Missed leads because of unnecessary fields on your website

Dealer websites are getting better and better as parties such as DTC, Autodata and Marble invest more and more in platforms, techniques and people. However, that doesn’t mean that the conversion of visitors to leads will also improve. In fact, in 2018 people will be more careful with their privacy and will not automatically provide personal information to receive commercial data. The desktop and mobile website visitors also appear to be different in behavior. I recently acquired these and other facts at the dealer conference #NADA2018. I will explain them to you.

Desktop and Mobile visitor
The visitor who sends in a lead on the mobile website or calls immediately is deeper in the sales funnel than the visitor that is using a desktop. Research by Cars.com made this very clear. The desktop buyer takes 67 days to reach a deal, the mobile visitor only 37 days. I deliberately say ‘only’ 37 days, because have you ever looked at the lead time of your leads? I mean the time between the moment of the lead’s entry to the moment of closing with or without a sale? Is that shorter than 14 days, then we are very clearly just looking for the very low hanging fruit…

Conversion rate
Measuring is knowing in online automotive, which I have often stated. But if you look at the data, the number of visitors and the leads, do you really only have a conversion percentage? Because that only says something about the visitors versus leads. Or would you like, or even need, to know more?

FCP – Form Completion Rate
We go a step further with the FCP. FCP stands for Form Completion Rate, which: what percentage of the visitors who started filling out an online form has completed the form? Take 100 visitors who have landed directly on the VDP page via the Gaspedaal or Marktplaats. Now look at how many of these visitors have started to fill out your contact form and how many have completed and submitted that form? You start with 100 and there will be 10, so an FCP of 10 percent. That also says something about the quality of the in-market shopper that channel X or Z sends to your website. (source Brian Pasch)

Leakage
It is now particularly useful to know where the leakage takes place. Is it when they are filling in their name? Or do people stop at the postcode, or when they have to click on the conditions? In short, in which field do you have the biggest leak? I have taken a few examples of websites. Now, you look at the arrows, then ask yourself whether this information is relevant to ask. Sure, the more information you ask for, the fewer leads you get, but they are often the better ones. On the other hand, I can always take that penalty without a keeper.

About Paul de Vries
Paul de Vries became a Key Automotive Spokesperson at eBay (Marktplaats) after selling Nieuweautokopen.nl to eBay back in 2015. Paul is the founder and CEO of the #DCDW Academy and the presenter of the #DCDW Podcast. He is also a by dealers and importers frequently asked speaker in the online automotive industry. Paul is the winner of the prestigious Lighthouse Award 2016 in the U.S.! `Lead the Way op de digitale snelweg’ is Paul’s new book, which can be used as a guide in the online automotive industry. More information is available at: DCDW.nl.