Setup & Configuration
How to automatically configure your GA4 properties
Learn how the automation tool seamlessly configures your GA4 properties into your Analytics Dashboard. This is a fast and simple way for you to set up your properties to align with the Automotive Standards Council.
How to complete GA4 property setup configuration
In order to track the performance of your website and provide reporting, Dealer Inspire (DI) has set up a GA4 property which we will manage as long as you have an active website.
How to locate a measurement ID
Learn how to locate the Measurement ID in your Google Analytics 4 dashboard in this short video.
How to create a GTM for enhanced conversions
Enhanced conversions is a feature that can improve the accuracy of conversion measurement and unlock more powerful bidding in Google Ads. It supplements your existing conversion tags by sending hashed first party conversion data from your website to Google in a privacy safe way.
How to create secret API key
GA4 Measurement Protocol events require you to supply an API key, which ensures that the information is coming from a trusted source. As you begin to work with your vendors on getting GA4 events pushing to your Measurement ID, you may hear them ask for your ‘Measurement Protocol API Secret’. The following steps outline how to find and create that secret key.
How to filter internal traffic
The Analytics team often receives requests to filter out a client’s internal traffic. Dealers, especially those within large groups that share inventory, may see internal traffic from employees on their sites checking inventory, pricing, or pulling up info for customers. This traffic, if significant, may inflate events and traffic in GA4. So what options do our clients have to avoid this?
How to link a non-Google email to Gmail
Google does not allow us to give access to a GA4 account if the email is not linked to a Google account. This resource will provide you step-by-step instructions on how to link a non-Google account (Yahoo, Outlook, AOL, Dealership Accounts, etc.) to your Gmail account.
What is Thresholding?
In simple terms, ‘Thresholding’ is Google’s method of limiting the amount of data presented, with the intent of protecting visiting users’ PII (Personally Identifiable Information). Data thresholds only occurs when Google Signals is utilized, as Google deems the information passed as a result of signals to sometimes provide more in-depth insight. If data is deemed ‘too specific’ as to where the identity of users can be inferred, Thresholding is applied.
How to troubleshoot tagging issues: iFrames and false positives
The Cars Commerce Customer Analytics Team has identified that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is displaying errors in tag diagnostics, indicating incorrect or untagged pages. Upon further investigation, we found that these issues relate to iframes within the tagged website pages. Although the main website pages are tagged correctly, GA4 is also scanning each iframe and may flag them as untagged if it does not detect the gtag.js script within those iframes.
How to understand user metrics
Within GA4 (Google Analytics 4), there are multiple user metrics. Each one of these metrics is calculated in a different way and reflects different types of users. It is important to understand how each user is counted to properly analyze your data. Below outlines the different types of user metrics you’ll find in GA4, their definitions, and an example reflecting real-life scenarios of the kinds of users per metric.
Events & Conversions
ASC event overview
ASC events are Google Analytics 4 events developed by the Automotive Standards Council (ASC) in order to create universal standards and guidelines across the automotive industry. These events are currently tracking in Dealer Inspire managed GA4 properties, and can be configured to be sent to other Measurement IDs by request (if applicable).
How to analyze event performance
While analyzing ‘Click to Call’ and ‘Form Submissions’ is a great place to start, there are various other aspects of the ASC events that can provide great insight. With ASC in place, GA4 now holds much more information than they did on the legacy Universal Analytics platform. This document will show you how to obtain some new insights, but it will also help you come up with your own creative reporting methods.
How to create the conversion key event overview report
Once your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property is receiving the ASC website events and you have configured the custom dimensions, you’re ready to look into building out the same reports you relied on in Universal Analytics.
How to track website events
In order to track the performance of your website, Dealer Inspire supports pushing events to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). These events adhere to the Automotive Standards Council (ASC) events as well as some additional events which capture engagement points that are specific to the Dealer Inspire platform.
How to track conversations events
Conversations Specific Event Definitions with their respective triggers and GA4 Event Properties.
How to track online shopper events
Online Shopper Specific Event Definitions with their respective triggers and GA4 Event Properties.
