Google is testing a setting that lets Performance Max campaigns skip the Display Network and Search Partners while your Vehicle Listing Ads (VLAs) keep working. Here’s what it is, who has it, and how to decide if your store should use it.
Paid Search
Articles on dealership paid search (SEM): Google Ads campaigns, budgets, keywords and measuring what each click is worth. Read the Car Dealer Paid Search overview.
Vehicle Ads, Performance Max and Search: Where Your Google Budget Really Goes
Your Google Ads budget now runs through three very different engines. Here’s what each one does well, where the money can quietly drift, and how to split it.
Should You Pay for Your Own Name?
Bidding on your own dealership name in Google Ads is usually cheap insurance, as long as it runs in its own campaign and stays out of Performance Max’s results.
Your Service Department Deserves Its Own Ad Budget
Service and parts carry roughly half of dealership gross profit, but most ad budgets go to sales. The Google Ads that fill a service schedule, and how to keep them from getting squeezed.
The $7,000-a-Month Question: What Your Paid Search Report Should Show
If you’re spending $7,000 a month on Google Ads, your report should show what that money did, not how busy the campaign looked. The six things every dealer’s paid search report needs.
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