- Aug 15, 2023
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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
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