For as long as businesses have been on the internet, they’ve been counting—and touting—their website traffic numbers. In the early days of e-commerce, more visits quickly became a proxy metric for more success.
As time went on, companies began to realize that more site visits did not necessarily translate to more sales. The reason is simple: not all digital traffic is quality digital traffic. When developing a digital marketing strategy, your dealership can learn from the mistakes of these early marketers by focusing on the right metrics and by trading in high numbers for healthy results.
How to Differentiate Traffic Quality
If you were forced to choose between low and high traffic volumes, it would be wise to choose the latter. And your dealership should aim to increase total traffic. But how can you tell whether the people visiting your site are in-market shoppers or simply passing the time?
Tracking a few additional, slightly more advanced metrics can help you determine what portion of your traffic adds value to your dealership. Website visitors tend to show true interest and even purchase intent by what they do after they’ve arrived on your site. Casual browsers bounce quickly while potential buyers take their time exploring your site.
To evaluate which kind of traffic you’re attracting, simply review average time on site and pages per visit. If most people are spending fewer than 30 seconds on your site and barely visiting more than a single page, you’re probably attracting the wrong kind of traffic.
Align Your Campaigns and Intended Audience
If your traffic is high but quality is low, your campaign creative, messaging, or targeting may not be resonating with your intended audience. To confirm that suspicion, check the click-through-rate on your campaigns and compare them to past campaigns and industry benchmarks. If you see low-quality traffic and a low click-through rate, it’s probably time to take a closer look at your campaigns.
One solution: start speaking to the audience you wish to attract. Work to develop consistent, cohesive campaign creative designed to engage your ideal customers and drive quality traffic to the website. While this might feel overwhelming for many dealers, partnering with professional graphic designers and campaign coordinators makes it easier to develop and deliver strategic, compelling campaigns. When selecting creative and strategic partners, be sure to screen for automotive knowledge and experience, which will help keep creative efforts aligned with your dealership’s strategy.
Evaluate, Iterate, and Engage
Great digital advertising isn’t about one campaign or one piece of creative – it’s an ongoing, iterative process. Follow up and review every campaign and piece of creative to ensure that they’re connecting with quality prospects. Remember, a successful digital strategy will drive more than just large traffic numbers. When you’re doing it right, you’ll see increases in engagement as demonstrated by more time on site, more pages per visit, more VDP views, and of course, more leads.
To learn more ways your dealership can adapt in a new age of automotive sales, check out our free eBook: 4 Questions to Improve Your Dealership’s Digital Marketing.
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