UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOMOTIVE STANDARDS COUNCIL (ASC) FOR GA4

WHAT IS THE AUTOMOTIVE STANDARDS COUNCIL (ASC)?

The Automotive Standards Council (ASC) was formed out of a critical need for consistent data measurement within the automotive retail industry.

Its primary purpose is to establish and maintain a unified set of data standards for tracking and reporting digital marketing performance, particularly within the context of Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

The ASC's target audience includes a wide range of stakeholders across the automotive, RV, motorsports, and marine industries, including:

Dealers: To ensure they receive accurate and comparable data from various marketing and software vendors.
Manufacturers: To gain a clearer, standardized view of dealer performance.
Software Developers: To build tools and platforms that seamlessly integrate and report data according to industry-wide standards.
Agencies: To provide clients with transparent and consistent reporting across different campaigns and technologies.
Management Consultants: To offer data-driven insights based on reliable, standardized metrics.

Team meeting with Google Analytics - G4 - on laptop

THE ROLE OF ASC IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4 (GA4)

The transition from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) presented a significant opportunity and challenge for the automotive industry. GA4's event-based data model offers greater flexibility but also introduces potential inconsistencies if not properly standardized. This is where the ASC plays a crucial role.

The ASC focuses on creating common guidelines for event-based measurement in GA4, ensuring that key user interactions and business-critical actions are tracked and named uniformly across different platforms and vendors. This standardization is vital for accurate data collection, meaningful analysis, and effective decision-making.

KEY BENEFITS OF ASC CERTIFICATION AND STANDARDS

Adopting ASC certification and standards offers numerous advantages for all parties involved in automotive digital marketing:

Consistent Data Reporting: Eliminates discrepancies caused by different naming conventions or tracking methodologies, providing a single source of truth for performance data.
Greater Interoperability Between Software Products: Enables seamless data flow and integration between various tools, from website platforms to CRM systems and marketing automation.
Accurate Data Comparison Across ASC-Certified Tools: Allows for reliable benchmarking and performance comparisons between different vendors, campaigns, and dealerships.
Streamlined GA4 Key Event Tracking When Switching Vendors: Reduces the complexity and cost associated with migrating GA4 setups when changing digital marketing partners, as core events remain consistent.

Car salesman at dealership working on computer

ASC EVENT AND PARAMETER SPECIFICATIONS

The ASC defines a set of commonly-named events and parameters designed to capture essential automotive-specific interactions. These include:

Commonly-named events: Events like `asc_click_to_call` (for phone calls initiated from the website) and `asc_form_submission` (for any form submission) ensure that fundamental lead actions are always tracked with the same name.
The use of parameters to carry additional information: ASC events leverage parameters to provide richer context. For example, an `asc_view_vehicle_details` event might include parameters for `vehicle_year`, `vehicle_make`, `vehicle_model`, and `vehicle_vin`, allowing for granular reporting on specific vehicles.
The need to create custom dimensions for parameters: To unlock the full reporting potential of these parameters within GA4, users must create custom dimensions that correspond to the ASC-defined parameters. This makes the data available for analysis in standard GA4 reports.
Examples of ASC parameters: Beyond vehicle details, other common parameters include `lead_type`, `finance_amount`, `appointment_type`, and more, providing comprehensive insights into customer journeys.

ASC IN PRACTICE: IMPLEMENTATION AND SUPPORT

For automotive businesses, implementing and leveraging ASC standards involves:

Ensuring ASC events are firing correctly: Regularly auditing your GA4 implementation to confirm that all defined ASC events are being triggered accurately and consistently.
Addressing discrepancies in data reporting: Investigating any inconsistencies between different reports or vendors, often resolved by ensuring proper ASC event and parameter implementation.
List of companies supporting ASC events: Many leading automotive digital marketing platforms, website providers, and tracking solutions are actively adopting and supporting ASC event specifications. When evaluating vendors, inquire about their ASC certification and compliance.