People often run away when they hear the term, “digital analytics.” At Convertus, we run full-speed ahead when we hear "digital analytics", diving deep into the nitty-gritty details so we can gain deeper insight into our strategies and online car shopping behaviour. With that, we want to share our love for digital analytics with our dealer clients, too! For both digital marketers and dealerships, analytics are an essential component of any digital strategy. They allow us to measure … [Read more...]

New year, new you, and new ways of searching for your dealership online. There are predictions that voice search queries will account for between 30 and 50%  of all searches by 2020, so it’s safe to say that Google will be expanding their speakable schema’s (structured data vocabulary that helps search engines better understand what you’re looking for on the internet) features to be useful for dealerships. We’re monitoring this schema to see when it’ll be ready for us to use to help you stay at … [Read more...]

Imagine you’re walking down the street and see people lining up outside a local business you hadn't noticed before. Would you look it up online? Would you go in to see what the fuss is all about? Probably. Because humans are curious beings, we tend to follow the herd.  Line-ups are an example of social proof and as social creatures, we’re suckers for it. The term social proof describes the idea that humans look to other individuals when decision-making and model their behaviour. Simply … [Read more...]

Do you judge a local business based on the number of stars next to its name in the search results? Most of us do, whether we recognize it or not. When searching for a dealership or a specific vehicle online, the majority of car shoppers rely on star ratings and customer reviews during their evaluation process. In fact, according to Bright Local’s 2018 Local Consumer Review Survey… “86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses (including 95% of people aged 18-34)” Online reviews have … [Read more...]

The way in which car shoppers gather dealership information online is evolving — and so are our solutions. Our Organic Search Solution is continuing to grow alongside emerging trends in online car shopping to better serve car shoppers and to benefit our dealer clients. Crowdsourced questions and user-generated content (think online reviews and forums) have become prominent factors in consumer decision-making. That’s why Google’s Questions & Answers feature is a critical channel for your … [Read more...]

Get smart(phone)! Mobile is quickly becoming the most prominent way of browsing the web. In fact, so far in 2018, 48% of views on Convertus-built sites came from a mobile device. That's a 4% increase since last year! As part of our Mobile-First Optimization project, our team is currently taking a deep look into how customers use Convertus-created sites on mobile devices. How? We’ve done an extensive study of user behaviour patterns on key website pages. Without getting into too much technical … [Read more...]

If you haven't already heard the good news, Convertus' brand new, in-house vehicle management system is out of its beta stage and ready to go! This remarkable platform was built through years of working directly with you fine folks so that we could offer an effective, streamlined inventory experience that isn't covered in red tape. Here's a list of fabulous features that we know you're going to love: More ways to make tweaks to large sections of your inventory at once Mobile-friendly … [Read more...]

How a dealer thinks a car buyer chooses a dealership versus how the buyer actually chooses a dealership doesn’t always align. At the 2018 Western Canadian Dealer Summit, Google Think Auto showed us how dealer perceptions and buyer decision-drivers often differ. What influences a buyer's decision the most? For buyers, price and availability are two of the most prominent factors during the decision-making process. A buyer’s trust in a dealership is another important factor, although … [Read more...]

What does your dealership constitute as a quality lead? Is it a phone call? An online form lead? A test drive? At the 2018 Western Canadian Dealer Summit, Google Think Auto shared some valuable insight into how most Canadian dealers measure leads. We, as well as Google, were slightly stunned by the responses. The majority of Canadian dealerships consider website traffic and sales to be the most commonly measured leads, while text messages and test drives are surprisingly low. These … [Read more...]

Did you know that most Canadian car buyers don’t give advance notice before visiting a dealership? That is, instead of filling out a form or making a phone call, they simply arrive in your showroom. We caught Google Think Auto’s presentation at the 2018 Western Canadian Dealer Summit in Las Vegas last week and discovered some pretty eye-opening statistics. How Do Buyers Contact Dealerships? Over half of Canadian car buyers just walk into a dealership with no prior contact while only about 35% … [Read more...]