How to track save and compare events
Save and Compare establishes the basis for a more customized and user-focused car-buying experience on dealer websites. It enables all users to save and compare vehicles and enter personal details to enhance payment estimate accuracy. This is meant to boost consumer engagement through the expanded save & compare functionality, increase lead generation for dealers via a lead gate on saved vehicles, and maintain a seamless user experience without disruption from the lead gate.
How to create a new event from an existing event
Utilizing existing events in GA4 can be a great resource when it comes to obtaining insight on how the dealership is performing. If you want to want to take your analysis one step further, you can do so using Custom Events.
How to create a GTM for enhanced conversions
Enhanced conversions is a feature that can improve the accuracy of conversion measurement and unlock more powerful bidding in Google Ads. It supplements your existing conversion tags by sending hashed first party conversion data from your website to Google in a privacy safe way.
Reports & Dashboards
How to view the gallery interactions report
Many dealers are interested in knowing how consumers are interacting with product images on their sites. The following documentation is a guide to view interactions with VDP gallery images.
How to analyze CTA clicks
Analyzing CTA Clicks in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
How to build a segment overlap report
This report will show you how many overlapping users are coming from each of your sources of traffic. This report is great for showing a dealer that even though they may be on all 3 major third party sites, minimal amounts of their traffic are overlapping. This speaks to our statistic that 70-90% of Cars.com visitors do not visit other third party sites.
How to create the conversion key event overview report
Once your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property is receiving the ASC website events and you have configured the custom dimensions, you’re ready to look into building out the same reports you relied on in Universal Analytics.
How to copy exploration reports across properties
Google has released the ability to copy exploration reports across properties. This update is extremely beneficial in helping to efficiently transfer useful customer exploration reports across more than one property. This copying feature not only saves time but also helps streamline a uniform report structure.
How to create a VLA campaigns report
Google Vehicle Listing Ads (VLAs) are a Vin-specific vehicle advertising option that Google provides. Clicking on a vehicle ad will take the consumer to the vehicle description page (VDP) on the dealer’s website. From there, they can perform additional actions such as contacting the dealer, filling out a lead form, etc. before visiting the dealership.
How to create the event owner overview report
Once your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property is receiving the ASC website events and you have configured the custom dimensions, you’re ready to look into building reports.
How to create the campaign level engagement report
This will provide you step-by-step instructions on how to create a Campaign-level Engagement and Session Volume report in GA4. The example report will show the performance of carssocial in comparison to other cargurus display, edmunds ad solutions, google display network, and other third party sources. This report will help you gain an understanding of the different ways in which Cars drives traffic (leads/VDP views from Cars.com, leads/VDPs on their site and walk in traffic).
How to create the cohort analysis report
This resource will provide you step-by-step instructions on how to create a Cohort Analysis report in GA4. The example report will be tailored towards the lifecycle of users who visit your dealer website from Cars.com compared to other traffic sources (such as Organic users), but you can create this Cohort report comparing any subset of characteristics as you’d like, such as gender or device.
How to create the multi-channel funnels report
You have your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property tracking and you’re ready to look into building out the same reports you relied on in Universal Analytics. This resource will provide you with step by step instructions on how to utilize the Multi Channel Funnels – Top Conversion Paths report using GA4s already built in report method. This report helps understand the journey in which the user takes to and the channels that are contributing to conversions.
How to create the top organic pages report
This document is intended to help you run a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) report to identify top performing pages on your existing website. The final step indicates how to export your results into a CSV file so you can easily view in a spreadsheet.
How to view inventory engagement with the explore report
The Explore in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), allows you build out custom reports in order to see the data that is most relevant and important for your business. This document will walk you through creating an Inventory Engagement report, allowing you see the the most and least viewed Inventory pages by VIN, year, condition, make, model, price and/or stock.
How to create the location overview report
This resource will provide you step-by-step instructions on how to create a ‘Location Overview’. This report will give you insight as to what the location of users are and what city, region, or country has the most conversions. This how-to will also show now to see source/medium and campaign broken out by top 10 cities.
