Everything you need to know from the 2025 Google Marketing Live event.

This year’s Google Marketing Live event was once again all about AI. It has become a central focal point in not only the search results, but also in tools & tactics Google continues to roll out on Google Ads. With over 3 hours of information, what’s the stuff you need to know?

Here are our key takeaways and thoughts on next steps for our clients.

Be where your customers are. The customer journey from discovery to decision has changed and will continue to change.

• Ensure you have a full funnel approach and proper channel allocation to reach customers where they are.
  • While Google might want you to put all your dollars in their suite of products (they’re calling PMAX + Demand Gen + AI Max, the “Power Pack”), the real takeaway is to build awareness (video, display, programmatic), influence consideration (Meta, TikTok, and even Demand Gen), and drive decision making (Search, PMAX, Shopping).
• YouTube is more important than ever, and is still the #1 streaming service. With the amount of time spent, and the research that consumers conduct on YouTube, they are implementing new shoppable experiences.
  • What you need to think about is making sure you are in the space with great video content. Ensure you have videos in all sizes, lengths and orientations and that your messaging aligns with other media in market

• Incrementality testing: Previously only available for large spending accounts, Google Ads will allow you to see what’s truly driving conversions with lower budgets (~$5,000) - across all campaign types
• Cross-channel budgeting tools and attribution in GA4: Google is rolling out core new features to help marketers plan budgets cross-channel, as well as updates to attribution tools to include more social platforms, to give us a lot more visibility into where we should put your ad dollars for optimal effectiveness

AI MAX & Integrated Ads In AI Mode Are Here

The most important change that is here, and likely to stay, is AI Max for search campaigns. This is a new campaign type that can be used alongside PMAX. Our team feels that AI Max will likely replace traditional search over time.

So what really is it?

• Keywordless targeting allowing Google the ability to explore and match to broader queries to find your customers
• Real time asset creation based on URLs and existing creative
• Transparency into headline and landing page performance all in one place
• Google’s full details here

Another key feature that we’ve been anticipating for a while is Integrated Ads in AI mode. Google’s now showing Search and Shopping ads inside AI Overviews, allowing you to connect with potential customers during their research. If you’re running campaigns like Performance Max, Shopping, or broad match, you’re automatically eligible for these new placements.

Google has heard advertisers and is developing more tools for controls, new customer acquisition, and transparency.

• PMAX Channel Reporting - you can read more about that in our earlier blog post on the latest updates to Performance Max Reporting
• More prospecting controls are coming:
  • PMAX: The screenshot shared during the talk showed exclusions for customer lists, which we are amped for! What this means is we’ll have more campaign controls to exclude users who have recently searched for or interacted with your brand.
  • Demand Gen: New customer acquisition goal coming soon!
  • There’s no action needed for these, your teams are waiting to see what and when the features are released and will take action as needed.
• New tools:
  • Asset Studio in Google Ads: Create assets and variations for images and video directly in platform with Google AI.
  • Merchant center features: A/B title experiments, video hub that pulls from social & web and can easily sync to Google Ads, optimize images from feeds

So what’s next?

We’re most excited about the new prospecting tools, transparency and control tools that are rolling out. But we are testing into AI Max to be ready for key changes. Need help adapting to the new state of Paid Search? Let’s connect.

Is your agency counting VDP views as a conversion?

One of the most common mistakes our Paid Search specialists find when inheriting or auditing a Google Ad account is that Vehicle Detail Page (VDP) views are being marked as primary conversions. While knowing how many VDP views you are driving throughout the marketing process is important, counting them as a conversion can harm your ad account and sway the decisions you make based on the data you are seeing. Here’s why.

1. VDP Views Are Engagements, Not Conversions

Conversions should represent lead opportunities such as a form submission, a call, or a “Get E-Price” request. While a VDP view has its place in consumers submitting a lead, it is not a signal of high intent.

Counting VDP views as conversions can create a false sense of success. Your campaigns may appear to perform well because users are clicking around and browsing, but these actions may not translate into actual leads or sales.

