in google analytics?" That's what I'm trying to find out.

Yes, you can see that in GA. Look back and find your top20 PPC long tail phrases and see how much duplicate organic SEO traffic you had. Now fast forward into today and see what the impact looks like (note: include your SEO gaps where PPC traffic had zero SEO traffic).

Lastly, I'd take that same list and see how "productive" that traffic was relative to your website. How likely was this long tail PPC shopper to look at more than one car? How likely was he to return (at NO charge ;-).

HTH
Joe
 
#8
#9
#10
Uncle Dave said:
A certain amount of paid search allows you to influence the message above the fold. With no ppc, "pump in" competitors can steal more customers. This is especially true on mobile search results. Not sure if you have cancelled yet, but when I searched 'Chevrolet in Shreveport' on my iphone, Mansfield and Red River were above the fold with ads and map results. A lazy person not scrolling down might not see your organic result below. Frustrating, but it's a Google world.
Click to expand...

In the last 6 months we have seen a huge improvement in market share over our once crosstown rivals. We have a 320 unit CYTD lead over one (our largest rival) and 670 unit CYTD lead over the other. If the lay people are going to the other stores then they can keep them cause we're kicking their ass.
 
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