#RefreshFriday Ad Fraud on the Rise with Marketing Budgets Increasing | Steve Stauning

[Jeff Kershner]

View: https://www.youtube.com/live/XEv6-TsvRNw



The new cars are coming! It sounds like trucks full of new metal are hitting lots heavily in August and what does that mean?

@Steve Stauning returns to RefreshFriday after noticing the OEMs back to their old marketing tricks. So much ad spending waste and overlap it is criminal. Let's start pointing out where marketing is failing as budgets ramp up.


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[Ryan Everson]

So. Much. Wasted. Money.

This morning I counted 7 identical Cadillac Lyriq display banner ads on a news website:




Went to another article and experienced the same thing with GMC:




Vendor running March Mania ads for a car dealer 3 months after March Mania:




Clickbait arbitrage display ads - landing customers on Google search partner results page where Stellantis Tier 1, 2, and 3 are paying $5-10 per click:





Clickbait LotLinx Facebook Ad generating $0.10 cent clicks and then marking up 30x+ to dealers for $3.00+

 

[Ryan Everson]

OEM third party leads generated via clickbait Google Ads:




More Google Search Partner ads that dealers and OEMs are paying $5+ /click

 

[Ryan Everson]

OEM approved Google Ads vendor spending the majority of a dealer's PMAX Vehicle Listing Ads budget on a kid's coloring book app:

 

[Steve Stauning]

Everyone works their pay plan... especially Google, the agencies, Tier II managers, OEM digital "partners" (the middlemen), and OEM digital "marketing" teams (running profit centers instead of marketing departments). The wasted spend is crazy, and the only Tier who try to align their budgets with moving metal are the dealers. (That's hard to do when Tier I and Tier II shove garbage vendors down your throat while they compete with you for every click.

 

[Ryan Everson]

And this is just the waste I can easily see from a consumer's view in a single web session this morning.

Just think if we were allowed behind the curtain to really inspect campaign performance. I'd gladly work a payplan that offers 1% of any waste eliminated!

 

[Alex Snyder]

Thanks for so much fodder in today's RefreshFriday @Ryan Everson!

 

[Ryan Everson]

Clickbait LotLinx Facebook Ad generating $0.10 cent clicks and then marking up 30x+ to dealers for $3.00+

LotLinx sales pitch to dealers:
We help dealers retain gross and move units faster with high quality bottom of funnel shoppers.

LotLinx ad to car shoppers:
Here's a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye worth $80k for less than $19k!

 

[joe.pistell]

A classic DR observation

LotLinx ad to car shoppers:
Here's a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye worth $80k for less than $19k!

 

[Kelly Wilson]

OEM approved Google Ads vendor spending the majority of a dealer's PMAX Vehicle Listing Ads budget on a kid's coloring book app:

View attachment 9034

Oh, this one really hurts the heart! pMax limitations were a topic with a client today. When dealing with the black box solution, it's key to make sure you have all the guardrails you can install. The same is true of the push for broad match keywords.

Everyone works their pay plan...

#Truth




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