How using conversion-based bidding can affect CPCs

Green Line Digital POV on turning on conversion-based bidding & the effect on traffic.

Did you recently switch bidding strategies to got more leads, but see your CPCs rise?

This is an expected side effect of changing bid strategies, let’s look at why this happens & what should be done when this happens.

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What is the “maximize conversions” bidding strategy?

“Maximize conversions” is a bid strategy in Google Ads that automatically sets bids to get as many leads as possible. This can be used on a single campaign or part of a portfolio bid strategy applied to multiple campaigns.

“Maximize conversions” bidding uses historical information from your campaign & contextual signals about the search to determine the optimal bid at the time of a search auction. Contextual signals can include user behaviors such as if a user has been searching for certain cars or visiting websites similar to your dealership.

Switching to this bidding strategy tells Google’s algorithm to look for people likely to convert rather than go for traffic volume to your website. In order for this bid strategy to work it requires conversion tracking to be set up & leads (like ASC form fills or calls from ads) tracked back to the account. We recommend enabling this test if you have over 50 conversions within 30 days, but it can work if your dealership has less. We wouldn't recommend enabling this if you have less than 10 however...

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How Conversion-Based Bidding affects traffic.

When first changing a campaign from click-based bidding ( “maximize clicks”), we expect to see CPCs fluctuate. This is because when you are bidding for traffic, Google is optimizing for cheaper clicks, regardless of if they will convert.

Once the switch is made to conversion-based bidding, Google’s algorithm will work to find users close to making a call or submitting a lead form. These users are further along in their car purchase research and typically cost more to reach than users just starting to explore their options.

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How to approach turning on Conversion-Based Bidding.

Once enabled, the new bidding strategy will send the campaign back into a learning phase for up to 7 days, although depending on spend, this can be shorter.

During this learning phase, key metrics to watch are lead volume, conversion rate and CPA and if those are improving. Our expectation is that you will see more leads with a cheaper or consistent CPA. This can take longer than the 7-day campaign learning phase, with 30 days being ideal to test a new bidding strategy. You could also conduct an a/b test to test the strategy prior to fully switching over your campaigns to see if this is right for your dealership.

The goal of switching to max conversions is to find your dealership higher quality traffic - and this will raise CPCs and ultimately lower overall traffic volume.
While we recognize this can be a little alarming in your analytics, our goal is always high quality traffic.

To help guide the algorithm, your search manager will review search terms as well as any audience signals being used in the campaign to set the campaign up for success.

Once sufficient data is being collected, a “target CPA” (how much you’re willing to pay per lead) can also be applied which allows you to tell Google how much you'd like to spend acquiring each lead to control overall costs.

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The takeaway.

Conversion based bidding is a great tool to utilize for campaigns focused on driving leads and calls for your dealership. You’ll want to evaluate the success of this bidding strategy by reviewing your lead volume, conversion rate & CPA before and after switching the bid strategy. Moderate shifts in CPCs should be tolerated in order to reach higher quality users with your ads.

If CPCs rise too much, search term reporting, audience signals, and target CPAs can be used to help offset those costs.

Remember to give campaigns time to stabilize after the change before making a final decision on the success of a new bidding strategy.

The "Cars for Sale" tab is gone: What dealerships need to so now.

If you’ve checked your Google Business Profile (GBP) recently and noticed something missing, you aren’t alone.

Google has officially sunset the "Vehicles for Sale" feature—the organic inventory tab that allowed dealerships to showcase their cars directly on their profile for free.

At Green Line Automotive, we’re helping dealers pivot from static listings to a dynamic, AI-first strategy. Here is why your inventory disappeared and how automated posting is the key to getting featured in the new age of search.

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Why did Google remove vehicle listings?

Google’s official stance is that they are "simplifying search." In reality, they are moving away from static widgets in favor of two things:

1. Paid Vehicle Listing Ads (VLAs): Moving inventory behind a "pay-to-play" model in the Merchant Center.
2. AI-Generated Answers: Google’s AI (Gemini) now synthesizes information from across the web to answer car shoppers' questions directly.

