Brian Pasch
November 1, 2024
Challenging Google Ads “Store Visits” Optimization For Auto Dealer Sales Campaigns
QUICK SUMMARY
After reviewing campaign settings from numerous different Google agency partners, a pattern is emerging: agencies are optimizing Google Ads campaigns, to sell new and used vehicles, based on Google’s reporting of store visits.
Since the research has been released, dealers have been reaching out to me for advice on how to apply the research. Since I have been actively redesigning the Google Ads campaigns that PCG Digital runs for auto dealers, I have several immediate changes to suggest in addition to what I outlined in the research report.
Is “Store Visits” a Valuable Signal to Optimize Auto Dealer Sales Campaigns?
Let me answer this question directly: no. After reviewing campaign settings from numerous different Google agency partners, a pattern is emerging: agencies are optimizing Google Ads campaigns, to sell new and used vehicles, based on Google’s reporting of store visits.
Google explains that store visits campaign optimization can be used for auto dealerships, and here are their suggestions on their help page.
“If visits to your physical locations—like hotels, auto dealerships, restaurants, and retail stores—are important to your business, you can use store visits conversion tracking to help you see how your ads influence store visits.
Many consumers conduct research online before purchasing in store, and Google Ads can impact those online research decisions that lead to store visits. Store visits help measure the full value of your online ads by accounting for the additional conversions that happen offline. Using store visits, you can optimize your campaigns for omnichannel performance and maximize total return on ad spend across online and offline channels.”
Did anyone challenge this claim?
BPE Research uncovered, based on how Google Ads campaigns are run for many dealers in the United States, that less than 13% of Google phone call conversions were for sales. Phone calls are the number one hard conversion channel for automotive retailers. The vast majority of the calls were for service, parts, and administrative tasks. Why is this bad? BPE Research estimated that 95% of the Google Ads campaigns are funded by variable ops (sales) and not fixed ops (service).
Many agencies use call conversions to optimize sales campaigns, which you can now see is a false friend, because it generates more service outcomes! If you use call conversions to optimize Google Ads sales campaigns, you are polluting the sales conversion signal. Today, Google Ads agencies cannot inject only sales call conversions into the bidding engine from Google or third-party vendors.
Hopefully, we will have some call outcome tracking solutions to share at the Automotive Analytics & Attribution Summit (AAAS) in November based on new innovations from call tracking companies. Details on the summit can be found at the AAAS Website.
Expanding SEM Research: Service and Sales Transactional Ratios
I called a car dealership executive today to get their sales to service transactions for August 2021. They sold 400 cars and had 4,000 customer-pay service transactions. That is a 10:1 ratio. Let’s unpack their results for a minute since this store has a very efficient service department. Note: I excluded internal store repair orders from these figures.
According to the dealership, 63% of the service customers waited for their car to be serviced and the other 37% came back to pick up their vehicle. That’s approximately 5,480 customer visits for service in August. Let’s say that this dealer closes 35% of all sales customers that walk in to the showroom and some come back to pick up their car on a second visit. That’s about 1,500 consumers who visited the dealers to purchase 400 vehicles.
So my napkin math says that service customers are 3.6x more likely to be on the physical lot than sales customers. So if a dealer is using “store visits” optimization for their sales campaigns, the data is contaminated. I believe using store visits as a sales optimization strategy is flawed because SALES is paying for the Ads campaigns and not service!
Dealership store visits are 3.6X more likely to be for service than sales
Other dealers I contacted reported a 7:1, 8:1, and 9:1 service to sales ratio. Google also does not separate the “store visits” into sales or service conversions.
So why should sales campaigns be using the “store visits” optimization feature? That is what I am questioning in this post. We need to start a more active dialogue within the automotive retail industry on what should be used to optimize Google Ads for automotive retail sales campaigns.
HAVE YOU DOWNLOADED THE BPE | RESEARCH REPORT YET?
Thousands of automotive professionals have downloaded the BPE Research report on Google Ads Outcomes for automotive dealers in the United States. You can download a copy here.
When Does Store Visits Optimization Work?
I called a car dealership executive today to get their sales to service transactions for August 2021. They sold 400 cars and had 4,000 customer-pay service transactions. That is a 10:1 ratio. Let’s unpack their results for a minute since this store has a very efficient service department. Note: I excluded internal store repair orders from these figures.
According to the dealership, 63% of the service customers waited for their car to be serviced and the other 37% came back to pick up their vehicle. That’s approximately 5,480 customer visits for service in August. Let’s say that this dealer closes 35% of all sales customers that walk in to the showroom and some come back to pick up their car on a second visit. That’s about 1,500 consumers who visited the dealers to purchase 400 vehicles.
Store visits work well for businesses that have a single physical retail focus. Restaurants who use Google Ads know that a “store visit” conversion would likely have resulted in a consumer picking up a food order or dining inside. If Restoration Hardware used Google Ads to attract more customers to a showroom, the people who walk into the physical store, triggering a “store visit” conversion are not bringing in their couch for repair! Customer service issues and warranty repairs are handled online and returns are handled through UPS or FedEx.
Which Goals Should Dealers Use in Sales Optimization Campaigns?
So what should dealers do? Think about this: I recommend that you stop importing phone call conversions and store visits conversions into Google Ads to optimize sales campaigns.
Dealers and agency partners need to create a robust set of goals that capture engaged shopper behaviors on a dealership’s website as well as counting hard conversions for sales. As I mentioned, the call tracking companies and Google have yet to integrate the separation of sales and service calls in Google Analytics events, but this should be coming soon.
THANKS FOR READING!
I will be teaching a workshop at the Automotive Analytics & Attribution Summit (AAAS) on how to properly set up conversion goals for Google Ads. Remember, these goals can also be weighted to develop even more sophisticated bidding signals for Google Ads. I will cover how to set up these goals with different website platforms and digital retailing tools in the workshop.
If you would like to register for this workshop and my new marketing courses, get your ticket for AAAS purchased today. We have special bundle packages for dealers who want to send 3 or more people to the conference. Just reach out to me for details: brian@brianpasch.com.
What will you do based on this information? Share this article with others to see how your comments differ.
Brian Pasch
Founder of Brian Pasch Enterprises and Automotive Guru, Brian constantly looks to improve the functionality and consistency of auto strategies for dealers & OEM’s.
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