Dealer Spike sends the leads. Your ads can't tell which ones bought a unit.
Your Dealer Spike site sends leads all day, yet Google Ads counts a contact form the same as a Payment Genie finance lead, and nobody can say which campaign sold last month's pontoon. On V6/V7 sites, submits finish inside a hidden thank-you frame, so a GA4 goal or Meta rule waiting for a thank-you page never fires. We track each form separately, keep the ad click on the lead, and send the units you sell back to Google Ads and Meta.
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Dealer Spike · what breaks
What goes wrong with Dealer Spike and your ads
- 01
Google Ads counts every form as the same win
On V6/V7 sites, Dealer Spike support installs your Google Ads code, and one code sent without a form name goes on every form. Service requests then count the same as a quote on a new boat, so bidding chases the cheapest form fills.
- 02
My thank-you page goal never fires
On V6/V7 sites the form never loads a new page. The thank-you appears in a hidden iframe, so goals and Pixel rules built on a thank-you URL record nothing, and your campaigns optimize without knowing which clicks turned into leads.
- 03
I can't tell which ad sold the unit
The deal closes in your DMS or CRM days or weeks after the web lead, and Dealer Spike's docs don't describe sending sales back. Your ads learn about inquiries, never about who rode away on a bike.
- 04
Marketplace leads blur the picture
Dealer Spike pushes inventory to eBay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and TrailerTrader. Those shoppers never clicked your ad, but once they're in your CRM they look like any other lead, so paid search can take credit a free listing earned.
Dealer Spike · the fix
What changes after we fix it — Dealer Spike
Bidding learns from sold units
Units marked sold in your DMS or CRM go back to Google Ads with the original click ID and the deal value, so campaigns lean toward shoppers who buy, not tire kickers.
Each Dealer Spike form gets its own value
Payment Genie finance leads, Get Quote leads and contact forms report separately, and service or parts requests stay out of your ad conversions.
Meta sees the same leads and sales
Lead and sold-unit events reach Meta through Conversions API, deduplicated against the Pixel, and shoppers who opt out through Dealer Spike's privacy choices stay out.
Dealer Spike · architecture
What Dealer Spike actually lets you hook into
Dealer Spike runs two website platforms with separate help centers. These are the hooks their docs describe; anything else is a check.
- 1
Hidden thank-you frame (V6/V7)
The thank-you loads in a hidden iframe whose URL carries the form name. Analytics conversions are built on that URL; Google Ads codes are installed by Dealer Spike support, per form if you ask.
- 2
Google Tag Manager and tracking components (Spark CMS)
A GTM container ID loads on every page, or code goes in the header or body. Dealer Spike also supplies a GTM import file for form submits; we confirm what each form sends.
- 3
Google Ads lead attribution (Spark CMS)
Leads arriving with a Google click ID get a Google Ads source label. The docs don't say the ID itself is stored, so we capture it ourselves.
- 4
ADF XML and Lightspeed lead delivery
Leads go to your CRM as ADF XML emails (V1 or V2) or through the Lightspeed integration. That's where qualified and sold status is read back.
- 5
No documented server-side sending
No Meta Conversions API or offline conversion feature appears in Dealer Spike's docs, so sales go back from your DMS or CRM through a first-party container.
Dealer Spike · diagnose
Where Dealer Spike tracking breaks, in diagnostic order
Start with the platform version, because a fix that's easy on Spark CMS may need Dealer Spike support on a V6/V7 site.
- 01
Confirm V6/V7 or Spark CMS
It decides who can add tags and where form events come from.
- 02
Submit a test lead from an ad-tagged URL
Watch the thank-you frame or GTM preview, then open the lead to see whether the source and click ID survived.
- 03
List which forms carry the Google Ads code
One code on every form is the usual reason conversions look high and cost per sale looks random.
- 04
Inventory every script on the site
GTM, the tracking component, support-installed codes and OEM scripts like the Polaris tracking component can overlap.
- 05
Check the privacy choices opt-out
Opted-out shoppers lose ad-platform tracking, so server events must respect that too.