If your inventory was only living in that deprecated GBP tab, you’ve effectively become invisible to the millions of shoppers who start their journey on Google. Which is why it will be more important to keep your profile updated in additional ways.

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The new frontier: Getting "Picked Up" by AI.

When a shopper asks Google, "What are the best used SUVs for families under $30k near me?", the AI doesn't just look at a spreadsheet of VINs. It looks for signals of activity and authority. This is where Automated GBP Posting becomes your secret weapon. By consistently posting your latest inventory as "Updates" on your profile, you are feeding AI with crawlable data.

1. Quick Indexing

Traditional SEO is a long-term strategy that takes time to reflect in search results. AI is pulling information within 24 hours and featuring the information in their results.

2. Rich content for AI overviews.
AI models love context. A simple inventory feed gives a price and a VIN. An automated post includes:

• Keywords: "Fuel-efficient," "Third-row seating," or "Certified Pre-Owned."
• Local Signals: Your city, neighborhood, and service area.
• High-Res Imagery: Visual data that AI uses to confirm the quality of the listing.

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Green Line Automated Google Business Posting

You don't have time to manually post every car that hits your floor. Green Line’s Google Business Profile Inventory Posting Integration connects to your inventory feed and posts vehicles weekly to allow your inventory to maintain competitive visibility. Our automated system syncs directly with your inventory feed to:

• Auto-generate high-intent posts for new and used vehicles.
• Optimize captions with the specific keywords AI shoppers are using.
• Include direct links to your Vehicle Detail Pages (VDPs) to drive immediate conversions.

Home Run Auto Group acquires Bill Walsh Automotive Group dealerships in Ottawa, Illinois.

Group expands Illinois presence.

We’re excited to celebrate our client, Home Run Automotive Group, as they continue to expand their dealership footprint. We look forward to supporting their growth and delivering great work for these new dealership locations.

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JANESVILLE, Wis – December 15, 2025 – Home Run Auto Group, a Midwest-based automotive retailer headquartered in Janesville, Wisconsin, today announced the acquisition of Bill Walsh Ford/Kia, Bill Walsh Honda and Bill Walsh Toyota in Ottawa, Illinois. The transaction officially closed on December 15, 2025 and the dealerships will be immediately rebranded as Ottawa Ford/Kia, Ottawa Honda and Ottawa Toyota. Also part of the transaction were the acquisition of Bill Walsh Chevrolet GMC which will be rebranded as Hamblock Chevrolet GMC, Joe Hamblock, Dealer Principal, as well as Sierra Motors, Sean Sivore, Dealer Principal, which will be rebranded as Ottawa Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram and Ottawa Mazda.

With this acquisition, Home Run Auto Group expands its portfolio to nine dealership rooftops and strengthens its presence in Illinois. The group now employs approximately 400 team members across its growing network.

“Community commitment and exceptional customer experience are at the core of everything we do,” said Jim Bozich, Owner of Home Run Auto Group. “Ottawa is a strong, values-driven community, and we are proud to invest in the future of this market while building meaningful relationships with customers and employees.”

Mark Geiger, Co-Owner of Home Run Auto Group, added, “Our growth strategy has always been centered on people-our team members, our customers, our communities we serve. This acquisition aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver outstanding service, modern facilities and expanded opportunities for both customers and employees. “
Home Run Auto Group confirmed that expanded hiring is planned as part of the transition, as the company invests in staffing, operations and customer experience initiatives across the Starved Rock Country market.

Bill Walsh, Jr said “LaSalle County has been home to my family for four generations and the families and communities we have served have always been our heart and soul. We have been blessed to work side by side with such an incredible group of people over so many years. I’m confident that the community minded people at Home Run Auto Group, Hamblock Chevrolet GMC and Ottawa Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Mazda will continue the Bill Walsh legacy with integrity, energy and a strong commitment to both customers and employees.”

