What Are Google Vehicle Ads
Google Vehicle Ads (GVA) are a performance-based, lower-funnel (drives purchases among shoppers who show a potential to buy) ad format, which allows automotive advertisers to promote their entire stock to shoppers looking for vehicles on Google. The formatting for the advert is pictured below. Taking customers to the vehicle description page (VPD), and from there, customers can contact the dealership before visiting onsite. Showing only available inventory will enrich the customers’ purchase experience and provide more qualified leads (conversions).
The Effects on the US Market
Case Studies Provided By Google
Hamel Honda, QC Canada
Hamel was looking for a way to automate how they reach customers, while also making sure they saw an accurate inventory. Hamel wanted to generate more qualified leads for their website, and for that to work they partnered with a local agency (360 Agency) to help them use Vehicle Ads. 360 Agency implemented GVA to push the dealerships’ used vehicle inventory in real time. To help the 360 Agency use a maximise conversions value bid strategy to drive conversion actions aligning with their marketing objectives.
These were the results:
- 27% increase in leads
- -18% in cost per lead
- 17% increase in conversion rates
Asbury Automo†ive Group, Atlanta GA USA
Asburys planned to get relevant and specific inventory in front of customers online while maintaining their original marketing investments. They kicked this off by creating a detailed automotive feed, mapping out each store with a custom vehicle inventory with specifications like make, model etc. Asbury launched GVA campaigns and surfaced their vehicles in their inventory on Google search to maximise conversions and drive relevant traffic to the vehicle description pages.
These were the Results:
- Increased Used car clicks by 113% and doubled car VDP clicks with less inventory in stock.
- 35% increase in total account conversions
- 12% increase in conversions value
- 65% decrease in cost per conversion
- Increased efficiency from GVA leads to being able to repurpose budgets from channels, lowering their advertising Pvr (Profit per Vehicle Retailed).
Ken Garff, USA
This dealership empire wanted to make potential customers see they had the car they were searching for and drive more people to visit their VDP. To start, Ken Garff created a Google Merchant Centre vehicle inventory feed by collaborating with their inventory management to connect the correct inventory to the right Merchant Centre templates. After uploading the feed Ken Garff launched GVA using smart shopping campaigns to maximise conversion values from digital retailing, site visits, phone calls and forms filled. Then they surfaced used car inventory directly to the Google search results page to reach the lower funnel automotive queries and ultimately drive customers directly to the VDP on their respective websites.
The Results were:
- at nine dealerships there was an 55% increase in conversions
- lowered cost per conversion rate by 65% than the previous account’s average
- they also got a 67% better conversion rate compared to overall accounts.
Pacific Honda, AMER US
Pacific Honda wanted to get inventory in front of as many in-market shoppers as possible, particularly those using Google to research vehicles. They also wanted to display used vehicle inventory in their immediate geographical market. To accomplish this they launched performance-focused, Lower-funnel vehicle ads in October 2021 as an evergreen strategy. It used geotargeting to reach potential customers located in San Diego. They also partnered with L2Media, who suggested GVA, and pushed used vehicles, while new car inventory is low
The Results were:
- this campaign generated 368 incremental leads
- 105 assisted sales from vehicle ads
- 41% decrease in cost per lead
- Planned to expand the use of GVA to other stores
GVA has helped reach potential customers, improve inventory visibility, and drive traffic to vehicle description pages. Using digital advertising tools like GVA is important for enhancing online presence, engaging with in-market shoppers, and boosting dealership performance. As more dealerships recognize the benefits of GVA, its expansion into other stores and regions is expected to continue changing automotive marketing strategies and driving industry growth.
