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For the past 2 days I have been in debate on dealerrefresh about online marketing numbers and conversion. It appears that my comments on what a website should convert at have caused a stir in the dealer community, enough so that I was called out on it and asked to back off. It also appears a label I have placed on a main website is causing some people heartburn.

This post will hopefully clear up a few things:

1. Why I believe that the benchmark for conversion in online marketing should be 30% minimum.
2. What the definition of a “Random Access Website” is and why they are the way they are.
3. Why I believe that you should NEVER…EVER send paid traffic back to your main website deep-link or otherwise.

So let’s jump right into conversion percentages and benchmarks.

First let me start out by defining conversion – A conversion is any form submission, phone call (tracked from your online properties), email or chat session where good re-contact information was captured that would allow the dealership to follow up on the customer. I have yet to have anyone dispute this as a proper definition. If anyone has something that I am missing please feel free to share with the rest of the class. Make no mistake each of these actions can be tracked with absolute accuracy, do not let anyone tell you otherwise.

So how did I come to this 30% benchmark? Ok it starts with my own store were we track everything. We found that we could use the visitors query string data to determine intent and direct visitors to the part of our website that closest matched that intent and when we did so our conversion rate rose 377% to as of this morning 26%. We also found that by tracking and changing certain things about our eBay motors ads we got a higher conversion rate to as of this morning 17%. We also found that using Facebook marketing in ways that were geared to customer interests not so much to customer in market probability we got higher click through and as of this morning a 47% conversion rate, ironically add all of that up and average it and as I write this post we are an average of exactly 30% (there are some decimals there but I am rounding up) and we are a small independent used car operation with none of the brand help dealers have today.

Which brings me to phase 2 of my justification for a 30% benchmark.  I have personally analyzed hundreds of dealership websites over the last 9 months and come to the same conclusion I hear from a lot of dealers and internet personnel I talk to in the store. Branded terms (your dealerships name) drives over 60% of the traffic that comes to my website. I have met very few that will argue this stat, the ones that do say it is too low. Ok so now let’s do some math:

Average dealership website gets 3000 unique visitors per month. 60% came from the stores branded terms (dealership name) that is 1800 visitors whose specific intent was to find your dealerships website.

1800 x 30% = 468 is it too much to ask that out of 1800 visitors 468 engage the store in some way? Let me ask it another way.

If your dealership got 1800 visitors last month and your sales staff could only get 468 of the people who came in entered into your CRM system would any of them be still employed at the dealership?

Any way you slice this up it doesn’t make sense to say 30% is unrealistic. I don’t care who you are.

The definition of “Random Access Website”, apparently this adjective has offended a couple of people in the auto community as this is the second post I have been called out on this term, in this last post the offended person even when so far as to Google the term.

A main website has random people that wonder into it from organic links (one of the problems with web marketing and SEO by the way, but that is another post) you have no idea how or why they are there and when they get there they can wonder randomly throughout your site, hence the term “Random Access” a site that is randomly accessed from anywhere by anyone and anyone can randomly go anywhere in it and yes this is basically all main websites. A main website is basically the Encyclopedia Britannica of your online presence you have everything including the kitchen sink in it. From inventory to job postings to press releases to Facebook and twitter links, is it any wonder that visitors become distracted, lost and just basically give up when it come to this maze of information?  I discussed this in depth in my post “Get outside your random access website” from Feb this year go there for more on the pitfalls of conversion in a main website.

Finally the above is a great lead into why you should NEVER…EVER send paid traffic back to your random access main website…EVER! You should understand by now that your main website is so full of distraction that anyone coming there with a specific purpose will have to work hard to complete that purpose. People specifically looking for your dealership will work harder to get the information they want than others, not by much but harder none the less. I think we can all agree on that and that is why you see higher conversion form branded terms (your dealerships name). When you pay for a click you have to get something out of it sending that to a place where you know they are not interested in all the distractions around them, that doesn’t match with what they were searching for in the first place and make this work to find it, is a recipe for conversion disaster.  

Aside from the distraction factor of a deep-link here are some other reasons to use off site pages and microsites.

1. Tracking and accountability – it is much…much easier  to track and hold marketing channels, ad groups and keywords accountable for results when you have separate landing experiences.
2. Split testing – you cannot get to high conversion rates without testing and it is impossible to test in a dealership random access website today even a deep-link.
3. Matching the message tightly with the ad and the landing. If you think you are doing this with a dynamic deeplink landing page that changes the picture and the header your sorely mistaken you will have to get much more relevant than that.
4.  Getting searched right out of an opportunity – time and time again I see deep-links go to inventory then the customer searches to find out you have 1 or 2 that’s not choice and you missed the opportunity before you ever got a chance to win the customer.
5. With each off site page or Microsite you create another back-link for you main random access website helping its SEO value.

PPC is and will continue to get more competitive, it is imperative that you create a culture of continuous improvement in conversion for any traffic you are paying for and lets be real you’re paying for all of it. Branded terms (your dealership name) comes from your traditional media advertising, organic links comes from SEO (that aint free! All dealerships are paying for this in some way or another), listing sites are costing you subscription & listing fees and obviously you are paying for every click in PPC. You need to track all of these and hold them accountable for conversion because conversion is indicative of what walks in the door…period. Off site landing pages and microsites help you track all of this very accurately and helps get more of what you are paying for.

I hope this clears it up for those who were unclear. For those that think I should “back off” sorry that just wouldn’t be me, can’t do it and for anyone this somewhat helps I’m glad. If I can clarify anything here or you need help contact me I will do all I can.

Cell – 281.455.3811

Email – lburce@micrositesbyu.com