Google Ads Ads Account Audit with Recommendations
101-063-5756 GLR Advanced
Look Back Period: Jan 2021 – December 2022
Summary
Qualitatively, it appears that the account has been shifting strategies over time. The results that have been produced thus far are adequate for the ad spend level but there is opportunity for improvement. Increasing CTR for the account can be easily accomplished by focusing on the Search Engine Result Page for ad distribution (although we do support P Max for general brand awareness) . We can also increase volume by casting a broader net in terms of Geographic Targeting and Ad Scheduling. Additionally there may be future volume from Electric Vehicle Recycling or Storm Damaged Recycling.
During the look back period the account generated 121 Million Impressions which resulted in 1.02M clicks to the website. Of those users brought to the website, 131,000 resulted in a conversion action. The total advertising cost during this time was $3.31 Million dollars.
Secondary metrics indicate that the click-through rate for the account was 0.84%. This seems like a fairly low click-through rate and is more indicative of heavy display and video structure rather than search. It does appear that you have previously settled on a search-first strategy supported by Performance Max for most of your target locations.
Conversion rate is registering 12.54%. This seems very strange to have a click-through rate so low and a conversion rate so high. It definitely seems like you may be over serving your impressions or perhaps casting too broad a net on the display network.
Cost per conversion is registering at $25.18, after reviewing the conversions we can see that it’s mostly form fills and phone calls that you are counting. This seems like a fairly reasonable amount to pay for the opportunity to purchase a junk vehicle. Average cost per click is sitting at $3.24.
One thing that jumped out at me was the search impression share during this time, that registered at 28.98% for the account.The account was dominant in these markets for these keywords by a significant margin compared to your competitors.
Campaign Structure & Bid Strategies for Auto Reclamation
With 100+ Campaigns in the account, this falls into the category of a large account. We see a variety of campaign types from Search to Display to Video to P Max. I would also note there is 1 Smart Campaign for Grand Rapids. Current Campaign Strategy seems to have settled within the Search and P Max Campaign types. Campaigns are focused on specific geographic locations and cities across the U.S.
Daily budgets vary significantly between campaigns, for instance the Livonia Campaign is set to $1,340 Daily Budget while other campaigns such as Grand Rapids is set to $14.30 per day. There are typically different spend levels between markets related to demand but this seems extreme.
In addition to the Daily Budgets, most search campaigns are set to TCPA, however, the CPAs also vary between campaigns. Again, the value of leads can vary between markets but these vary from a low of $12 to a high of $56. So, is there a reason that theTCPA in Michigan (56$) is ~4 times as valuable as one in Texas ($12)?
Search Campaigns include both Display Network and Search Network. These non-search networks are responsible for the large number of impressions and relatively low CTR for the account. Search Campaigns should be limited to showing ads on the Search Engines Results Page (SERP).
Recommendations: Removing Display Network and Search Partners from Search Campaigns is the first and most important recommendation to make. Clearly, many impressions are being served to generate little traffic and fewer conversions. It’s also causing the very low CTR for the account overall. A Search first strategy supported by the all-of-network capabilities of the Performance Max Campaigns is an effective structure to move forward with.
Target CPA’s should be reviewed and realigned to market norms across the board. Used car prices are falling so more vehicles may be written off or more easily discarded over the course of 2023.
Budgets should also be reevaluated on a per marker basis. There seems to be great variability between budgets however, there may be business factors unknown to us causing this.
A Maximize conversion bid strategy may be a good option to use because it allows campaigns to react to organic increases in your keyword search by spending up twice their budget when more opportunities are present. This will allow you to set an intermediary daily spend value (~$400-600/campaign).
Networks for Auto Reclamation Ads
The screenshots below outline the specific networks of the google marketing platform where your ads have appeared, generated clicks and conversions from, as well as secondary data.
We can see that only 2.7% of ads have been served on the Google Search Engine Results Page with 85.4% of ads served on the display network. Despite the proportionally low impression volume, Search generated 25.3% of clicks to the website, which is an excellent example of the efficacy of search over display. Display still generated 60% of all clicks but that is to be expected when most of your ads were served there to begin with and it is still much less effective than search. Conversion data again underscores the effectiveness of Search over display with 87.3% of conversion actions.
Recommendation: Limiting Ads to the Google SERP for Search Campaigns will accomplish this. Secondary of Pages/Session , Bounce Rate and Session Duration all show better traffic coming from Search.
Devices for Auto Reclamation Google Ads
Device data shows a clear bias towards mobile devices. This is consistent with mobile-first trends in general.
