Google Vehicle Listing Ads: Maximize This New, Targeted Approach
The Next Big Ad Format for Dealerships: Google Vehicle Listing Ads
Once reserved to the biggest third parties in selling vehicles like Carfax, CarGurus, TrueCar, and Edmunds, now this online search strategy can be leveraged by any dealership.
Google Vehicle Listing Ads have a significant ability to draw attention to exactly the car a buyer is shopping for and highlighting it at the top of a Google search page.
What Exactly are Vehicle Listing Ads?
According to Google, “Vehicle ads are a performance-focused, lower-funnel ad formats that allows auto advertisers to promote their entire inventory of vehicles to interested customers shopping for vehicles on Google.”
In more simple terms, Google Vehicle Listing Ads are a visual ad format that will show shoppers:
An image of your vehicle and important details such as make, model, price, mileage, and who has the car immediately appears before any web sites do. Additionally, these ads make it easy to advertise your entire inventory by automatically showing your vehicle ads when a shopper in your area searches for a vehicle that matches your current inventory.
How Will Vehicle Listing Ads Benefit Your Dealership?
Better-Qualified Leads & Web Traffic
Vehicle Listing Ads are designed to provide your dealership with a visual branding opportunity and better-qualified leads because car shoppers will get a preview of details on the car before they even click. This means you’ll only be paying for clicks from shoppers who have seen key details about your vehicles and then make the decision to learn more by clicking your ad. You can then send the searcher to a relevant Vehicle Detail Page (VDP) for more qualified leads and traffic.
Less Competition Means Lower CPC (Cost-Per-Click)
Now is the time to implement this strategy. While active and available for the past few months, this is still new to individual dealerships. Competition for this ad space is at the lowest it will ever be. But, it will only get more limited over time and dealers will likely need to pay more to play the longer they wait to get in on the action.
Automated Targeting & Optimization
Google uses machine learning to automatically optimize for both online conversions (leads) and offline conversions (store visits). Ads will automatically show your most relevant vehicle listings based on car shopper searches.
Who Can Run Vehicle Listing Ads?
This is a complicated process that involves uploading inventory feeds to the Google Merchant Center on a regular basis. This process can be automated by uploading inventory feeds to the Google Merchant Center to prevent vehicles from being advertised after they are no longer available. Additionally, running these types of ads requires special permission from Google.
According to Google, these ads will support both new and used vehicle inventory from dealer or retailer stock. Vehicle ads from private sellers, individuals, or auto brokers are not permitted.
Get started now but work with an approved advertising partner. Contact Us!
