Dealer.com and Ansira Website Owners Must Take GA4 Responsibility

This is the third article in a series covering the upcoming cutover from Universal Analytics to GA4, since the deadline is July 1, 2023. If you have not signed up for my free LinkedIn newsletter, do that today.

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Dealers will have different GA4 configuration protocols based on the website platform they utilize.

Today, the Automotive Standards Council (ASC) had another planning call to help everyone in automotive retail embrace and implement the ASC Specification for GA4. On the call, we learned that two major website companies have a different approach to getting their customers ready for GA4, compared to their peers.

There is no best way, just different approaches.

Some Dealers Must Be First To Act

Dealer.com and Ansira want each dealer to create their own GA4 account.

This account, which the dealer owns, has a unique measurement ID (i.e., account ID) where website events will be sent when consumers engage on the website pages. These two companies, when given the dealer's measurement ID, will send ASC-compliant events into the GA4 account number provided.

However, the dealer must also complete important steps to make sure the full power of GA4 can be harnessed, using the ASC specification. Dealers will need to:

1. Define the ASC conversion events
2. Define the 30+ ASC Custom Dimensions
3. Coordinate engagement events into GA4 from other vendors like digital retailing tools, chat tools, etc.

These steps are important, and dealers on these two platforms need to take action now.

Please make sure you can see ASC events in the GA4 account that you plan to be using after July 1st.

Other Website Platforms Have Taken A Different Approach

The website companies shown above have taken a different approach. They have created a GA4 account for each website customer. In this account, they are currently sending all ASC events from their website platform.

The dealership can simply request ownership of the account and add additional people to access the account.

These accounts already have the conversion events defined and also have the 30+ custom dimensions installed. Please make sure that you follow the instructions that I outlined in this previous article.

However, many dealers have not requested access, which is due to many reasons, but it's clear that I need to help notify their customers, who have ignored their internal emails.

Note: If your dealership already created a GA4 account and have been using it for reporting, you should tell your website company to ALSO send events into your second GA4 account. Any account that dealers create will need the extra configuration steps listed for Dealer.com and Ansira.

IN ANY CASE

We are getting so close to the deadline, and I'm afraid that dealers have no clear understanding how to prepare and get ALL their vendors to send GA4 events into at least ONE central GA4 account.

Please share this post with your colleagues since time is running out.

The Best GA4 Training - One Day Hands On Lab

Dealers who want to make sure that their GA4 accounts are configured properly should attend DMSC and then add the extra day session for only $95. Tickets for the event and the special hands on training can be found here: https://bit.ly/3M4DhjB

We have the most experienced team of teachers in place, and we encourage all attendees to bring their laptop computers so they can access, inspect, and fix any issues with their GA4 accounts before the July 1st deadline.

Questions? Message me or write your questions in the comments.