Inside a high-performing dealership AI social strategy.

How AI is reshaping organic and paid social, and why people still matter.

Social media for dealerships has changed dramatically. AI now influences everything from how ads find the right shoppers to how content is created, tested, and optimized. But despite all of these advancements, one thing remains true:

AI doesn’t replace your social strategy; it strengthens it.

And the dealerships seeing the biggest lift today are the ones blending AI-driven tools with human creativity and judgment.

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AI in paid social: Smarter, faster, more predictive.

The biggest shift in Paid Social isn’t just automation — it’s intelligence. Platforms like Meta Andromeda analyze signals across creative, engagement patterns, and outcomes to predict who’s most likely to take action. Instead of relying on tight audience filters, AI now determines the best delivery moments and placements to match your goals.

For dealerships, this means broader audiences often perform better, creative variety matters more than ever, and your own first-party data plays a major role in helping the algorithm “learn” what a qualified shopper looks like.

AI handles the heavy lifting of optimization, but your strategic direction still guides what the system tests, prioritizes, and scales.

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AI in organic social: Insights + Efficiency = Better Content.

On the organic side, AI tools are speeding up how dealerships create, analyze, and refine content. They surface what’s resonating, recommend improvements, and help repurpose posts across channels.

But AI can’t define your personality, tone, or point of view.
Organic social still thrives on human connection, your team’s stories, your humor, your culture, your commitment to your community. AI helps you work faster, but people help you stand out.

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Where AI + Human Strategy meet.

The most effective dealership social strategies today pair AI’s precision with human intuition.

AI supports: trend analysis, creative variations, predictive delivery, performance insights, and pattern recognition.
Humans bring: brand identity, local nuance, storytelling, customer engagement, and strategic thinking.

The result is a social approach that’s modern, efficient, and deeply authentic.

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What this looks like for a high-performing dealership.

Dealerships winning with AI aren’t relying on it blindly. They’re using it to amplify what they already do well. Their paid social benefits from smarter delivery and a wider creative mix. Their organic social becomes more consistent, more thoughtful, and more informed by real data. Across both sides, AI becomes a partner that accelerates performance while humans stay in the driver’s seat.

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The bottom line.

AI is transforming both organic and paid social, but the dealerships seeing the strongest ROI are the ones using AI to enhance their strategy, not replace it. When you pair AI’s scale and intelligence with human creativity and authentic connection, you build a social presence that performs today and evolves with tomorrow’s platforms.

Organic vs. Paid Social for Auto Dealers:
What’s the difference, and how do you balance both?

In today’s dealership marketing landscape, “social media” isn’t one thing. It’s two distinct engines, organic and paid, working together to move shoppers from awareness to loyalty.

Here’s what each channel does, why dealers need both, and exactly how to balance them for long-term growth.

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Organic Social: Your community builder & loyalty engine.

Organic social is where you nurture customer relationships, build loyalty, and show the personality behind your dealership. It’s not about instant leads; It’s about belonging, trust, and long-term retention.

Dealerships use organic social to:

• Build an engaged community of repeat and loyal customers.
• Humanize the dealership through staff highlights and behind-the-scenes content.
• Celebrate customer stories, community involvement, and dealership culture.
• Maintain daily presence and conversation with followers.
• Reinforce brand values beyond price and inventory.

Organic social builds affinity—not just impressions. Over time, that loyalty drives repeat service visits, second-vehicle purchases, and referrals.

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Paid Social: Your always-on, strategic growth driver.

Paid social expands your reach beyond existing followers and actively drives traffic, leads, and conversions. It’s the engine that keeps your pipeline full.

Dealerships rely on paid social to:

• Reach in-market shoppers at scale.
• Drive consistent VDP views, form fills, and store visits.
• Promote model launches, incentives, and monthly offers.
• Capture high-intent audiences during active shopping windows.
• Maintain a steady flow of performance data for platform algorithms.

