What do you all think of Google's free inventory ads?

[Greg Spencer]

Apparently, Google rolled out free inventory ads for U.S. dealers in January. According to SearchLab, it's a "huge game changer" for dealers? What do you all think? Are you racing to get your inventory onto this platform? Has anyone gotten any leads through it?

 

[Tony Giampietro]

Apparently, Google rolled out free inventory ads for U.S. dealers in January. According to SearchLab, it's a "huge game changer" for dealers? What do you all think? Are you racing to get your inventory onto this platform? Has anyone gotten any leads through it?

Greg,

I'm assuming the ads you are seeing are being served by a 3rd party. From what I am hearing, they are "free" until it comes time to renew with the 3rd party. Basically, they are using YOUR inventory to promote THEIR site.

If you have any interest in having the clicks go direct to your VDP, let me know. The product is called Google VLA and has been out since mid-last year.

Tony

 

[jennj]

Greg,

I'm assuming the ads you are seeing are being served by a 3rd party. From what I am hearing, they are "free" until it comes time to renew with the 3rd party. Basically, they are using YOUR inventory to promote THEIR site.

If you have any interest in having the clicks go direct to your VDP, let me know. The product is called Google VLA and has been out since mid-last year.

Tony

I'm interested in setting up VLAs for a dealership. I've contacted several companies - pricing is all over the place...I'm quite sure I can do it myself though. Has anyone done it successfully?

 

[Tony Giampietro]

I'm interested in setting up VLAs for a dealership. I've contacted several companies - pricing is all over the place...I'm quite sure I can do it myself though. Has anyone done it successfully?

You can for sure run these yourself through the Google Merchant Platform, the issue is that you need to constantly go in to refresh the inventory feed. I know from experience, most agencies are only doing this 1x per week which causes a ton of wasted spend on clicks for vehicles that aren't on the lot. As far a pricing, it should be more about that cost per unit retailed instead of monthly budget. My platform is $2,500 per month and we refresh the feed 4x per day. No contracts. Its a month to month deal. I have reporting for MANY dealers that I can share with you. We seem to average somewhere between $28-$42 in terms of ad cost per unit retailed. If you share with me the dealership name, I can run a pretty cool report that tells me market share, average days on lot, aged inventory that needs paying attention to, market share, etc.