If you are interested in boosting the performance of your dealer website, then these stats will probably be of interest to you. While you can analyse your own website data until you’re blue in the face, sometimes it’s nice to see how some other dealer’s online presence is performing, and to see if there are any ideas or opportunities that you are missing.
We’ve anonymised the data (of course!), but these stats are taken from a range of our motor trade clients, and are genuine, unadulterated stats.
Do they relate to what you see on your website?
Only 6% of visitors to a large single-franchise dealer website clicked on the homepage banners. Of them, 42% clicked the first banner!
Banners are popular on motor trade websites – they are often a piece of political real estate, used to keep different internal departments feeling represented. They are also connected to the old-school type of dealer marketing, namely a collection of leading offers that would be advertised in the press, on the radio and on the homepage of your website.
However, for some time now the digital marketing industry has been talking about banner blindness – that is, the fact that a large swathe of the population are programmed to completely ignore banners because they have been overexposed. Add to this the fact that your banner has to gamble on being exactly right for a visitor who would want any car, or any department, and the chances of visitor engagement start dropping even more sharply.
We recently studied banner interaction on a large, single-franchise website – they type of website that you would think has the best chance of banners being relevant to visitors. Of their many thousands of homepage visitors, only 6% clicked a banner on the homepage – the vast majority choosing to go to the most relevant department instead. Of that 6%, 42% clicked the first banner, and clicks dropped off sharply from there.
If you are a dealer that can have 15 banners on your homepage, we think the time has come to re-think your strategy. Why not replace banners with links to key website sections – maybe new, used and aftersales? You can then feature banners on those landing pages if necessary, as the change of them being relevant to visitors gets much higher!
Only 10% of enquiries from 18-24 year olds are calls – compared to 23% of enquiries from visitors age 45-54
Different demographics and age groups will use your website in different ways, a fact that is easily evidenced in most households by comparing the digital behaviour of teenagers with that of parents -or even grandparents!
As these younger generations are swiftly growing up to be part of your target market, it’s important to make sure that your sales strategy has the flex and understanding to help it grow to meet the demands of a new generation.
These stats from a single-franchise multi-location dealer website show a profound difference in the type of enquiries generated by the younger audience, with a much higher proportion choosing live chat and email over calling. With most automotive departments set up to handle calls as the highest priority lead, can you handle an increase in live chats and emails?
Showing manufacturer logos on a multi-franchise homepage results in 9% more enquiries
If you represent multiple vehicle franchises then the chances are you have worried about how to best represent that range on your group website.
Some dealers choose to have individual websites per brand (or per location in some instances!), but changes are you still need a central group site for all the unspecific visits who look for your dealer group name rather than a combination of franchise and location. Or, you have a strong local brand and want to position that alongside your franchises.
On one large multi-franchise website evidence showed that adding the groups franchises onto the homepage as logos that link through to the brand level page resulted in 9% more enquiries. Unsurprisingly, it also resulted in a very large spike in traffic to brand pages, which due to increased relevant for the customer can encourage more leads and conversions. Win win!
For one multi-franchise dealer, 58% of website visits are on a mobile!
We are all aware that mobile visits have been rising for the past few years, and they aren’t showing any sign of slowing down. We could be forgiven, years ago, for wondering whether the mobile revolution would carry over to big ticket purchases like a car, but the evidence is there to show that it definitely has.
The majority of Bluesky Interactive’s dealer websites have more than 50% of traffic on mobile devices, including tablet. However, some go even further. One large multi-franchise dealer of ours in the south of England only has 25% of visits occur on a desktop! That’s 75% on mobile devices.
Still wondering if you should be designing for mobile-first and going fully responsive?!
Less than 1% of visitors visit the about us page on a standard website
About us pages and associated sections should be an important part of a dealer website - after all, your unique identity is what helps you to stand out in a sea of other franchised dealers who offer the same products and the same services.
However, a typical dealer website only sends 1% of visitors to the About Us section – and we think that’s because they are underrepresented and under-loved. In addition, the content even in a good About Us section relies on someone taking the time to click through.
The solution? Integrate your brand and differentiating content throughout the website, including social content and blogs/news. This allows you to showcase your advantages at the moments that matter most to a customer’s decision making.
Do you have any questions about these stats, or have any interesting stats of your own? Let us know!
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