Paid social must be constant and strategic, not used in bursts. Consistency improves learning phases, audience signals, and ROI.

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How auto dealers should balance organic + paid social.

Most dealerships invest in both, but not all combine them effectively. Here’s the practical breakdown for creating a balanced strategy:

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1. Let organic define your identity. Let paid amplify it.

Organic social is where you create your brand narrative: who you are, what you believe in, and why customers love you.
Paid social is how you get that story in front of more of the right shoppers.

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2. Keep paid social always on, But keep organic always engaging.

Paid social should run 365 days a year.
Organic should publish consistently, but only with content that sparks connection—not filler posts.

Ideal balance for dealerships:

• Organic: 3–5 meaningful posts/week.
• Paid: Always-on foundational campaigns + strategic promotions.

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3. Use organic insights to strengthen paid creative.

Your highest-performing organic posts often reveal:

• What stories resonate.
• What visuals get attention.
• What tone drives engagement.

Use those patterns to shape paid creative. This builds platform-friendly creative that performs faster and more efficiently.

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4. Measure them separately—but analyze their combined impact.

Organic metrics reflect community strength.
Paid metrics reflect performance efficiency.

Dealers should track them independently but ask combined questions:

• Are paid shoppers also engaging organically?
• Are organic followers converting in paid campaigns?
• Does our community content improve ad creative performance?

Together, they paint a full picture of brand health and actual results.

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5. Use paid to accelerate growth. Use organic to sustain it.

Paid social:

• Increases visibility.
• Drives conversions.
• Supports sales goals.

Organic social:

• Keeps customers connected.
• Improves retention.
• Strengthens reputation.

When paid brings new shoppers in the door, organic keeps them around.

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The bottom line.

Organic and paid social aren’t competing strategies. They’re complementary forces that drive different parts of the shopper journey. Organic social deepens trust and builds a loyal community that keeps choosing your dealership long after the first purchase. Paid social brings in fresh audiences, fuels consistent traffic, and supports sales momentum with predictable reach and performance.

When auto dealers treat these channels as partners, not substitutes, they create a marketing engine that attracts new shoppers, keeps past customers engaged, and strengthens brand presence across every stage of the buying cycle. The smartest strategies are the ones where organic defines the story, paid amplifies it, and both work together to move customers from discovery to lifelong loyalty.

How AI is Reshaping
Paid Social for Dealerships.

How is AI shaping Paid Social?

Paid Social advertising for dealerships is evolving fast, and AI is leading the way. Tools like Meta Andromeda are enhancing how dealerships produce ads at scale, optimize campaigns, and reach the right audiences.

Instead of relying on narrow audience filters, Andromeda flips the playbook by utilizing deep learning to decide who sees each ad based on engagement, creative cues, and outcomes. In other words, your ad creative now does the targeting.

For dealerships, that means:

• Broad audiences often outperform hyper-segmented ones
• Creative diversity is important in order to speed up the learning process
  • E.g. different formats, tones, compositions

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Strengthening AI Signals with First-Party Data

While creative is the primary driver of relevance, data fuels performance. Integrating clean, high-quality customer information (CRM & first-party data) with the algorithm helps it recognize your best prospects faster with stronger optimization signals and better retargeting. Establishing this training feedback loop is critical for the long consideration cycle of automotive.

Platforms like Green Line Digital’s CDP make this effortless by connecting dealership CRMs, DMS systems, and ad platforms to deliver real-time, secure data that enhances Meta’s AI learning.