Recommendation: Bid Adjustments on Mobile Devices between 5-10% to outbid competitors and shift more traffic to mobile.
Location Targeting for Auto Reclamation Google Ads
Location Targeting- There are over 1,200 locations in the account. The location targeting seems to be variable with different radiuses around different cities, some are using city limits , some are using counties. It seems like there is not a consistent strategy with location targeting.
Recommendation: Your budgets and impression share are significant in relation to the overall market. Shifting your Search campaigns to SERP only will make the account very efficient in terms of CTR and Conversion Rates, I would think opening up your location targeting to at least the DMA level , if not the state level , makes sense. First, there are a lot of junk cars in rural areas and may present an opportunity that has been missed due to location targeting inconsistencies . Second, if users are not searching in those locations , then you won’t serve ads there and it won’t matter because the cities will still be generating the majority of traffic.
Ad Scheduling for Auto Reclamation Google Ads
Ad Scheduling- Ad Scheduling seems very tight with the overwhelming majority of conversion production coming between normal business hours of ~9-6PM . Account is set to GMT-5 Eastern Time Zone. There is likely a reason for this such as call center availability. There is still a significant opportunity to generate traffic and form fills on the website outside of call center hours.
Recommendation: We recommend expanding the hours of ad distribution. Test broader hours from 6AM to 12AM and see if CPA decreases based on the overall increase in volume.
Bid Adjustments
Bid Adjustments – Bid Adjustments are in use in some locations but not all. No Ad Schedule Adjustments are seen. We see some -100% Tablet Adjustments for 3 campaigns but not all. No Audience Adjustments. No Advanced Adjustments for Call Actions.
Recommendation: Bid Adjustments are typically used in a layered fashion to improve the audiences we are serving ads to, this can cause an increase in CPA. Since we are going to volume of leads and not necessary quality here, I would be very careful with adding bid adjustments for that purpose. I would focus on adjustments to push traffic to mobile and Call Actions to promote more calls.
Keywords for Auto Reclamation Google Ads
Keywords – Top performing keywords are primarily Brand and Service Descriptions keywords. This is typical of most accounts.
Negative Keywords? There are about 200 negative keywords in the account.
Recommendation: Review of the Search Terms report on a quarterly basis is a best practice but your keywords are very entrenched in your brand and service descriptions. Junk/Salvage Electric Vehicles are likely the next major opportunity for keywords. There may also be an opportunity to go after storm damaged vehicles after Hurricanes with regional campaigns along the Gulf Coast.
Conversion Tracking Setup for Auto Reclamation Google Ads Account
Conversions – Plenty of conversion actions in the account Forms and Phone Calls seem to be the top mediums of conversion. One observation is that there are very different click through conversion windows on the conversions. Some are 1 day while others are 90.
Recommendation: Other than recommending to switch to GA4 and making sure your GA4 event tracking has been replicated, we would set all your conversions on a 90 day click through window. You won’t see much change in week over week reporting but longer lookback windows will show incremental growth from their preliminary reporting.
Ads for Auto Reclamation
Ads – The account has a variety of Ads in use that mirror the variety of strategies that have been pursued over time. There are Expanded Search Ads and Responsive Search Ads for most search campaigns. As another example of the high performing nature of Search, please see the Screenshots of the top performing Search Ad Copy with a 9.5% CTR. This is great performance from this specific ad on the search network.
Recommendation: Expanded Text Ads were deprecated last year, they will still run and serve ads but any updates to the ads, targeting or landing pages are no longer available. Responsive Search Ads will likely automatically plug the gaps created from pausing these Expanded Text Ads but a review of active campaigns should be done to make sure there is still RSA coverage on all campaigns.
Your P Max Assets automatically create and run the best performing ad copy.
Extensions for Auto Reclamation Google Ads
Extensions (Assets) – A full array of extensions/assets are in use on the account including Locations, Lead Form Extensions, Calls, Structured Snippets, Sitelinks and Callouts.
Recommendation: The account is doing a good job of extensions/assets. I would keep the P Max Campaigns up to date with fresh images and audience signals every quarter.
Search Impression Share for Auto Reclamation Google Ads
The account commanded the majority of the search market over the lookback period with 29%. Primary Competitors are Peddle.com with 12.75% and cashforcars.com with 11.56%. We also see the clunkerjunker.com, junkmycar.com, Carvana and car gurus.
Recommendation: No recommendations needed. You are most of the market.