"Why are third parties running Google VLA ads on MY vehicles? Shut it down!"
- Thread starter Ryan Everson
- Start date
Someone find holes in my PMAX logic.
Table below is vAuto's "Listing Logic". It displays AutoTrader traffic on your VINs. Their intent is to sell us Spotlights, I flipped it to find VINs that need 'outside help' (i.e. PMAX)
Avg SRP p/day reflects product class demand
Avg VDP p/day reflects VIN interest.
It's a Chevy store, The list looks for off-brand, low volume VINs
Table below is vAuto's "Listing Logic". It displays AutoTrader traffic on your VINs. Their intent is to sell us Spotlights, I flipped it to find VINs that need 'outside help' (i.e. PMAX)
Avg SRP p/day reflects product class demand
Avg VDP p/day reflects VIN interest.
It's a Chevy store, The list looks for off-brand, low volume VINs
This is very interesting.
Am I reading it correctly that the red high lighted ones are the ones that need serious help?
If so, it doesn't surprise me that the Fiat Grand Cherokee is so low. Along with the Tiguan.
Am I reading it correctly that the red high lighted ones are the ones that need serious help?
If so, it doesn't surprise me that the Fiat Grand Cherokee is so low. Along with the Tiguan.
Here's my simple PMAX logic:
It's common for a store to have 100 used VINs for sale, and, it's common to subscribe to classified sites (AutoTrader, CARS and CG). Any VIN that gets less than one VDP visit per day needs help.
It's common for a store to have 100 used VINs for sale, and, it's common to subscribe to classified sites (AutoTrader, CARS and CG). Any VIN that gets less than one VDP visit per day needs help.
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PMAX item for thought. I had the pleasure of getting a meeting (thanks to my friend Paul at Google) with the PMAX product manager at Google early summer (this was the meeting you missed @Ryan Everson) along with some of my NCM 20Group associates and they pointed out some items, one of which I raised an issue with. We did have to sign an NDA but I'm pretty sure this won't jeopardize that. They said the European market PMAX ads were payment based and US was priced based because "Europeans shop by payment and US shops by price". I was kinda dumbfounded that they hadn't considered offering payment ads for PMAX in the US because of this singular thought they held to be true. I asked them to go to a couple big group sites that have payments all over the place, on SRP, VDP, etc and the product manager was kinda like, "oh crap". Hopefully we see a roll out of payment ads in PMAX soon. He didn't say they would but he was sure taking notes. Jose Lazo with South Dade, Steve Koch with Cooper, JP Hastings with Hoselton, Keane Storey with Chapman, and Freeman Peterman with Jim Keras were all there and backed me up telling PMAX we wanted it. We shall see...
Have dealers feelings changed on these VLA's at all? And for those of you running 3rd parties like Cars.com, Autotrader, etc that heavily purchase VLA's, do you get any insight in your reporting that source of the leads they sent you were from these VLA's? Does your pricing drop if you ask them to turn them off? Will they even agree to it?
Example is this dealer has a single Red F-150 King Ranch in stock, and I cannot get that truck to display on their own VLA's (which they do run), just the Cars.com VLA. Unless I'm missing something, this is driving up costs for dealer-run VLA's in their own market and pushing folks to pages that have competing dealer inventory right on the lander.
Curious on the feedback here in 2025.
Example is this dealer has a single Red F-150 King Ranch in stock, and I cannot get that truck to display on their own VLA's (which they do run), just the Cars.com VLA. Unless I'm missing something, this is driving up costs for dealer-run VLA's in their own market and pushing folks to pages that have competing dealer inventory right on the lander.
Curious on the feedback here in 2025.
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- Aug 15, 2023
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This is typical Google trying to maximize profit any way they can. I worked there for 7.5 years on the Automotive team and I can tell you that the 3rd party or Endemic sites like Cars.com, AutoTrader, etc are Google's largest addressable budgets to go after to continue to grow. This is not inside information, this is publicly available. So the 3rd parties can't afford to not run VLA.
I do think NADA or a similar organization needs to work to protect dealers from these 3rd parties using your inventory for their own gain. If they did not run your inventory on VLAs, I do believe VLAs would severely hurt their business because we have hard data that proves that dealer websites convert shoppers into leads 4X better than the 3rd parties.
Google does have a good mousetrap built with VLA and with a proper CDP + identity resolution set up to nurture shoppers that come to your site, VLAs are a great tool. Personally I think it's a crime that the 3rd parties can use your own inventory to compete against you in the VLA auction.
If all dealers refused to work with the 3rd parties unless they contractually agree to not use your inventory on VLA that would send a message, but what is the likelihood of that happening.
Wouldn't you push VLA's from a source that converts 4X another? Don;t they only care about CX??
This is what bothers me... there's little to no value to the dealer.
Somebody has an affinity to the national listing site brand and goes to the site directly? You write a great vehicle review to pull a shopper down the funnel? You rank organically for a vehicle search in a local market? Great! That's your value.
Running the same paid ad that I can run myself, in my own market, displacing my own ads and landing the shopper on a page with my competitors similar cars using my own unit as the bait?? What??
And if it's true that pricing won't change if they turn off VLA's for your store, they've baked VLA's inside your pricing package already. Wonder how big of a slice of their traffic is VLA's?
- Aug 15, 2023
- 22
- 6
- Awards
- 3
- First Name
- Lane
The 3rd parties need the traffic on their sites so they can sell marketing and advertising packages to dealers. Their prices only continue to go up and they are using the money you give them for their services to buy Google VLA which lands the customers on a poor converting landing page. They then sell you that traffic at a markup that you could have gotten on your own for cheaper if you just ran Google VLA. Dealers are literally financing 3rd parties to make VLA more expensive. Total madness.Wouldn't you push VLA's from a source that converts 4X another? Don;t they only care about CX??
This is what bothers me... there's little to no value to the dealer.
Somebody has an affinity to the national listing site brand and goes to the site directly? You write a great vehicle review to pull a shopper down the funnel? You rank organically for a vehicle search in a local market? Great! That's your value.
Running the same paid ad that I can run myself, in my own market, displacing my own ads and landing the shopper on a page with my competitors similar cars using my own unit as the bait?? What??
And if it's true that pricing won't change if they turn off VLA's for your store, they've baked VLA's inside your pricing package already. Wonder how big of a slice of their traffic is VLA's?
Dealers nationwide need to organize to stop the 3rd parties lighting your money on fire by running VLA using your inventory