- 06
Compare sold units with reported conversions
Per unit, over a closed month, with marketplace leads separated out.
Dealer Spike · prove
How we prove the Dealer Spike fix works
Every check uses leads submitted on your public Dealer Spike unit pages, because the hidden thank-you frame only behaves the way shoppers see it there.
Source of truth
Dealer Spike leads (View Leads CSV export with form name, date and source) matched to sold units in your DMS or CRM
- A test lead from an ad-tagged URL, with the click ID confirmed on the lead and in the CRM.
- Each Dealer Spike form firing its own event, once, in GA4, Google Ads and Meta.
- A Payment Genie lead reported apart from a Get Quote lead.
- Sold units matched one by one against Google Ads offline conversions and Meta over a closed month.
- An opted-out visitor confirmed absent from ad-platform events.
- Run again a month later, and whenever Dealer Spike changes a form or your site moves between V6/V7 and Spark CMS.
Dealer Spike · free audit
What we check in the free audit
- Confirm V6/V7 or Spark CMS
- Submit a test lead from an ad-tagged URL
- List which forms carry the Google Ads code
- Inventory every script on the site
- Check the privacy choices opt-out
- Compare sold units with reported conversions
Checked against
Dealer Spike leads (View Leads CSV export with form name, date and source) matched to sold units in your DMS or CRM
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Dealer Spike · when not to buy
When you don't need this on Dealer Spike
A rebuild is overkill for some dealers; a ticket to Dealer Spike support fixes their problem.
- If the only problem is one Google Ads code on every form, send Dealer Spike support a separate code per form. You can do that yourself.
- If most units sell through Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and classifieds and you don't run paid ads to your site, attribution won't change much.
- If you sell a few units a month, Smart Bidding has too few sales to learn from, and clean per-form lead tracking is enough.
- If sold units never get recorded against the lead in a DMS or CRM, fix that first; there's nothing to send back yet.
Dealer Spike · what we deliver
The event map on Dealer Spike
Ad click kept first-party
Google and Meta click IDs plus UTMs stored on your own subdomain when the shopper lands on a unit page.
Unit inquiry by form
Inquiry (the Get Quote form on unit pages), trade-in and test ride forms, each identified by its Dealer Spike form name. Ad calls ride on a tracking number if you use one.
Finance lead
Payment Genie leads (the DigitalRetailing type, with the shopper's down payment, term and credit range), valued above a plain inquiry.
Lead worked in your CRM
The qualified step, read from the CRM that gets Dealer Spike leads by ADF XML or the Lightspeed integration.
Unit sold
The conversion Google Ads and Meta optimize toward, pulled from your DMS or CRM at the sale price.
Excluded on purpose
Service and parts requests, newsletter signups, spam and marketplace leads with no ad click. Parts orders from Dealer Spike checkout get their own purchase event.
Written guarantee
95%+ tracking accuracy
Measured against Dealer Spike leads (View Leads CSV export with form name, date and source) matched to sold units in your DMS or CRM. Miss it and we keep working at no cost.
From $400 · See packages
FAQ
Dealer Spike questions, answered
On Spark CMS, yes: the Google Tag Manager component takes your container ID and loads it on every page. On V6/V7 sites, Google Ads codes go through Dealer Spike support, so we confirm with them what's allowed.
On V6/V7 sites there's no thank-you page to land on. The confirmation loads in a hidden iframe whose URL includes the form name, so the conversion must be built on that frame or a form-submit event.
Spark CMS labels leads with a Google Ads source when a click ID is present, but the docs don't say the ID is stored or passed to your CRM. We capture it first-party and confirm it on a real lead.
Yes, if sold units from your DMS or CRM go back to Google Ads, either with the click ID through offline conversion import or with hashed email and phone through enhanced conversions for leads. Dealer Spike doesn't document doing this, so we build it.
We didn't find it in their help centers. We send lead and sold-unit events from a first-party server container, deduplicated against the Pixel with a shared event ID.
It turns off ad-platform tracking for shoppers who opt out, as it should. We honor that choice server-side too; everyone else is tracked normally.
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