April has been an especially challenging month for our clients across auto and ecommerce, as the economy continues to rock consumers, with interest rates still at an all time high, and as we continue to approach election season.

Coming out of Q1, are April CPCs still sharply rising and is it isolated to any specific channel, and what can we do about it?

On the Social side of things, META has been relatively flat YoY, but the last two weeks of April have started to creep up; it’s possible as we head closer towards the summer and the start of the election season we may start seeing these begin to rise, but overall, things have been stable.

The main story is TikTok. As clients and advertisers begin to diversify their media spend away from META and Google, TikTok CPMS are rising. CPMs increased 13% in 2023 vs 2022, and have seen further increases of about 50% from September 2023 through Q1 of 2024. We expect this trend to likely continue further into 2024.

Paid Search, specifically Google, is mirroring more of the TikTok trend unfortunately. Since September 2023 when Google reportedly raised prices to help meet their revenue targets, CPCs have started climbing and haven’t really stopped.

April was no different as CPCs were up 13% YoY, leading advertisers to spending just to reach the same click levels they were at last year. In fact, Q1 ad spend increased 21% YoY, meanwhile due to actual demand, competition, and rising costs, total click volume on Google actually decreased.

With clicks continuing to decline, and costs going up, the latest news coming out of the DOJ’s anti trust trial, is hammering home that Google really does have the power to control prices as they are proving that over the years they have been changing the algorithm to raise prices through algorithm tuning to increase profits and not always at the benefits of the end user.

So what are advertisers to do?
At Green Line Digital, we’re working with our clients to make sure we:

• Diversify ad spend between channels & tactics
• Make every dollar count and focus on the right KPIS per channel
• CVRT to “offset” - find ways to improve conversion rates to make up for higher CPCs
• Learn fast & pivot from one strategy to the next

About Green Line Automotive:

Green Line Automotive is an automotive digital advertising agency created for automotive dealerships. Our mission is to deliver tier-one automotive advertising expertise, technology, and service to the 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.

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

Vehicle Ads are the latest search tactic for dealerships to use on Google & Bing to showcase their available inventory.

Now that they’ve been integrated into Performance Max, this campaign type is even more powerful, giving our search team the ability to use audience signals and first party data to create unique opportunities to get in front of potential customers for our clients.

Here’s how we do things differently at Green Line:

Avoiding Wasted Spend & protecting the brand

• The first thing we do with any account is set up our best practices including reviewing conversions and ensuring we have hard conversions in place (leads), reviewing content suitability, excluding poor placements and known spam sites, and adding negatives such as fixed ops. We also discuss with our clients if they want their brand/trademark terms to show within Pmax or not.

Using CDP/First Party Data As Audience Signals

• We always seek to find ways to be cost efficient while driving more leads. We use first party data and our own CDP to target specific segments like sales and service users, or someone who purchased their vehicle several years ago and may be due for a new oneLeveraging these audience signals only, allows the algorithm to identify potential customers who are similar to these lists who are more likely to complete the action we want.
• For one of our Porsche dealers, we spent 29% less spend than our baseline and drove 80 leads (vs 86) at a 24% lower CPL.

Model Specific Campaigns & Asset Groups:

• Allocating budget to dedicated campaigns that can be paused/enabled based on available stock and dealership priorities. These are honed into only the appropriate models, allowing us to find lower cost and incremental leads compared to traditional search.
• In a 30 day time period, running side by side with a Search campaign for a Subaru dealership, our Pmax Cost Per Lead was $46 lower than the same model campaign in search ($56 vs $10).

Unique Segmentation Tests

• We pride ourselves on testing, and you’ll often find us treating Pmax Vehicle Ads as we would an ecommerce client. Thanks to our in-house feed capabilities, we are able to segment your feed by price, model and other custom combinations, allowing us to create asset groups broken out by your dealership’s priorities. Of course, that’s not all - we have tested tangential audience segments such as developing personas outside of “in market” segments.

Zombie VINS

• Google and Bing have known biases - and will surface what they think will do best, but what about all the other VINS on your lot? We’re able to isolate the VINs that never get shown in Pmax Vehicle Ads and create their own campaign and allocate budget just for them.

About Green Line Automotive:

Green Line Automotive is an automotive digital advertising agency created for automotive dealerships. Our mission is to deliver tier-one automotive advertising expertise, technology, and service to the 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.

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

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), while still in BETA, is causing quite a stir as to how it will impact both paid and organic results in the SERP. With Google’s Search Generative Experience slowly rolling out, we are working to establish how this will affect advertisers both from a paid and organic perspective and how we can combat these changes.

WHAT THE EXPERIENCE LOOKS LIKE

As of today when using the Beta version of the experience, the generative AI results fall below sponsored ads, but that is likely to change once it is rolled out completely. Based on the current layout and experience, experts believe there’s a potential to lose organic traffic to your site, as Google pushes organic results further down the page, highlighting only a handful of content, and AI results in its place.

