Google Enters Into The Automotive Lead Business

[Brian Pasch (blog)]

In February 2010 Google made a presentation to a select group of industry leaders about their foray into automotive lead generation. I was not in attendance but I was briefed on the program at the show. I never heard any more about the details until today's post in Automotive News.

I am sure that Google has briefed the major automotive vendors that run Adwords campaign for thousands of car dealers about this change. However the larger community needs to know about this major shift in new car lead generation strategies.

In my opinion, this is a major SHIFT for the Google Automotive team which has not gone into direct vehicle lead generation until now. I look forward to interviewing and discussing this new program with the Google Automotive Team at the 2012 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference.

Lead Generation Is Not New For Google

Google has been running lead generation campaigns for other vertical markets, like mortgages. If you look at the screen capture below, Google is running their own PPC ads to capture leads:


These ads are labeled "Comparison Ads" and these ads are competing with other PPC lead collectors. When a consumer clicks on the PPC Comparison Ad for mortgages, a landing page for lead collection is displayed:

Lead Generation For Dealers

According to the Automotive News article written by David Barkholz:

"Google will establish a Web page for vehicle shoppers. Dealers will bid, through a Google auction, to be one of about three dealers listed on the page when shoppers fill out a discounted price request for, say, a 2012 Toyota Camry with some specifications. The shoppers choose which of the listed dealers will receive the lead and provide the price..."

This will be a game changer for businesses that use PPC for lead generation. Companies like Edmunds, Autotrader, and new comers like TrueCar that all use PPC as part of their lead generation strategy for new car buyers will be impacted.

Competition for new car leads just got more interesting, and for some, maybe more expensive.

This offering will need to be examined in greater detail when this official launches this in the Bay Area. We will have more details on this new offering after we get a briefing from the automotive team at Google.

How do you see this impacting your dealership?

 

[Mike@Carfeine]

Google is starting to look like one of those companies that isn't quite sure what business they're in. They run the network and have, step by step, become less agnostic and begun to compete with their own customers - the Advertisers like TrueCar/Edmunds/AutoTrader and the like. I'm very keen to see what reaction the industry will have to this step.

 

[JQ]

Brian -- do you foresee that dealers now either directly engaged in PPC or engaged through a vendor will be competing against Google in the current space?   Or will this be more of it's own classified venture, ala Cars.com and AT, with Google's auction-based PPC model contained within the new program?

 

[Ryan Leslie]

Where is Joe Pistell? He has been raising this flag on Refresh for almost a year. Joe, what are your thoughts on this?

 

[Joe Pistell]

Hi Ryan, thnx for remembering all my work on this.

I'm on vacation now, I'll dive into this 1st thing when I return.

 

[Brian Pasch (blog)]

Joe, you are never on vacation!   JQ, they are definitely going to step on some toes here.  Will the OEM's move to this model?

I would like to know what the 3rd party lead collectors are thinking because it is directly competing with some of the largest PPC spenders in automotive, like and Edmunds.   What about Tier 2 Ad Agencies?

Dealers who participate in these new ads may be doubling up their PPC spending for certain keywords.  I need to better understand how this will and what keywords kick this ad in.
For example, running Adwords and Adwords Express at the same time, which I recommend, needs a strategy.  Keywords that kick-off Adwords Express ads like dealer name and brand, should be eliminated from Adwords.  This of course is based on the believe that advertising your ratings is a stronger ad than a normal Adwords ad.   So in the same way, you will have to see how strong of a lead generator these ads will be.Will consumers shopping for a car have the same desire to fill-out these leads forms as those shopping for a mortgage?  

Joe, what say you...

 

[Jeffrey Tognetti]

Old news....

 

[Jeffrey Tognetti]

In fact this is already running in select Southern California markets for Lexus and Toyota as a beta

 

[Brian Pasch (blog)]

Jeff, do you have a search example that will show us the ad format?

 

[Jeffrey Tognetti]

I'll see if I can dig up a screenshot, but it was enacted for select keywords and keyword phrases.  It was rolled out on a very small scale "to test the waters" similar to used/new car images in product-feed-based PPC ads were for a blink, (Standard for small retail items like cameras, etc...) however autos were later dis-allowed.  But I know of a few dealers who were privy to this at Lexus and there was some uneasiness.  Plus, didn't you post something similar to this back in Feb? Specifically referencing a 2010 Automotive News Story http://bit.ly/tiAMbt  
The bigger story is Facebook's new push into autos and the platform they are going to be rolling out for automotive retailers.