This makes it harder to:

- Measure true ROI
- Compare across channels
- Make informed marketing decisions

2. It Skews Smart Bidding and Optimization

With Google’s rollout of Performance Max campaigns, their automated bidding strategies like Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value or Target CPA are becoming more popular than ever before. These campaigns (and any campaign type using automated bidding strategies) rely on your account’s conversion data to make real-time decisions. If you’re feeding the algorithm VDP views as conversions, you’re telling Google to optimize for people who simply look at cars, not people who are ready to buy them. While Google is smart, it will go after the path of least resistance and VDP Views are low-hanging fruit compared to a lead form.

This can lead to:

- Wasted budget on low-intent traffic
- Fewer true leads
- Less efficient ad spend

3. Better Ways to Track VDP Interest

VDP views are still valuable—they tell you what inventory is attracting attention and can help you refine your merchandising and retargeting strategies.

What do we do at Green Line? Our team imports VDP Views (asc_item_pageview) as secondary conversions. This way, we can still analyze the data without influencing bidding strategies or skewing the reports.

Your Google Ads conversions should reflect your business goals. If your goal is to generate leads or sales, then use those actions as your conversion signals and treat VDP views as supporting metrics—not success metrics. Are you curious how your conversions are being measured? Schedule an audit with our team and find out how to start getting more hard conversions (form fills, chats and phone calls).

Utilizing Performance Max for Conquesting Local Dealerships

Targeting your competition in traditional paid search has always been a costly and low-converting strategy. If you've tried it before, you know that competing requires a substantial budget. Bidding on competitors' names is expensive due to low relevance, driving up costs without guaranteeing results. Beyond the financial burden, many OEMs regulate and discourage this practice.

Knowing this, we decided to test a new way to target competitors by utilizing audience signals in Performance Max campaigns.  In our approach, we started with all applicable assets (feeds, images, video, text) enabled, a competitive incentive offer, and coupled that with a max conversion bid strategy.

 The audience signal that we created was a mix of search themes and a custom-built segment.  While this approach doesn’t directly target the competitor, we can utilize the power of Google’s audience signals to find people related to / interested in our competitors. 

After some initial testing, our data shows that Performance Max campaigns targeting competitor audiences captured nearly double the clicks at a similar cost. CPCs were about 54% lower, contributing to a nearly 93% lower CPA for calls/form fills than on search.
 
We think the reason is twofold:

1. Performance Max campaigns serve on several additional Google Products, which helps to expand the campaign's reach and reduce CPCs while improving Conversion Rate.  
2. Audience Signals help find related customers based on their behaviors, where they are more likely to convert.
   

Based on our testing, if conquesting is an area of focus for your automotive dealership, we would recommend testing into a conquesting audience signal on Performance Max instead of a traditional paid search campaign.

Google Ads Introduces Channel Performance Reporting in Performance Max

Google announced its latest improvement to its Performance Max campaigns - deeper insights into channel performance. These insights will allow our Paid Search specialists optimize campaigns and achieve better results for our clients.

Top 3 Takeaways from Google’s Performance Max Update

1. Channel-Level Insights: You can now view how each Google channel (Search, YouTube, Display, etc.) contributes to your ad performance— giving us the ability to optimize creative for each channel

2. Full Search Terms Visibility: Access to detailed search term reporting lets you refine targeting and creative to better align your ads with customer intent.

3. Deeper Creative Analytics: Get performance data on individual ad assets so you know exactly which visuals and messages drive results.

Channel-Level Performance Reporting

Channel-level performance reporting in Performance Max will allow digital advertisers to see how their campaigns perform across different Google platforms, including Search, YouTube, Display, Gmail, Discover, Maps, and Search partners. This will allow our team to identify which channels are driving conversions and create strategies to improve lower-performing channels. While the reporting will break down each channel’s performance, you cannot opt out of running ads in a specific channel or allocate more/less budget to a specific channel. 