Automotive dealers specifically may be impacted the most by SGE, as potential customers searching for general Makes and Models will generate general information rather than where to buy one.

Near Me keywords, however, will generate map listings first, pushing down organic listings of dealer websites

WHAT ARE VEHICLE ADS?

Vehicle ads (formerly known as Vehicle Listing Ads or VLAs) are similar to shopping ads. They are dynamic inventory ads placed at the top of search results that display based on your inventory feed. These ads are different in that they offer a more visual format with your inventory photos as opposed to responsive text ads which display only text information we provide. Vehicle Ads give more information about the car for sale on your lot within the search result itself to encourage more qualified website traffic. With Green Line Automotive’s custom feed integrations, we can integrate into nearly any dealership’s inventory without requesting a feed.

WHAT’S NEW?

Previously, Google's Vehicle Ads solely featured the MSRP pricing for dealership vehicles, even if they were on sale.
Starting in April, Google will display both the MSRP and the discounted price side by side, ensuring customers see the most accurate pricing information before clicking on the vehicle.

To take advantage of this update, ensure your vehicle feeds include the new column for the sale price, allowing it to be showcased within the ad.

What the Video Index Report Means For Your SEO

Tyler Laster, Content Manager

Google has officially launched its highly anticipated Video Index Report in Google Search Console. This useful new tool can help you ensure all your videos are properly indexed. However, that is just the beginning of what this means for your Search Engine Optimization Strategy.

The landscape of online advertising, particularly on Google Search, has witnessed a significant shift in the first quarter of 2024, largely influenced by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) as they increase their investment and broaden their own reach. This has presented challenges for individual dealerships, as OEMs increasingly drive up platform CPCs.

At Green Line, we are implementing the following tactics to provide our dealers with the best possible performance without driving up costs or competing directly with OEMs.

Trends and Expectations

• Diversifying Keyword Sets: One approach to mitigate the impact of rising costs is to explore alternative campaign types with less competition. Consider testing keywords targeting general truck or SUV terms, where competition may be lower compared to highly saturated model terms.
• Embracing Different Campaign Types, Like Demand Generation: In addition to traditional lead generation tactics, incorporating Demand Generation can help capture potential customers earlier in the buying journey. By focusing on creating and generating awareness of your dealership, you can cultivate a steady stream of qualified leads.
• Leveraging Customer Data Platforms (CDPs): Harnessing the power of CDPs and first-party data allows dealerships to refine their targeting efforts. By building precise audience segments and leveraging AI learning, dealerships can optimize ad campaigns for maximum effectiveness.
• Experimenting with Bidding Strategies: Adopting a proactive approach to bidding strategies is crucial in navigating fluctuating CPCs. Implement A/B tests to evaluate the impact of different bidding tactics on cost-per-click and overall campaign performance. This data-driven approach enables dealerships to identify optimal bidding strategies tailored to their specific objectives and budget constraints.
• Optimizing Keyword Selection: OEMs often dominate bidding on certain keywords, driving up costs for individual dealerships. Consider pausing or removing exact match OEM terms from campaigns to reduce competition and lower CPCs, and refreshing your negative keyword list to avoid overlap.. Instead, focus on targeting keywords that align more closely with your dealership and audience preferences.

While OEMs exert considerable influence on Google Search costs, individual dealerships have the opportunity to adapt and thrive by implementing strategic adjustments to their digital marketing efforts. By diversifying campaign types, embracing demand generation, leveraging CDPs, experimenting with bidding strategies, and optimizing keyword selection, dealerships can navigate the evolving digital landscape with confidence and efficiency.

About Green Line Automotive:

Green Line Automotive is an automotive digital advertising agency created for automotive dealerships. Our mission is to deliver tier-one automotive advertising expertise, technology, and service to the 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.
See our automotive digital advertising services such as Automotive Paid Search or Vehicles Listing Ads or contact us at info@greenline.nyc or 833-GLD-CARS.

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital advertising, harnessing the potential of first-party data and Customer Match is the secret sauce to supercharge your campaigns. As we navigate the AI-centric focus of 2024, leveraging these data insights becomes not just a strategy but a necessity to propel your dealership forward.

Key Takeaway

First-party data is the single most important and valuable input signal you can use to power Google AI. Import your offline conversions into Google Ads to help identify the 20% of keywords that led to 80% of your sales. Streamline efforts to use campaigns that target customers with the same digital paths as ones who have previously purchased. With AI being the focus of 2024, it will help us fully leverage the learning in Google.

About Customer Match

Customer Match lets you use your online and offline data to reach and re-engage with your customers across your campaigns. Using information your customers have shared with you, Customer Match will target ads to your customers and other customers like them.
You can also use customer match lists to exclude your existing customers to help prevent paying "twice" for a customer.

