Auto Dealerships · Google & VLAs
Google & inventory ads for dealerships
Search catches the buyer at the bottom of the funnel — keys practically in hand. Vehicle Listing Ads put your actual inventory in front of that in-market searcher, at the price, near them.
What I audit in the first 30 days
Same order every time — each step depends on the one before it.
Feed health
Vehicle Listing Ads are only as good as the inventory feed behind them — accurate prices, photos, availability. A stale feed advertises cars that already sold and burns trust and budget.
VLA eligibility & merchant setup
Vehicle Ads require a verified Merchant Center and a compliant feed. Most dealers either aren't set up or are running a half-configured feed leaving the cheapest bottom-funnel inventory volume on the table.
Where the search budget leaks
Service, parts, careers, and recall queries drain a dealer search account fast. First pass on the search-terms report usually recovers real spend before any bid change.
The playbook
The levers that consistently move these accounts, roughly in order of impact.
Vehicle Listing Ads from a clean feed
The exact car, price, and photo in front of a searcher who wants that car near them. The highest-intent inventory placement Google offers — and the one most dealers never turn on.
High-intent search, tightly negatived
Make, model, and “near me” queries with an aggressive, dealer-specific negative list — service, parts, jobs, and OEM terms that cannibalize — so budget stays on buyers, not browsers.
Land on the VDP, not the homepage
A searcher who clicked a specific vehicle should land on that vehicle's detail page, ready to inquire — not a homepage that makes them start the search over.
Call tracking, because dealers close on the phone
A large share of dealer leads are calls. Tracked numbers and recordings turn the phone into measurable, coachable conversion data instead of a black box.
Budget by margin, new vs used
Used and new carry different gross and different close behavior. Budgets and bids follow the margin, with clean separation so reporting stays honest.
The benchmarks I hold to
| Benchmark | Typical range |
|---|---|
| CPC, used-car keywords | $1.50 – $6 |
| Cost per lead | $40 – $120 |
| VLA share of clicks | 20 – 40% |
| Call share of leads | 40 – 60% |
Run this in your shop
If bays are empty while the phone rings, the leak is measurable — and fixable.