Enhanced Search Terms Reporting

Performance Max does not currently use keywords to serve ads. While that is not changing, they are giving advertisers more information around the keywords consumers are searching that trigger Performance Max ads. This will allow us to improve our negative keyword strategy (another recent enhancement of Performance Max Campaigns) to exclude irrelevant traffic and improve ad copy to better match customer intent.

 

Detailed Asset Reporting

Google is now sharing more data on how each asset used in the Performance Max asset group is performing. Having a better understanding of the CTR and which assets are converting will help your digital agency create high-performing assets that resonate with your target audience. 

Diagnostic Tools for Optimization

Google has also rolled out diagnostic tools to help identify issues affecting specific channel performance. Having this tool will allow quicker identification and a faster solution to get ads back up and running as planned.  

What’s Next

While Google announced these updates, they are not fully available in all ad accounts. Green Line Automotive aims to optimize our digital automotive strategies, improve customer engagement, and drive better business outcomes. We look forward to implementing these tools for our Automotive Paid Search clients and sharing our experiences in future updates.

 

What Google’s Q1 2025 Algorithm Updates Mean for Auto Dealers

Did you notice dips in your organic search traffic to your dealership website in Q1? Google’s latest algorithm updates made a big impact that will require you to adjust your current SEO strategy. Here’s a breakdown of what changed — and what it means for dealerships like yours.

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1. Local Intent Signals Are Stronger Than Ever

Google is placing even more emphasis on hyperlocal signals to serve users better. For dealerships, this means:

• Having accurate and consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) details across the web is critical.
• Google is prioritizing businesses with strong local citations, user-generated content (like reviews), and proximity-based relevance.
• “Near me” searches are even more tailored to real-time location and user intent, so Local SEO matters more than ever.

What you should do: Ensure your Google Business Profile is fully optimized, frequently updated (our Google Posting Tool can help!), and packed with high-quality photos and features, current sales and service offers.

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2. Content Quality and Topical Authority

Google’s March 2025 Core Update focused heavily on content usefulness and topical depth. Thin, repetitive content is being de-ranked in favor of in-depth, informative, and well-structured material.

For dealerships, this means it’s no longer enough to list cars and prices — your site should answer:

• What are the benefits of leasing vs. buying this model?
• How do hybrid and EV models compare?
• What maintenance tips apply to your vehicle lineup?

What you should do: Build out useful and updated content that addresses real customer questions  — FAQs, vehicle comparisons and backend structured data will help your content go further. Our Content Marketing for Automotive approach helps separate you from the competition. 

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3. Page Experience Updates (Especially Mobile)

Google’s updated Page Experience signals now place more weight on mobile usability, page speed, and interactive elements. Clunky, outdated dealership websites are likely to lose ground to faster, mobile-first competitors.

What you should do:

• Optimize for fast load times, especially on mobile.
• Make CTAs (like “Book a Test Drive” or “Get Financing”) easy to tap and not blocked by other website features such as Chat tools.
• Ensure that inventory search and form submissions are easy to use on phones.
• Reduce intrusive interstitials, such as pop-ups, to encourage faster load times and fewer layout shifts.

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4. AI-Generated Content Scrutiny

As AI-generated content floods the web, Google has refined its algorithm to favor content that shows clear signs of human oversight and expertise.

What you should do: Even if you're using AI tools to help generate content, review and personalize it. Add real dealership insights, customer stories, and photos from your actual location to build trust and authority.

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5. Video and Visual Search Integration

Video results are showing up more often in mobile search and Google Discover. Google’s AI is also better at understanding video content context.

What you should do: Create short videos highlighting your vehicle features, dealership tours, or service center tips. Post them on YouTube, embed them on your site, and optimize titles and descriptions with local keywords. You can also use these videos in your paid digital media as well! Google Performance Max campaigns also support YouTube short video content. 

