Dealerships
Google Ads for Ottawa car dealerships and used car lots
Buyers research for weeks, and most of that research decides which lots are worth a visit.
Car buyers research for weeks before they visit anybody, and almost all of that research happens online. By the time somebody walks onto a lot in Ottawa, they have usually compared models, prices and a few dealers, and they have decided who is worth the drive.
That makes search advertising the top of a dealership's funnel rather than the bottom. The campaign decides which dealers get considered, and the lot decides who gets sold to.
Where dealership campaigns lose money
Bidding on research as if it were a purchase
Searches for reviews, reliability and comparisons are made months early by people who may never buy from you. They can belong in a separate campaign with a small budget, but not in the same pot as people looking at your inventory.
Sending model searches to the homepage
Somebody searching a specific model wants that model: inventory, trim, kilometres, price and a way to book a test drive. A homepage makes them hunt, and hunting is what the back button is for.
Used inventory that never appears in the ad
Used sales are won on specifics. When the ad and the page carry the year, the kilometres, the trim and the price, the click is worth far more than one that promises quality used cars.
No line between a lead and a sale
The number that matters is cost per vehicle sold, including financing enquiries that need a conversation first. Counted as form fills alone, the campaign flatters itself and tells you nothing about the lot.
What your customers search for
What car buyers in Ottawa type before they visit a lot:
- used cars near me
- 2023 SUVs for sale Ottawa
- truck dealer Kanata
- car financing Ottawa
- used SUVs under 20000
- book a test drive
- certified pre-owned Honda Ottawa
- trade in value
How we track the leads that come in
A dealership collects several kinds of lead, and they are not worth the same: a call about a specific vehicle, a form asking about availability, a test drive booking, and a financing application. We track each one to the search that produced it and keep them in separate columns.
Where your CRM records it, the outcome goes back to the campaign as well: test drive attended, appointment booked, vehicle delivered. That is what turns a report about clicks into a report about cost per vehicle sold, by model line and by campaign.
- Calls credited to the search that produced them.
- Availability and price forms logged as their own lead type.
- Test drive bookings counted separately from general enquiries.
- Financing applications tracked apart, because they convert differently.
- Where your inventory feed allows it, individual vehicles are tracked as well, so you can see which listings prompt a call and which ones sit on the website without ever earning one. That usually changes which vehicles the next campaign is built around.
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