When it comes to digital auto repair shop marketing, even the best-laid plans have the potential to go off the rails. But how would you even know if you’re not carefully watching? Sadly, you’d only get clued in far down the road as customers fail to come your way.
Fortunately, there’s another piece of the puzzle that can help: digital marketing tracking. By tracking the performance of all your marketing efforts, you can easily gauge your success from the start.
With that move, you’ll never again have to hope for the best while bracing for the worst. You’ll know what works—and what doesn’t—allowing you to adjust your marketing program to get fantastic results.
Want to see how digital marketing tracking works? Here’s what you need to know.
Top Digital Marketing Tools for Tracking
By tracking your digital marketing efforts, you gauge the performance of all your ads, landing pages, and website. You can then see what converts best, build your target audience, and align your approach with your customers’ preferences.
At Shop Marketing Pros, we understand the importance of keeping a close eye on your digital auto repair shop marketing performance. That’s why we always set up tracking and monitor the performance of all our marketing efforts.
To do that effectively, we typically use the following tools:
Google Analytics
Google Analytics allows you to see how well your website performs while reviewing visitor behavior. You can honestly assess which landing pages resonate most, where visitors spend the most time, and more.
Google Ads
Google Ads is the place to go to set up and track your digital advertisements. You’ll get to explore which elements produce the most conversions. You can better understand how your customers want to engage with your company. The conversions that we track in Google Ads are web form fills and phone calls from Google Ads.
Meta Pixel
Meta Pixel allows you to track conversions on your website using the Facebook Ads Manager. You just place a small piece of code on your website. Then, it lets you know about form fills, button clicks, and other events. The Meta Pixel is also a very helpful tool for building audiences within Facebook Ads Manager.
Landing Pages
Landing pages are highly customized pages on your website that align with particular ads. You can use our landing page template to create the CTA-rich content, then use them as the conversion link on your ads to gauge performance across the board.
Call Tracking Numbers
Call tracking numbers are unique phone numbers you can use to direct calls to your line from specific ads. The most popular way to set this up is by using call extensions from Google. Simply assign a tracking number to a Google phone call extension to assess the performance of your marketing effort by seeing what kind of phone calls your ads are producing.
Although you can use all these free tools on your own, deciphering performance requires a keen eye. You have to know what data to focus on, what the metrics mean, and how to improve upon the formula to get the best results. For such reasons, it’s wise to work with a digital ad manager in creating, tracking, and updating your marketing approach.
Best Practices for Digital Marketing Tracking
- Use tracking codes and UTM links on all your digital ads and landing pages.
- Do not put tracking phone numbers on your Google My Business page.
- Assign a new phone call extension number to your Google Ads account.
- Listen to your phone calls to pull customer keywords right from the source.
- Assess your tracking data to improve your ads, landing pages, and overall approach.
Although you can have your ad links go to your website, it’s best to use landing pages. With a dedicated landing page, you can optimize the content with calls to action aligned with the ad content. Beyond that, you can infuse it with tracking codes for every type of conversion you want to assess.
Assess Your Approach: What to Ask Your Digital Ad Manager
If you’re already working with a digital ad manager, take the time to see if they’re correctly tracking your digital marketing approach.
To do that, ask:
- What do you track as conversions?
- Do you have Google Analytics set up? If so, can I have access?
- Where are tracking numbers being used?
If they’re on the ball, then great. You can focus on operating your auto repair shop while they use digital marketing to bring more customers your way. If not, it’s time to make some changes and get the marketing support you deserve.
Want to learn more about digital marketing tracking? Check out our helpful resource guide for the exact tools we use or just get in touch with our team at Shop Marketing Pros today. Schedule your discovery call to get started, and then we’ll be in touch soon.Â
Can’t wait to get started? Check out our five-minute demo to learn more about how we can help you elevate the success of your auto shop.
About The Authors
Hallie Wasinger
As the advertising director at Shop Marketing Pros, Hallie is directly responsible for curating successful digital advertising campaigns on various platforms such as Facebook and Google. In addition to this, she leads the messaging team in the production and management of their client's online advertising. Hallie has a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing, a Google Ad Search Certification, and has focused her work experience specifically on digital marketing. She works hard to capture each client's "voice" and build upon that to help their businesses thrive.
Danni Marks
Danni’s primary goal is to communicate with Shop Marketing Pros clients so they are kept up to date with the work we are doing on their behalf. She loves going over reports with clients and is always on the lookout for ways that we can do better. With a background in graphic design, email marketing, and digital advertising, Danni’s understanding of the whole marketing picture makes her an ideal guide for our clients success.