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Key Takeaways

The Q1 2025 Google updates focus on authenticity, user intent, and localized relevance. For auto dealerships, that means it’s time to:

• Refresh your content strategy
• Polish your local SEO
• Enhance mobile experiences
• Show real human value behind your digital presence

Want to make sure your website ranks well in 2025? Contact us today for a free digital audit or schedule a meeting to learn more about our Search Engine Optimization strategy. 

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Green Line Automotive Becomes Audi of America After Sales Digital Agency of Record

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rolling Meadows, IL- (April 29th, 2025) - Green Line Automotive has been selected as the Agency of Record for Audi of America After Sales Tier One National Digital Media. Green Line created two custom websites, https://audidealeroffers.com/ and https://auditechnicians.com/, and is running paid media to support Audi’s initiatives. 

Green Line Automotive is working with AoA After Sales in two key areas of its business: promoting Audi Dealer Service Offers and assisting Audi Dealerships with their Technician Recruitment efforts. Audi Dealer Offers, https://audidealeroffers.com/, allows Audi Dealers to upload service offers and promotes having Audi owners service their vehicle at an Audi Service Center. Green Line is running biddable media to help promote the website and assist consumers in finding an Audi Dealership close to them as a complimentary Tier One strategy to what individual Audi Dealerships are running. 

The Audi Technician Recruitment website, https://auditechnicians.com/, has a main goal of collecting technician applications of varying skill levels and serving as a resource for participating dealerships to fill open technician roles. Green Line is running regional ads on Meta to drive traffic and applications to the site.

“The team at Green Line is so excited to be a Tier One partner for another great brand. Working with Audi of America After Sales to develop and promote these sites has been wonderful. We are happy to be a part of such great resources to their Dealerships and to the Audi consumers,” said Brent Rogers, Vice President and Managing Partner of Green Line Automotive.

Green Line Automotive provides industry-leading insight on digital marketing efforts, specifically tailored to each client’s needs. From strategies such as SEO, SEM, Display, Social, Video & First Party Data Integrations, there are multiple avenues for every dealership to engage with their target audience.

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About Green Line Automotive
Green Line Automotive is a digital advertising agency created for automotive dealerships. Our mission is to deliver tier-one automotive advertising expertise, technology, and service to tier-three dealers. We give you an advantage over your competition by giving every dealership the best in technology, coupled with a fully customizable approach.

For more information on GREEN LINE AUTOMOTIVE:

See our premier services at gldauto.com such as Automotive Search Engine Optimization or contact us at info@greenline.nyc or 833-GLD-CARS.

https://www.facebook.com/greenlinedigitalauto
https://www.instagram.com/greenlinedigitalauto
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/green-line-digital-auto/

Performance Max Vehicle Ads: Is feed only still relevant?

Best practices for Performance Max Vehicle Ads (also known as VLAs) continue to evolve as Google rolls out new updates and functionality. At Green Line Automotive, we’ve been testing different campaign structures to find what drives real results for dealerships.

Lately, our focus has been on comparing Feed-Only campaigns to Feed + Asset campaigns. Here’s what we’ve seen:

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Feed-Only Campaigns

Pros:

• Excellent for generating low-cost VDP views
• Lower CPCs
• High impression volume

Cons:

• Lower CTRs due to broader reach
• Lower conversion rates — traffic often comes from casual shoppers rather than ready-to-buy customers
• Lower leads and phone calls, increasing Cost Per Lead

If your goal is to maximize visibility and get more eyes on your inventory, feed-only campaigns can deliver. However, visibility alone doesn’t always lead to sales. It’s crucial to work closely with your paid search team to ensure that the clicks are translating into actual showroom traffic and sales.

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Feed + Assets Campaigns

Pros:

• Higher conversion rates
• Lower Cost Per Leads
• Increased calls and leads

Cons:

• Higher CPCs
• Requires ongoing monitoring to maintain quality 

As of April 2025, our recommended approach is to run Performance Max campaigns with both feed and assets enabled. This setup consistently outperforms feed-only structures, particularly when your goal is to drive qualified leads and real-world conversions.

