The Definitive Guide to Facebook and Google Events for Your Dealership

23
April
2021

The Definitive Guide to Facebook and Google Events for Your Dealership

What Are Events?
The term events refers to the user interactions that do not involve loading another page on your website. An example of this type of event is the action Add to Cart. Other events include filling out one field in a form, rather than a total form completion that would usually lead to a “thank you” page loading. Additionally, if a customer were to fill out one or more fields without completing the form and submitting it, this would also be considered as an event. Basically, any regular activities users do such as watching a video, downloading a document, or clicking a link would be classified as an event.

Why Do Events Matter to My Dealership?
Events can help your dealership a lot because they show the intent of the visitors to your website and can tell you which ones are more likely to become a customer or a lead. Whether you’re wanting to utilize the service through Facebook Google, they’re both beneficial. If a visitor watched a video you posted about the features of a new car in your inventory, it shows they have an interest in your inventory. While with most e-commerce sites, you can see a high purchase intent if a customer puts an item into their cart but ends up not buying it, this is not as easy to tell on dealership websites unless you actually give visitors the option to put vehicles “in their cart.” A better way of telling the intent of your customers is if you have the option for them to set up a test drive or to get pre-approved for the vehicle. If they start the process of filling out either of these forms but end up abandoning them, it shows they have high interest but for whatever reason stopped themselves. When you start tracking these events, you will be able to optimize your paid campaigns by creating a more concentrated offer to these users. You can do this by taking all of the visitors who watched a particular video about a certain vehicle on your lot and set up a customized campaign for them that refers back to what was mentioned in the video. This is a far more effective campaign strategy than using a nonspecific awareness message.

How Do I Use That Data in My Paid Campaigns?
The two main intentions for tracking event data are working internally and externally. With the internal, you are able to evaluate how visitors are interacting with your site and using that to optimize the user experience. With external, you are focusing on exporting the data to your paid campaigns in order to more efficiently divide them. You can work on grouping audiences together in relation to their specific interests so you can provide them with more relevant messages. When looking at those customers who were in the process of scheduling a test drive and didn’t go through with it, those are the customers you want to target the most. You have the highest chance of converting them from leads into real customers so using that data to create a message customized towards them is your best bet.

How Do I Use This For Remarketing?
As you probably already know, cookies have been used a lot in remarketing by showing website users ads targeted towards them from websites they have previously visited. You can use these cookies to your advantage by creating ads that are specifically tailored to those customers who showed the highest interest in your dealership. The more customized and specific the ad is, the more of an impact it will make on the viewer, and the higher the likelihood would be that they come back to your website, or better yet, directly to your dealership. Having an ad that directly speaks to them with a tag line like “Still thinking about that 2020 Mazda? Schedule a test drive today” is much more impactful than just show a generic ad about your dealership.

Ready to set up events for your dealership? Head over to Facebook and Google to read their guides and follow the step by step instructions to set up your events! If you don’t want to do it yourself, we recommend heading to our contact page and give us a holler! Or give us a call at 515-232-2024