In case you’ve been living under a moon rock, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google Analytics, and it’s a big leap forward for automotive dealerships. Launching into GA4 may seem daunting.

But you aren’t alone!

Our dedicated team of 100% Certified GA4 media, analytics, and customer support experts are here to assist.

In fact, we aren’t alone either!

As early pioneers into the wild space of digital marketing, we’ve learned along the way and partnered with others who have also navigated successfully. Two of those partnerships have been key to our trajectory towards the completed mission of full migration to GA4: Google and the Automotive Standards Council for GA4 (ASC).

Earning our sixth consecutive year as a Google Premier Partner allows us to leverage first-hand knowledge from the mothership. We’re also proud founding members of the ASC. This means, we have been working directly with Google ensuring that our patented MPOP® is GA4 compliant, and separately with other automotive industry leaders in the ASC to collaborate in developing best practices for using GA4 in accordance to a published a set of universal guidelines and standards that car dealerships can use to ensure that they are getting the most out of GA4.

Why follow ASC Standards?

The short of it is that implementing ASC GA4 standards can benefit your car dealership in a few basic ways: has developed a set of standards that can help car dealerships track and analyze user behavior more effectively. These standards can provide dealerships with a number of benefits, including:

• Easy and reliable roll-up reporting
• Replacing vague conversion definitions
• Removing clunky tag manager containers
• Covering a large majority of web platforms and DR tools
• Significant improvement of Google Ad campaigns
• Additional events for visibility

The long version of the benefits the ASC standards can provide dealerships include:

• Better tracking and insights: The ASC standards define a set of common events that should be tracked on dealership websites. This allows dealerships to collect more accurate data about how users interact with their websites, which can lead to better insights into customer behavior.
• More accurate data: By following the ASC standards, dealerships can ensure that their GA4 data is consistent and accurate. This is important for making data-driven decisions about marketing campaigns and website optimization.
• Optimized advertising campaigns: The ASC standards can help dealerships optimize their advertising campaigns by providing them with more detailed information about how users interact with their website after clicking on an ad. This information can be used to improve the targeting and messaging of advertising campaigns.
• Improved user experience: The ASC standards can help dealerships improve the user experience of their website by identifying areas where users are having difficulty. This information can be used to make changes to the website that will make it easier for users to find what they are looking for.
• Increased industry collaboration: The ASC standards are designed to promote collaboration between dealerships, vendors, and software providers. This can help to ensure that everyone is using the same data definitions and tracking methods, which can make it easier to share data and insights.

In addition to these benefits, the ASC standards can also help dealerships to:

• Certify their GA4 implementation: The ASC offers an annual certification program for dealerships that follow the GA4 standards. This certification can demonstrate to customers and partners that a dealership is committed to using GA4 effectively.
• Stay up-to-date with GA4 advancements: The ASC is constantly updating the GA4 standards to reflect new features and functionality. This ensures that dealerships are always using the latest and greatest version of the standards.

But do you really have to move to GA4?

No. But…

If you don’t migrate to GA4, you’ll lose access to your historical data and you’ll be flying blind when it comes to your marketing campaigns. In order to maximize historical data and to ensure that GA4 meets your specific dealership needs, we recommend you make the switch to Google Analytics 4 now.

Here are some of the reasons why it’s important to migrate to GA4 as soon as possible:

• GA4 is more future-proof than Universal Analytics. Universal Analytics is being sunset in 2023, so dealerships that don’t switch to GA4 will lose access to their historical data. GA4, on the other hand, is designed to be more sustainable and scalable, so dealerships can be confident that their data will be safe and accessible for years to come.
• GA4 is more privacy-friendly. GA4 uses a different data model than Universal Analytics, which means that it’s less reliant on cookies. This is important for dealerships that want to comply with the latest privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• GA4 offers a number of new features that can help dealerships improve their website traffic and marketing campaigns. For example, GA4 can track cross-platform engagement, which means that dealerships can see how users interact with their website across different devices and channels. GA4 can also track user engagement over time, which can help dealerships identify trends and patterns in user behavior.

Won’t GA4 automatically migrate my account?

Yes. But…

Google will start automatically configuring your Universal Analytics (UA) properties to GA4 for you. But you actually do not want to do this for many reasons. Mainly you’ll lose visibility and data. According to an email sent out by Google, they will configure a GA4 property with only basic settings “consistent with the existing UA property; this includes certain conversion events, Google Ads links, and existing website tags.” But not all. You can opt-out of this auto-migration with Google HERE.

So do you really have to use an ASC provider?

Again the answer is no. But…

Overall, the ASC standards can provide a number of benefits to car dealerships that are looking to improve their use of GA4. By following these standards, dealerships can collect more accurate data, improve their advertising campaigns, and make better decisions about website optimization.

And while over 100 automotive industry leaders are now members of the ASC, not every vendor can say they are cutover to GA4; many certified Google Partners and OEM Certified providers included. Dealer Teamwork is 100% GA4 optimized with all accounts created with data being actively imported. We’re firing on all cylinders, so to speak.

And unfortunately, if your ad agency is not configured properly, you could be being wasting money in July and moving forward.

How can you know if your GA4 account is properly configured?

You can download your own copy of the GA4 Automotive Specifications. But warning, Will Robinson…it’s A LOT. Including 35 named events and over 50 parameters referenced by participating members of the ASC created as a collective to ensure unified standards across the industry.

Is there an easy button?

Yes.

Contact us for full access to what you need to know, why you need to know it, and how to execute on it. GA4 is not for the faint at heart. But it is the future. Let our team help your team get ahead of the next frontier today!