How to create the navigation clicks overview report
This resource will provide you step-by-step instructions on how to create a ‘Navigation Clicks Overview’ by utilizing the asc_menu_event. This report will give you insight as to what elements are being clicked within the navigation of the site.
How to create a new vs. returning users report
In order to find out what sources of traffic are driving the most new and returning users, follow these steps to create a custom Explore report in your GA4 account.
How to schedule email reporting in GA4
Scheduled email reporting is a feature in GA4 that allows one to schedule automated reports to be sent to users as an email on a recurring basis. As an administrator you can schedule up to 50 standard and custom reports to be sent by email, enabling team members to receive periodic updates about a website.
How to schedule email reporting in Google Looker Studio
Looker Studio offers automated Scheduled Email reporting. Similar to GA4 Basic Reports, we can set up a Looker Studio report to be automatically sent to recipients.
How to share or duplicate exploration reports
The Explore tab in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), allows you build out custom reports (or ‘Explorations’) in order to see the data that is most relevant and important for your business. Oftentimes these reports need to be shared with a client, or duplicated with minor adjustments for comparison or consistency of your reports.
How to view the traffic acquisition overview report
Within the GA4 interface there is already a report named ‘Traffic Acquisition’. This is a standard report and can be located by clicking on Reports>Acquisition>Traffic Acquisition. While this report is given, you are likely experiencing thresholding while looking at that report. A way to work around thresholding is by creating an exploration report like the one we will outline below. This example report will show you how to view the default channel groupings, session source/mediums, and campaigns.
How to view the landing page insights report
The Landing Pages report in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) provides a high-level overview of how visitors interact with specific pages when they first visit a website.
The “last 3 days” reporting rule
In GA4, events can be processed even if they arrive up to 72 hours late. Such events are called ‘late events’ as they are not sent immediately. That means it may take up to 3 full days for data to be fully processed and available in your GA4 reports.
How to view the session time metrics report
With the switch from Universal Analytics to GA4, a new metric arrived in the pre-built reports called Average Engagement Time per Session. This is different from the old time metric of Average Session Duration, which still exists. This guide provides more information on the differences between the two metrics.
How to understand location metrics
GA4 allows clients, analysts, and PFMs to understand where users are located geographically via location metrics. Understanding where website visitors come from can reveal incredible insights for any business eager to deepen their connection with their audience. While this information can be useful, it also has its limitations. In order to effectively use location data and speak to client concerns, it’s imperative to understand which location metrics are reliable and which are not.
Content Performance
How to analyze CTA clicks
Analyzing CTA Clicks in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
How to track inline banner engagement
Once your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property is receiving the DI/ASC website events and you have configured the custom dimensions, you’re ready to look into building out the same reports you relied on in Universal Analytics.
How to create a new vs. returning users report
In order to find out what sources of traffic are driving the most new and returning users, follow these steps to create a custom Explore report in your GA4 account.
How to track personalizer insights
Once your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property is receiving the DI/ASC website events and you have configured the custom dimensions, you’re ready to look into building out the same reports you relied on in Universal Analytics.
How to track site notice interactions
Once your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property is receiving ASC website events and you have configured the custom dimensions, you’re ready to look into building reports.
How to track slider interactions
Sliders can be found on many pages of your website. The following documentation shows you a way to view interactions with those sliders. Below will show you how to view slider clicks and interactions broken out by slider names. It will also show you how consolidate sliders on particular site pages.
How to understand user metrics
Within GA4 (Google Analytics 4), there are multiple user metrics. Each one of these metrics is calculated in a different way and reflects different types of users. It is important to understand how each user is counted to properly analyze your data. Below outlines the different types of user metrics you’ll find in GA4, their definitions, and an example reflecting real-life scenarios of the kinds of users per metric.
How to track VRP banner interactions
The following documentation shows you a way to view interactions with VRP Banners. Below will show you how to view banner interactions broken out by the unique banner names.
How to view the landing page insights report
The Landing Pages report in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) provides a high-level overview of how visitors interact with specific pages when they first visit a website.