Once uploaded, Google’s system will transform the contact information into hashed codes so your data will be secure.

Learn more about Customer Match here.

How to upload Customer Match Data

• Manual upload from a team member on the Dealer’s Marketing team.
• Automate customer match and utilize 1st party data audiences across Paid Search, Paid Social and Programmatic through Green Line's CDP.

Best Practices

• Refresh/upload your customer list day at least every 28 days to ensure you’re passing the most up-to-date information to Google
• If you’re able to, identifying a qualified or converted lead in your data upload will also help improve the algorithm
• Outside of improving the algorithm for your dealership, your Search team can also:
  • Retarget past purchasers for service
  • Retarget past purchasers with new offers
  • Exclude customers from your search campaign so you aren’t "paying twice" for them to see your ads
  • Use customer lists as an audience signal in Performance Max

Green Line's Customer Data Platform

At Green Line Automotive, we take this commitment to customer data to the next level. Through safe and seamless integration with your dealer's CRM and DMS via Dealer Vault, we segment data and build digital audiences while staying PII-compliant.

CRM & DMS Integration

• Leads last 3, 6, 12 months
• Expiring Leases
• Sold with no Service (intervals)
• Service, no sales (intervals)
• Due for Service
• Owns vehicle 3, 4, 5 years old etc.
• AND MORE!

Platform Integrations:

• Google & Bing
• Social (Meta)
• Display
• Streaming Video & Audio

About Green Line Automotive:

Green Line Automotive is an automotive digital advertising agency created for automotive dealerships. Our mission is to deliver tier-one automotive advertising expertise, technology, and service to the 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.
See our automotive digital advertising services such as Automotive Paid Search or Vehicles Listing Ads or contact us at info@greenline.nyc or 833-GLD-CARS.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to create, share, and discover short-form videos. It provides a space for individuals and content creators to express themselves through creative and entertaining videos set to music. Automotive giants like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Hyundai harness TikTok's authentic virtual showroom for marketing, offering a seamless blend of inspiration, information, and entertainment.

Passionate automotive enthusiasts, including brands, creators, and consumers, unite on TikTok, fostering expansive communities with over 130 billion combined views on trending hashtags such as:

#car #carlover #carsoftiktok #electriccar #driving #offroad #roadtrip #SUV #truck #trucklife

Research shows that many US-based TikTok users are in the market to buy or lease a car. In fact, almost half (47%) are planning to buy or lease a car in next 12 months.¹

When it comes to car purchases or rentals, 68% are either the decision-makers or highly influential in their household. And importantly, TikTok inspires them to act: 3 in 4 (74%) have taken action, such as sharing with a friend, reading reviews or visiting a dealership, after seeing automobile ads or content on TikTok. And a significant 12% of users said they purchased or leased a car after seeing it on TikTok.

1. Launch your verified account
   After signing up for a TikTok Business Account, start your journey by working with your Green Line contact to verify it. This will give you a verification badge, which is the blue checkmark that you see next to a profile’s handle. It assures users that your account is legitimate and belongs to your brand. Essentially, if you launch straight into paid ads without setting up an official branded account, you'll be missing an important opportunity to start building your audience and prime them for future organic reach.
2. Provide assets to be utilized on the following ad formats
   TikTok offers several different opportunities to reach your target audience though it's currently more effective for building awareness than driving direct sales, similar to Google Search ads. Yet, it's crucial to be present where users spend increasing time.
   • In-Feed Ads: In TikTok, In-Feed Ads are a type of advertising format that appears in users' "For You" feed, which is the main feed where users discover content. These ads are native to the platform, seamlessly blending with the user-generated content on TikTok. In-Feed Ads typically appear in between organic videos as users scroll through their feed. In-Feed Ads are an effective way for advertisers to reach a large and engaged audience on TikTok.
   • Spark Ads: Spark Ads on TikTok are a specific type of advertising format designed to boost the visibility of organic videos posted either by a brand's account or TikTok creators. These ads serve the organic videos as In-Feed Ads, appearing seamlessly in users' "For You" feed. Spark Ads are particularly useful for brands aiming to enhance the authenticity of their content and leverage the engaging nature of user-generated videos on TikTok to connect with a broader audience.
   • Branded Effect: Ads on TikTok refer to a type of advertising that involves creating special 2D and 3D video effects that users can apply to their own content. These effects are branded and associated with a specific advertiser, providing an interactive and engaging way for users to interact with the brand's content.

What's coming next

TikTok recently introduced Alpha testing for a cutting-edge ad format, Automotive Inventory Ads (AIA). Much like Meta, AIA leverages your vehicle feed to craft dynamic ads showcasing your live inventory. This innovative approach allows you to target in-market users with specific models or offers. Green Line Automotive is one of a few partners who has secured approval to participate in the early stages of AIA, giving our customers an edge over their competition. Learn more here about our TikTok services for car dealerships.

