• Stop being a LURKER - join our dealer community and get involved. Sign up and start a conversation.

GoogleAds // Turn OFF Search Partners

Jump to latest Follow Reply
#11
Hey gang jumping in on this thread. I worked at Google on the Auto ad sales team for 7.5 year and ran Google Dealer Council for a year.

Search Partners was always a hot topic and TBH I have seen it work before and also seen it be very wasteful. The problem here is most dealers don't have the knowledge to police their own vendor's ad campaigns and the vendors make their margin on your ad spend either way so the laziness throughout the dealer digital advertising space persists.

Here is an easy framework for any dealer to follow to make sure you get the most out of you Google Ad spend:

1. Clearly define the conversions on your website that you value (VDPs are not a conversion, with one exception) and make sure these are set up as "Conversions" in GA4 so you can measure ads performance across vendors and campaigns. You will also be able to see these conversions in Google Ads and segment by Network to see if Search Partners is working for your store. Happy to walk anyone through this for free.
2. Ensure your digital ads partner is using Google Smart Bidding to optimize to these conversions. This is where the VDP exception comes in because feeding the Google Bidding algorithm VDP conversions does help it perform better, but again VDP conversions should not be used for ROI measurement.
3. Use conversions as your Key Performance Indicator to judge your campaign performance every month. If your vendor can't consistently hit conversion volumes and are not working on ways to INCREASE conversion volumes monthly, get rid of them! I am also happy to set up a report in GA4 for any dealer to make this measurement process easy and repeatable every month.

I would also highly recommend that every dealer prioritize Performance Max campaigns with Vehicle Ads included. If you give the Google Smart Bidding system good conversion data, it will deliver great results! I have seen Performance Max + Vehicle Ads outperform traditional Search Ads for almost every client I work with from a Conversion standpoint.

Feel free to shoot me a text if interested on either free offers above. ‪248.387.9043‬
 
  • Like
Reactions: BillKVMotorCo
#14
MarcyMMDealerAdvocates said:
I'm definitely a believer that EVERYTHING Google does is FOR profit and not in the best interest of clients... Gosh forbid they end up forcing SGE ads on everyone like they did with Responsive Search and Performance Max (which VLA's now have to be part of - whyyy?!!)
Click to expand...
Marcy as an ex-Googler I can confirm the only constant at Google is change.

Most of these changes have to do with BOTH increased profit for Google (always) AND increased performance for advertisers.

PMax is actually pretty revolutionary because it used full Data Driven Attribution across all Google platforms or in plain English:

It is on the only Google ad type that can see the connected user journey across all Google properties. When used correctly it far outperforms traditional Search ads from a conversion rate and cost per conversion standpoint.

However I can definitely understand your frustration with all of the constant changes :)
 
#15
MarcyMMDealerAdvocates said:
I'm definitely a believer that EVERYTHING Google does is FOR profit and not in the best interest of clients... Gosh forbid they end up forcing SGE ads on everyone like they did with Responsive Search and Performance Max (which VLA's now have to be part of - whyyy?!!)
Click to expand...
There are also diminishing returns on profit when you take away data and website clicks from the buyer. If SGE means more people stay on Google rather than coming to my site, that's just taking more away than you already have. What happens when you start losing buyers? What do you gain then?
 
  • Like
Reactions: MarcyMMDealerAdvocates
#16
This is why it’s usually a bad idea to handle your PPC in-house - having an expert handle the campaigns makes a huge difference

You have the ability to select which search partners you want to use - some of them are effective, so you shouldn’t cut all of them… especially if your monthly budget is tens of thousands…

It’s not Google being evil - they’re a business, and if people want to waste ad budget, they’re going to take that money
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jeff Kershner and BillKVMotorCo
#17
FormaticDigital said:
Marcy as an ex-Googler I can confirm the only constant at Google is change.

Most of these changes have to do with BOTH increased profit for Google (always) AND increased performance for advertisers.

PMax is actually pretty revolutionary because it used full Data Driven Attribution across all Google platforms or in plain English:

It is on the only Google ad type that can see the connected user journey across all Google properties. When used correctly it far outperforms traditional Search ads from a conversion rate and cost per conversion standpoint.

However I can definitely understand your frustration with all of the constant changes :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for weighing in! Question for you Lane - how do you see exactly WHERE on the Google Search Network the ads were served? When we look at GA4 - you can just see PMax... is there someplace within Google Ads to find a breakdown?
 
#18
MarcyMMDealerAdvocates said:
Thanks for weighing in! Question for you Lane - how do you see exactly WHERE on the Google Search Network the ads were served? When we look at GA4 - you can just see PMax... is there someplace within Google Ads to find a breakdown?
Click to expand...
I believe in your ads account it's Campaigns < Insights and Reports < When and where ads showed < Where ads showed
 
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply
Jump to latest Follow Reply
Menu