How are Google Vehicle Listing Ads doing for you?

[Josh S]

Here is an aggregated dataset from a bunch of different dealers across Canada representing various OEMs in various markets so far this year for VAs:

• Average CPC: $1.25 CAD
• CPC Range: $0.45 - $3.69 CAD
• Average CTR: 0.85%
• Average Conversion Rate: 0.76% (to website form and/or website call)
• Conversion Rate Range: 0.00% - 2.34%

Most dealers I've worked with typically allocate $500/mo. to this initiative here in Canada right now. It is relatively early in the rollout overall, though I have had a few stores using these since Q4 last year in the alpha. Depending on the inventory count and mix some stores actually have trouble spending so the spend actuals each month can vary.

In general I think stores get quite excited about the idea of inventory feeding at the top of a SERP, but practically speaking the majority of search here doesn't trigger a VA currently. I suspect this type of campaign will ultimately land as a small piece of an overall strategy, but it definitely isn't going to be any sort of miracle.

 

[RickWillis]

If Google stays true to their normal business tactics (Adwords), as soon the new platform gains traction the CPC will start to rise and any profitability will go away. Never forget, Google is a publicly traded ADVERTISING company whose sole purpose is to drive investor value. They do this by convincing businesses to commit their advertising, then they ratchet up the costs to maximize their revenues. Any success you see will be short lived, they you will have to move on to the next big thing.

 

[Tony Giampietro]

Really? I haven't seen any of these listings, but I also don't use Google unless it's an accident.
I just searched "Ford Raptor Toronto" and got no listings.

 

[Tony Giampietro]

If anyone in the US or Canada needs help getting these set up, please let me know. Currently in Canada you can only serve ads for used inventory. My company was part of the original beta test which started in Q4 of 2021. As far as the question as to how much your budget should be, that really depends on how high you want your impression share to be. Most of my clients start with a $2k p/m spend and tend to increase that budget and decrease either their 3rd party spends or Google text ad spend. My company has clients throughout the US and we are seeing the CPC range anywhere from $0.63-$3.05 however, conversions are running 30% higher than regular text ads (Google SEM/PPC) and they are getting 3-10x higher site traffic than they are getting from 3rd parties.

 

[DrewAment]

See more and more 3rd party listings in the VLAs -- really??

AutoTrader, Cars, Gurus, TrueCar, Edmunds, CarFax -- They are all doing it.

Hard to believe (maybe not) that Google would allow them to set-up and manage a "merchant" feed when they are not even the merchant (owner) of the vehicles.

Anyone else thinks this is really messed up?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

See more and more 3rd party listings in the VLAs -- really??

AutoTrader, Cars, Gurus, TrueCar, Edmunds, CarFax -- They are all doing it.

Hard to believe (maybe not) that Google would allow them to set-up and manage a "merchant" feed when they are not even the merchant (owner) of the vehicles.

Anyone else thinks this is really messed up?


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YES - I agree. It's messed up.

 

[DrewAment]

Anyone else thinks this is really messed up?

Makes you triple think about spending your extra money with these venders -- when all you are doing is feeding the monster?

 

[JessicaRobertson]

We have several dealerships running GVLAs, and we've been pretty pleased with what we've seen from them so far. In general:

• Low cost per click
  • @NickA the first month was usually in the $1 - $1.50 range, but after that initial month each campaign's CPC dropped into the ~$0.50-$0.60 range, so hopefully yours will or has already gone down significantly as well
• Higher lead submission rate than some standard paid search campaigns
• Low bounce rates, high time on site

Here is a quick performance metric breakdown from 3 of our dealerships running GVLAs with similar ad spend (goal completions & conversion rates courtesy of DI Goals):



As far as launching these things... It is not as simple as a flip of a campaign switch and can be wildly labor-intensive if you don't know what you're doing (speaking from *inexperience*). Launching GVAs can take anywhere from 2 weeks to a month and a half, regardless of whether you already have a Google Ads account up and running.

The "recommended" daily budget from Google and certified partners for the GVLA program is $100/day. However, the minimum recommended spend is $50/day, which has been sufficient for most of our dealerships.

If you have any questions about launching Vehicle Listing Ads for your dealership in the US, hit me up!

 

[jwittler]

Makes you triple think about spending your extra money with these venders -- when all you are doing is feeding the monster?

@DrewAment Google does not support VIN-level de-dupes with this product currently. If it did it would be much easier to implement policies where true inventory owners to always have first priority on VLAs and marketplaces be second.

There are as you can see from this board discussion plenty of dealers not utilizing VLAs today; it would make no sense for us not to utilize tools at our disposal to help drive additional traffic to their listings. I find it interesting you pointed the finger at marketplaces first for what is a somewhat flawed design of Google's own product in not having a VIN-dedupe (an advertising policy we've applied to our own ad products for years and years)

 

[Ryan Everson]

See more and more 3rd party listings in the VLAs -- really??

AutoTrader, Cars, Gurus, TrueCar, Edmunds, CarFax -- They are all doing it.

Hard to believe (maybe not) that Google would allow them to set-up and manage a "merchant" feed when they are not even the merchant (owner) of the vehicles.

Anyone else thinks this is really messed up?


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I'm going to take the completely opposite viewpoint on this one.

Previously, third parties used the standard paid search text ads on Google to capture traffic, right?

Well now, the cheese has moved, and third parties are taking advantage of this new ad format.

If the third parties didn't take advantage of this feature, Carvana and CarMax would be eating everyone's lunch on VLA's.

And unlike most things third parties do, they aren't charging dealers any additional fees for this.

Sure they are driving traffic to their own website, not our dealership website, but if our vehicles are priced and merchandised well we have a good shot.

So the big question is - if third parties are doing this for their dealer clients for "free", is it worth dealers investing thousands to also compete in the VLA ad unit but drive traffic to their dealership website instead?