About Green Line Automotive:

Green Line Automotive is an automotive digital advertising agency created for automotive dealerships. Our mission is to deliver tier-one automotive advertising expertise, technology, and service to the 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.

See our automotive digital advertising services such as Automotive Paid Search or Vehicles Listing Ads or contact us at info@greenline.nyc or 833-GLD-CARS.

Sources:
¹TikTok Marketing Science US, Custom Auto Survey via Suzy, June 2021, Base: US Monthly TikTok users, ages 18-55

In today's dynamic digital era, the role of customer data has reached unprecedented significance for Dealers. It serves as the driving force behind personalized campaigns, enhanced customer experiences, and optimized advertising strategies. Here's why:

About Green Line Automotive:

Green Line Automotive is an automotive digital advertising agency created for automotive dealerships. Our mission is to deliver tier-one automotive advertising expertise, technology, and service to the 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.
See our automotive digital advertising services such as Automotive Paid Search or Vehicles Listing Ads or contact us at info@greenline.nyc or 833-GLD-CARS.

AI has played a significant role in algorithm updates for a decade with search engines announcing new AI advancements in 2023. Improved search algorithms such as Hummingbird, BERT, and RankBrain help search engines interpret user intent, analyze content contextually, and provide for more accurate rankings. These integrations have assisted in the understanding of the nuances behind search terms, including long-tail keywords, voice search, and conversational search queries, leading to more relevant search results for users.

Additionally, many AI tools are being released to support advanced optimization strategies. New AI tools and platforms can be used for keyword research, on-page optimizations, and link building to help SEOs identify optimization opportunities more efficiently.

Organic Search and AI Upgrades in 2023

Google recently announced a new generative AI feature, providing better results and stronger search understanding for complex long-tail queries including conversational search enhancements. The context behind the search intention will be used to deliver the best results for how humans think and use search engines to find what they’re looking for. This will provide for a more natural and faster search experience.

For online shopping, generative AI in search better empowers users to make informed purchasing decisions faster. It provides an easy view using Google’s Shopping Graph of the most important shopping considerations for a product including relevant reviews, ratings, prices, images, and descriptions of products.

The new generative AI feature also provides users with a stronger connection to diverse perspectives. A new Perspectives filter can be applied to search results for audiences to discover videos, images, and written posts where people have shared information on the topic of interest within discussion boards, social media platforms, and Q&A sites. This focus on the quality of information will continue to transform how Google ranks results and considers Organic authority.

Trends and Expectations

• More personalized search results: AI will continue to be used to better understand user preferences and deliver personalized search results from a variety of unique perspectives to enhance the individual search experience. Understanding user behavior and using predictive technology to provide answers to expected follow-up questions will provide a seamless search conversation with users.
• Increased importance of high-quality, relevant content for natural language processing (NLP): Content that is helpful, reliable, and created for the user first will continue to earn better rankings and reach more relevant audiences. Search results will feature more content from unique experiences and higher levels of expertise to deliver better search results. Brands using malicious techniques that violate Google's Quality Guidelines will be impacted with less Organic visibility.
• Higher monthly searches for complex long-tail keywords: Generative AI features will provide for better search experiences around searches that used to have to be split up to get accurate results. This will allow audiences to be more creative and specific in how they search for information.
• More visual results in the search result landscape: In addition to Google’s Shopping Graph and Google Lens, search engines will be providing more visual results prioritizing different search results types including knowledge graphs, featured snippets, videos, images, and more. This will provide for more personalized and attractive search results that will be increasingly competitive, potentially leading to less visibility opportunities and click traffic for text-based content including informational landing pages that lack optimized media.
• Identification of patterns and trends to help SEOs react faster and analyze data more efficiently: The release of new AI tools and platforms may provide for more automated data analysis to help SEOs solve problems and take corrective measures faster. Additionally, AI-based tools may be used to quickly analyze a brand’s online profile with predictive analysis of ranking growth to help improve ranking volatility and fluctuations.
• Increased importance of managing Schema: Rich results are generated on results pages using Schema data from ranking websites. As rich results continue to grow in popularity and new rich result features are added with the advent of AI-powered search, the importance of managing Schema and site taxonomy grows along with it.

About Green Line Automotive:

Green Line Automotive is an automotive digital advertising agency created for automotive dealerships. Our mission is to deliver tier-one automotive advertising expertise, technology, and service to the 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.
See our automotive digital advertising services such as Automotive Paid Search or Vehicles Listing Ads or contact us at info@greenline.nyc or 833-GLD-CARS.

Sources:
https://blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-search/
https://blog.google/products/search/google-search-perspectives/
https://seovendor.co/core-ai/