How Can UTM Tracking Help Car Dealers Measure Their Marketing?

Car dealers and garages can spend a lot of time and money advertising their vehicles and services across Google, social media, emails and other online platforms, but how do you know which of these marketing channels are actually generating results?

Website traffic can show you how many people are visiting your website, but this alone does not tell you which marketing activity encouraged them to visit or whether they went on to make an enquiry.

UTM tracking can help provide this additional information, giving dealers a better understanding of which marketing campaigns are driving website traffic, enquiries and sales.

What Is UTM Tracking?

A UTM is a set of tracking information added to the end of a website link, allowing analytics and reporting tools to identify where a website visitor has come from.

Adding a UTM does not change the webpage your customer sees. They will still be directed to the same vehicle, service or landing page, but additional information about where they came from can be recorded in the background.

There are five UTM parameters that can be used:

• Source identifies where the visitor came from, such as Google or Auto Trader.
• Medium identifies the type of traffic, such as CPC or referral.
• Campaign identifies the individual marketing campaign.
• Term can identify a particular keyword or targeting.
• Content can be used to differentiate between different adverts, images or links.

Source, medium and campaign should be used as a minimum, while term and content can provide additional information when required.

Why Should Car Dealers Use UTM Tracking?

Without UTM tracking, you may be able to see that your website received a certain number of visits, but understanding exactly what generated those visits can be more difficult.

Using tagged links across your marketing campaigns can give you a clearer picture of how different channels are performing.

Instead of simply asking which campaign generated the most website traffic, you can begin looking at which source generated the most enquiries, which campaigns contributed to agreed sales and which activity generated traffic without resulting in many enquiries.

This can help your dealership make better informed decisions about future marketing activity and where your marketing budget is being spent.

Using UTM Tracking With Dragon2000

Dealers with a Dragon2000 hosted website can have UTM tracking enabled, allowing captured UTM information to be connected with online enquiries.

When a customer arrives on your website through a tagged link and goes on to submit an enquiry, the relevant UTM information can be captured and included within Dragon2000 reporting.

Dealers can use reports as an opportunity to look beyond website clicks and traffic and see which marketing activity is contributing towards actual enquiries and sales.

Getting Started With UTM Tracking

Consistency is important when setting up UTM tracking. Using different names for the same source or campaign can separate your results and make your reports more difficult to analyse.

Using lower case, sticking to the same naming format and keeping a record of your campaigns can help make your data easier to understand.

It is also important to remember that some advertising platforms already provide their own tracking. Google Ads, for example, normally uses auto tagging, so you should speak to the person or agency managing your advertising before making changes to your existing setup.

Find Out More About UTM Tracking

UTM tracking can give car dealers and garages more useful information about where their website traffic and enquiries are coming from, helping them understand which marketing activity is delivering results.

If you have a Dragon2000 hosted website and would like UTM tracking enabled, contact our team on 01327 222 333 or email sales@dragon2000.co.uk for more information.

Dragon2000 have been helping vehicle dealers and garages drive their businesses forward since 1995. As an established dealership software and car dealer website provider, we help customers increase profits and reduce costs through our dealer management system, dealer websites and mobile apps. Contact our sales team today to find out more.