ClickMetrix announces it’s opening to Dealers, SaaS, Technology and OEMS for seamless analytics capabilities and the ease of understanding it brings to Dealers.
Founded by Steven Laureys, An Automotive CTO Legacy, and two amazing Database and UX architects, they bring to automotive what it has been missing: Reliable, clear Metrics. The ever-growing platform will soon encompass Meta offering a session perfect view of the customer journey and ad ROI.
ClickMetrix is thankful to the ASOTU Team and to Michael Cirillo for helping up announce this historic event at the 2024 NADA Show in Las Vegas, NV.
NADA Announcement:
Video Transcript:
0:01 [Music]
0:06 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
All right we’re here at NADA 2024 I’m with the founder of ClickMetric Steve Laureys thanks so much for joining me today.
0:13 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
Hey I appreciate being out here.
0:15 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
You’ve had a very successful career in automotive you’ve done so many cool things and now you’re tackling measurement analytics an ambitious goal. What’s led you to starting ClickMetrix?
0:22 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
Well really this has been born out a necessity right? Google analytics 4 came out in July and it has just pulled the rug out from underneath a lot of dealers and a lot of agency providers. So we wanted to find a way that we can normalize that data and make it easier for people to understand.
0:36 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
What do you mean by normalize that data?
0:39 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
Yeah so unlike GA4, where you got a bunch of thresholds right, it like takes that information and says we’re not going to show you all your data. We’re going to hide some of that. So it leaves you completely confused. We’ve got a full, true, integration with G4 and we can pull all that data in the platform. Then you get to choose how you want to group that inside the platform.
0:56 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
What are you noticing as you’ve built out this platform as you have real people using it? What are some of those aha moments that they’re discovering by using ClickMetrix?
1:04 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
So one of the greatest things is we’re able to take all those conversion points and really simplify the leads, calls, and chats, and then display those easily. So what they’re finding, especially when they’re looking at their paid search campaigns, is wow as I’m looking at these keywords – I’ve got like 300 keywords we are spending money on but only 20 of them have any conversions. It’s crazy.
1:26 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
I mean I can see how this is just helping people.
1:28 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
Right, you begin to realize, to your point, how much wasted ad dollars there are. It’s like the old adage, right, I would cut my advertisement budget in half if I knew which half to cut. Well, ClickMetrix gives you the ability to see exactly which half you can cut.
1:40 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
It is shocking to you that, in the year 2024, at time of recording, that we still don’t have a good grasp on our data.
1:48 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
It is sad but, you know, again, this is all brand new. Google didn’t say we’re going to put some lipstick on the pig right. They built a whole new platform and they did it in a way that changed all the metrics. They even changed the metrics names. So now these dealers, who were already were a little shy when it came to Universal Analytics… now they’re looking at this going “I have no idea what I’m doing”. Tthey don’t have time to learn – it they have stores to run they have cars to sell, parts to sell.
2:12 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
So what’s the process look like? Somebody says hey, this sounds great to me. Where do I go, how do I learn more, what do I do?
2:18 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
Simply go to ClickMetrix.io, or shoot me an email at steve@clickmetrix.io.
2:24 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
Have you always been interested in data measurement and analytics?
2:30 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
Yes, so the last dealership group I was with I had 23 stores. We’re trying to figure out and understand the data between those stores. That’s what really got me in-depth with it because we realize how much money you could save and how much better you can do as being the steward of a dealership’s money. If you knew exactly what was working, what didn’t.
2:45 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
I got to say you are one of the few people I’ve heard that uses the word stewardship. And now I know everything I need to know about you. Stewardship is such a powerful word but I’m curious: Where in your journey did you realize that?
3:00 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
It’s exactly what we’re doing. We are being a keeper, a worthy keeper, of somebody’s money and making sure it’s being spent properly. I appreciate it. As I say, I sold my first car in 94 right. But it wasn’t until I took on my first group, which I ran 13 stores for, it wasn’t until that point that I started realizing this is real money. So the money that I save for this store is like – it’s literally his money… this isn’t pretend money… Co-op money is real money.
So as I’m able to save on this one aspect, it makes an impact on them. But I’m also allowing them to open the doors to other things that would work better. Which is affecting the lives and the livelihood of the people that worked with me. My parts managers, my parts people, my service managers, the porters..everybody in the dealership are now benefiting… because we’re doing better things.
3:47 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
So we’ve talked a little bit about ad measurement and the importance of understanding that. So you can better spend your marketing or your advertising dollars. How does also click metrics help impact other marketing channels in the marketing mix?
4:01 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
Yeah, so especially when we look at things like social, or we look at any of the organic channels, right, there’s a lot of times where they’re spending money with vendors and they just don’t know how to measure the results right? And really everything comes down to either branding or converting right? So if they’re doing a messaging for Branding, and we work with dealers all the time to discuss this with them. If they’re working on a on a campaign and it’s purpose Branding -then that’s the purpose of that. That’s what you’re supposed to be get out of that.
If it’s conversions -then the goal of that is to to get the leads, the calls, and chats.
(NADA Attendee walks in front of camera)
4:34 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
I love it people are so excited they just have to get in the shot. And they’re like, right Steve, tell me more! They’re already lining up. As you can see, here at NADA. You’re right, I mean the measurement of all of the vendors, in the marketing mix, and what are they are doing in Google analytics – like you said ga4 has really flipped that on its head. So when you set somebody up on ClickMetrix, what are some of the common things that you point out right away to help them understand where their where their marketing is going?
5:06 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
So, the number one thing is that we want to understand what their goals are. And a lot of times they don’t have those. So we have the conversation with them about what should their goals look like. So on your campaigns: what does success look like? You’re spending two grand, or you’re spending 10 grand on this campaign: What does success look like?
Because once you have that determined, when you look back at that campaign, after it’s run for 30 days, you can then
say: Did I make that goal or did I not? But a lot of times it’s kind of like paying and spraying. They’re just hoping that they’re going to get more customers in, and they’re using their gut and hoping that it’s going to feel like they had success.
5:39 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
I imagine also, this is helping you get some insight into um how long people should actually let marketing initiatives run before they give up.
5:49 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
Absolutely and again it starts, like anything, it starts with a plan. If you’re going to be responsible for somebody else’s money then you want to be able to go back to them and say “This is what we’re going to do next month.” and “This is what we expect it to look like” and “Here’s what we did last month” and “Here’s what we said it was going to look like” and “Here’s what it actually looked like.” That’s the ultimate test of of whether or not you’re being responsible.
6:10 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
Fantastic, Well I want to congratulate you on the launch of ClickMetrix, as you can see there’s Fanfare people lining up. All of these people are here for ClickMetrix. We see everyone. So one last question, again, how can those listening and watching get in touch with you, and learn more about ClickMetrix?
6:24 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
Absolutely, like I say it’s ClickMetrix.io, or they can reach me at steve@clickmetrix.io.
6:31 Michael Cirillo, ASOTU
We’re here amidst the Fanfare at NADA 2024, in Las Vegas with Steve Laureys, Founder of ClickMetrix. Thanks so much for joining me.
6:40 Steven Laureys, ClickMetrix
Hey, I appreciate your time, thank you.
6:41 [Music]