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AI-Driven Creative Enhancements

AI tools are also streamlining creative production. Dealerships can now:

• Generate new vehicle images, backdrops, and ad concepts instantly
• Auto-write headlines, hooks, and ad copy variations for rapid testing
• Animate stills into Reels or TikTok style short-form videos which are perfect for top-of-funnel awareness
• Automatically translate ad copy into different languages
• Display a variety of ad styles that combine elements based on individual users’ predilections

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Takeaways

Understanding that discovery, consideration, and purchase can all happen in multiple sources and in non-linear ways, this system is a shift towards connected, multi-objective campaigns. With stronger data signals and more creative variety, Andromeda finds better matches, improves performance, and reduces fatigue.

Success in today’s AI-driven paid social landscape comes from integrating clean data and quality creative options with the system:

• Refresh creative often
• Embrace predictive broad targeting
• Connect CRM and CDP data for richer optimization
• Focus on your brand/story and what you want to achieve rather than who you want to achieve it with and let AI handle delivery

AI isn’t replacing social media marketers, it’s amplifying them, and dealerships that embrace this creative-first, data-enhanced model are already seeing stronger ROI.

What Google’s Removal of the “&num=100” Parameter Means for Your SEO Data

If you’ve noticed a sudden drop in impressions or keyword data in Google Search Console (GSC), you’re not alone. Many marketers and website owners have seen these numbers decline since mid-September 2025. But don’t panic — it doesn’t necessarily mean your rankings or visibility dropped. Instead, many of these drops are likely related to a change in how Google handles something called the “&num=100” parameter.

This update doesn’t directly affect how your website ranks, but it does change how certain data is collected and displayed in Google Search Console. Let’s break it down.

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What is the “&num=100” parameter?

The “&num=100” parameter was a part of the URL that some SEO tools and crawlers used to load up to 100 search results per page from Google at once.

For example, a typical Google search URL might look like this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=your+keyword

However, with the parameter added, the URL would look like this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=your+keyword&num=100

That “&num=100” part told Google to show 100 results on a single page instead of the 10 or so
that you'd usually see with a normal Google search.

Third-party SEO tools and automated crawlers used this setting to quickly scan large batches of
search results — helping them gather keyword rankings, competitor data, and visibility metrics
for reporting.

The result? Lots of pages buried a bit deeper on Google than the average human user might
look were generating "artificial" impressions.

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Why Google removed it.

In September 2025, Google stopped supporting the “&num=100” parameter entirely. That means when tools or bots try to crawl search results with that parameter, Google no longer shows them extra results or even allows the request to function as before.

This change hasn't been formally announced by Google, as many changes are. However, you can see the impact in real time if you try to use the parameter on your own — because it doesn't do anything.

This change was likely part of Google’s broader effort to:

• Reduce automated scraping and bot traffic on search result pages.
• Protect data integrity by ensuring metrics reflect real user behavior — not artificial visits from tools or scripts.

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How this affects Google Search Console metrics.

Here’s where the confusion comes in: even though this change doesn’t alter your site’s real-world visibility, it can make your Google Search Console data look different.

Before this change, automated crawlers that used “&num=100” could trigger impressions (and sometimes even clicks) in Google Search Console. That’s because GSC records an impression anytime a page appears in a search result — whether it’s seen by a real person or a bot.

Now, those crawlers can only see 10 results (give or take, depending on the results page features), rather than 100, each time they search a given query. So, a huge portion of those "impressions" have disappeared from your GSC data.

As a result:

• Impressions dropped significantly (because the extra crawler-generated data was removed).
• Average position rose, since lower-ranked pages were no longer on the radar of these third-party crawlers.

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So what you’re seeing is a “Correction,” not a drop.

If your Search Console data took a sudden hit in mid-September, you likely experienced what’s best described as a data correction — not an SEO performance drop.

In other words, your site didn’t lose visibility because of this change; the way Google counts that visibility simply changed.

Many businesses are noticing that when comparing the first half of October to the first half of September, impressions look way down. But when comparing October to the last half of September, the data stabilizes or even improves — showing that this is now your new baseline
for accurate reporting.

Note: Your "true" rankings and impressions will still see their ups and downs, of course — that's normal. But "normal" fluctuations are unlikely to be as severe as the impressions/rankings changes you're seeing this month.

