Protecting Your Marketing Data
By Automotive dealerships are paying to give their marketing data away to their competitors. Here's how you can protect your data to make sure that you aren't one of them.
As technology advances and digital marketing becomes more invasive, there is a greater need to tighten up all loose access to your website. In this case, we aren't referring to user access, we are speaking about hosting and third party addons. Practically every automotive dealership, and most small businesses, are guilty of at least three of these faux pas and they may also be paying these companies to "take" their data.
Q: “You’re telling me that I am paying companies to take my data and then it is sold to my competitors?"
A: Yes, unfortunately that is the case.
Here’s how
Pixels, Scripts or Cookies
Each time you add a pixel, script or cookie on your website for a third party, you are usually doing it in an “include” file which places that file on every page of your website. That allows the third party to see what each visitor does and what they are looking for on your website.
Do I have this on my dealership website?
You probably have the following:
- YouTube Embedded Video
- Facebook Pixel
- Chat Service (Paid)
- Google Analytics
You may also have:
- Facebook Timeline
- Facebook Follow Button
- Twitter Timeline
- Twitter Follow Button
- Custom Fonts
- Social Share buttons like “AddThis” or “ShareThis”
- etc
Hosting Service
If your website is hosted with an automotive digital marketing company, could it be possible that they are reselling your marketing efforts through an addon product? From their standpoint, it would be silly for them not to. Think about the products they pitch you and how they get that data. Is it from dealerships like you?
What’s the big deal?
Let’s just assume you are a “giver”. No problem. Your data is being sold to your competitors and you aren’t concerned. Can that still have an impact on your business? The answer is yes. Even if you aren’t concerned about the data, you need to be concerned about website load time.
How can scripts and pixels effect your website?
Beyond sharing your marketing data, a huge concern is website speed. In order for your website to load, everything must load from your server and from all of the scripts that you have added on the page. It's the equivalent of three plus lanes trying to merge into one during traffic - anything can happen. What that ultimately means is that you are allowing multiple factors beyond your control to slow your website down. Furthermore, you can’t change or control the way that they cache in the users browser.
IMPORTANT: Website Speed
According to Couldflare,
- 2.4 second load time yields a 1.9% Conversion Rate
- 3.3 second load time yields a 1.5% Conversion Rate
- 4.2 second load time yields a <1% Conversion Rate
- 5.7 second load time yields a <0.6% Conversion Rate
“Walmart found that for every 1 second improvement in page load time, conversions increased by 2%”
Not only does it impact your conversion rate, it also has an impact on SEO.
What can you block?
By looking at your website with a fine-tooth comb using such tools as GT Metrix, Google’s Inspect Element for Lighthouse and Sources, you can determine who's looking in on your traffic. This is a screenshot of 3rd party trackers from a major auto group website in Utah. Shocking, right?
Reach out to us for a consultation. We have several easy tricks that can be custom tailored to your website that will block most or all of these while allowing your website to function.
We can help
At 2020 eConsulting, we have some clever tools in place that will protect your marketing data and speed up your website. Please give us a call to discuss your automotive business.
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