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Final Thoughts

As with all things digital, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Your ideal setup may vary depending on your market, budget, and inventory. But based on our testing across multiple dealerships, Feed + Asset campaigns are currently the most effective way to drive results with Performance Max for automotive.

Need help dialing in your VLAs? Learn more about our Paid Search services and schedule a meeting to talk strategy.

Utilizing Paid Social for After Sales Marketing

After Sales is a large profit center for any automotive dealership and should not be forgotten about when it comes to digital marketing. Paid Social is a great place to have a presence for After Sales to stay top of mind of current customers and reach more potential customers.

Green Line's approach for promoting After Sales on Paid Social is to drive awareness and engagement of the Online Service Scheduler tool or form fills and service promotions to corresponding owners. Below are some key ad types for different objectives, ad formats and audiences.

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Doing Social Differently

• In-platform management for a hands-on management backed by budget automation.
• A/B testing, utilizing top available ad format offerings, and optimizing based on targets rather than vanity metrics.
• Install Relevant Meta Pixels including: Remarketing, Service Scheduler and Call Tracking
• Take advantage of all data available and tailor it down to the last stitch.

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Objective: Awareness

Optimization: Impressions
Ad Format: Single image or video ads
Audience options: Owners of dealership make or customer lists

Running awareness ads is a great entry point to After Sales digital marketing on Paid Social. Because you are optimizing for Impressions, the CPM (cost per thousand impressions) is usually very low, which allows your budget to go further. With this ad type, we would recommend a message that reinforces convenience or savings.

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Objective: Website Traffic

Optimization: Link Clicks
Ad Format: Single image or carousel ads
Audience options: Broad, predictive targeting

Drive potential customers to your website service scheduler or service specials with web traffic campaigns. You can also exclude recently serviced customers from this campaign to conserve budget and ensure relevant targeting.

Increase customer engagement by using creative that highlights:

• Low-cost oil changes
• Seasonally relevant tune-ups
• Same-day / same-week service availability
• Guaranteed service loaner vehicles

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Objective: Leads

Optimization: Cost Per Lead
Ad Format: Ads that click to Message
Audience options: Broad, predictive targeting

If your store has dedicated team member(s) to answer Facebook leads, this ad type might be a great way to increase your Schedule Service appointments. Using the chat tool can help remove friction that a customer might experience when trying to schedule a service appointment online. We recommend testing into this ad type if you receive ~50 schedule service leads a week from Paid Social.

 

5 Google Ads Updates You Need To Know for Q1 2025

Navigating Automotive Tariffs: Our Focus on Efficiency & Competitive Strategy

As an advertising agency specializing in the automotive industry, we understand that upcoming tariffs on vehicles and parts are beyond the control of both dealers and agencies alike. While these changes may impact pricing and margins, our commitment to our clients remains the same: driving efficiency, maximizing ROI, and staying ahead of the competition. Now more than ever, dealers need an agency that prioritizes performance over percentage-based fees, ensuring that every marketing dollar is working as hard as possible. Our approach has always been rooted in paid search and paid social best practices, focusing on high-intent buyers and strategic optimizations to maintain an edge in an increasingly competitive market.

In addition to strong digital advertising strategies, having compelling specials and clear calls to action on your dealership’s website will be more critical than ever. Ensuring these offers are updated quickly and efficiently can make all the difference in driving conversions. That’s why Green Line’s DRIVE software, included in our SEO packages, makes it simple to update specials and CTAs seamlessly, keeping your dealership agile in a shifting market.

While external factors like tariffs may create industry challenges, our mission is to ensure that your dealership remains competitive, visible, and profitable—regardless of market conditions. By leveraging data-driven strategies, advanced targeting, and continuous campaign optimizations, we help dealers navigate uncertainty without sacrificing performance.

The automotive landscape is shifting, but our focus remains steadfast: efficiency, transparency, and results.
Let’s continue to drive success together.