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What you should do moving forward.

You don’t need to make any technical fixes for this. However, here are a few steps to keep your reporting accurate going forward:

• Use the new data as your baseline. Treat data from October 2025 data as the corrected version of your organic visibility.
• Avoid comparing new data to pre-September reports without noting the change — those older numbers were likely inflated to some degree.
• Focus on long-term engagement trends rather than month-to-month swings that may be data-related.
• Continue optimizing for real users, since Google is now filtering out non-human views more effectively.
• Keep on top of Google search related news. This change hasn't been formally discussed by Google, and like most of Google's changes, it might be reverted or adjusted at any time.

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Bottom line.

The removal of the “&num=100” parameter didn’t hurt your SEO — it just cleaned up your metrics. Google Search Console now paints a clearer, more realistic picture of how real people find your website in search.

So if you’ve seen big dips in impressions lately, don’t panic. It’s not your rankings — it’s just the data catching up to reality.

How is AI shaping
Paid Search.

How is AI shaping Paid Search?

Green Line Digital POV on Google’s AI Max for search.

Artificial intelligence continues to transform digital marketing, and Google’s latest roll out, AI Max for Search, is one of the clearest signals yet of where paid search is heading. Rolled out globally in May 2025, AI Max layers new AI-powered capabilities onto existing Search campaigns.

At Green Line Digital, we see AI Max as more than just another optional feature. It’s a preview of how Google intends to evolve Search campaigns in the years ahead.

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What is AI Max for search?

AI Max is not a brand-new campaign type. Instead, it’s a suite of AI-driven enhancements that can be switched on within existing Search campaigns. With AI Max, Google takes a larger role in shaping results: targeting can expand beyond keywords, ads can be customized on the fly, and final URLs can be swapped dynamically to better match user intent.

The result? Campaigns that can reach further and adapt faster—but also campaigns that require more oversight to ensure they’re driving toward the right outcomes.

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Our POV: Evolution, not just “Features”

Google describes AI Max as “added features,” but our view is different: this is the direction of paid search. Just as Performance Max evolved from optional to essential, we expect AI Max to gradually become the default way campaigns are managed.

That doesn’t mean keywords no longer matter. Traditional search campaigns still take priority when a query matches one of your existing keywords. For now, AI Max works alongside your search efforts, complementing, not replacing them.

The real value is in the flexibility and the insights it provides. By letting AI into your search campaigns, you can get custom search ads for each search- many of which you wouldn't even have thought of! Between keywordless targeting, location-based interest targeting, and dynamic creative pulled directly from client websites. AI Max also gives us visibility into which headlines resonate, which landing pages convert, and how Google interprets a brand’s digital footprint. Those insights can shape not just campaign performance but broader marketing strategy.

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How to approach AI Max.

Our recommendation is to test deliberately. Start by layering AI Max onto existing campaigns that have a smart bid strategy in place (Max conversions or Max conversion value). Double-check that your landing pages make sense, exclude irrelevant URLs, and maintain strong negative keyword strategies to protect your budget.

Monitoring is critical, especially since Google’s AI can (and will) expand reach beyond your existing keyword set to find new potential customers. By staying close to the data, you’ll know when AI is adding value and when it’s not.

If you’re hesitant, consider running AI Max within an experiment campaign first. Google has also begun offering more transparency into reporting, making it easier to see what pages are being used, what creative was generated, and what keywords were matched. Those levers give advertisers more confidence as they test.

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The takeaway.

AI Max for Search represents a shift toward AI enhanced paid search, and we believe it’s only the beginning. While traditional search campaigns remain important today, the brands that start experimenting now will be best positioned when AI-driven targeting inevitably becomes the norm.

At Green Line Digital, our approach is the same as it was with Performance Max: test early, learn quickly, and apply insights before the market catches up.

The future of paid search is AI-powered. The time to prepare is now.