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How to Ruin Your Google Ads Strategy For Car Dealerships

by Terry MacCauley - Posted 1 week ago

The Fastest Way to Burn Budget & Get Zero Sales

Google Ads is a powerful tool that can help car dealerships drive leads and increase sales—but only if used correctly. Unfortunately, many dealerships unknowingly make costly mistakes that waste ad spending and sabotage their marketing efforts. Whether it’s due to bad advice, rushed decisions, or simply not knowing how the system works, poor campaign management can turn what should be a high-ROI channel into a money pit.

Instead of a typical guide on how to optimize your campaigns, let’s take a different approach. Imagine your biggest competitor dares you to wreck your Google Ads account in record time. Could you do it? If so, here’s your step-by-step roadmap to ensuring your ad budget goes down the drain, leaving your competition to scoop up all the customers.

Ignore What Customers Actually Want

The key to a successful ad campaign is offering something people genuinely want. If you want to fail fast, take these missteps:

Bring in the wrong buyers: Use promotions that appeal to price-driven shoppers rather than qualified buyers who are actually ready to purchase a vehicle.
Keep key details vague: Avoid listing pricing, financing options, or vehicle availability on your website.
Market without research: Launch ads based on guesswork instead of analyzing what your ideal customers are searching for.

Your competitors will thank you for driving leads straight to their doors.

Believe Every Misconception About Google Ads

Paid search is a powerful tool, but many myths keep dealers from fully leveraging its potential. Want to sink your campaigns before they even start? Just assume any of these are true:

“Nobody clicks on ads.” (They do—every single day.)
“If I rank organically, I don’t need PPC.” (Your competitors running ads above your organic listing love that mindset.)
“Google Ads is too expensive.” (Only when poorly managed.)

Mess Up Your Conversion Tracking

Google Ads success hinges on accurate data, but you can easily make a mess of things by:

Tracking irrelevant actions like page scrolls as "conversions."
Treating every interaction the same whether it is a lead form submission or someone watching a video.
Never compare ad platform data with real sales numbers. Just assume everything is working fine.

With no reliable data, optimizing your campaigns becomes a shot in the dark.

Follow Every Google Recommendation Blindly

Google wants you to spend money, lots of it. If you are going to throw your budget into the void, say "yes" to everything Google suggests:

Use broad-match keywords for everything, ensuring your ads show for completely irrelevant searches.
Increase budgets endlessly without tracking ROI.
Let Google auto-create ads without reviewing their quality.

Overcomplicate With Automation and AI

Automation is meant to help, but misusing it will sink your account. Here’s how to do it wrong:

Trust AI-generated ads blindly without any human oversight.
Automate every decision without understanding what’s actually happening.
Rely solely on algorithms instead of using strategy and expertise.

Organize Your Account Like a Junk Drawer

A well-structured account leads to better performance. But if you prefer disarray, try this:

Dump all keywords into one campaign with one ad group.
Mix search, display, and video ads into a single campaign for ultimate chaos.
Ignore keyword intent and just bid the same for everything.

Make the Car-Buying Process as Complicated as Possible

Customers want a smooth buying experience. Here’s how to make sure they don’t convert:

Send all paid traffic to your homepage instead of a specific vehicle or finance offer page.
Make your lead forms excessively long and frustrating.
Use financing offers with confusing fine print that no one understands.

Write Boring, Generic Ads

Your ad copy is your dealership’s first impression. If you want to be ignored, follow these steps:

Use phrases like "Great Deals Available!" with no specifics.
Copy competitors without offering anything unique.
Let Google auto-generate headlines that don’t align with your brand.

Change Everything, Constantly

Google Ads requires patience and optimization. If you want to make your campaigns a disaster:

Adjust bids and budgets randomly every few days.
Kill campaigns too soon before they have enough data to optimize.
Never let a strategy run long enough to gather meaningful insights.

Target Everyone, Everywhere

If your goal is to waste money fast, go big with broad targeting:

Target people outside your dealership’s market area.
Run ads 24/7, even when your team is unavailable to respond.
Use language settings that don’t match your audience’s preferences.

If your goal is to waste your budget and see no return, follow the guide above. But if you actually want Big Time results, do the opposite:

Craft compelling offers that appeal to genuine buyers.
Set up accurate conversion tracking to measure true success.
Structure campaigns with a clear strategy and clean data.
Optimize based on meaningful insights rather than guesswork.

At Big Time Advertising, we specialize in helping auto dealers get the most out of their Google Ads campaigns. If you are tired of wasting money and want a strategy that works, let us talk. Ask for our free, no-obligation audit of your digital marketing footprint with a real-world value of over $4,500. We are partners with dealers only and are always here to listen and help.

Bet.

-by Terry MacCauley, Founder & CEO

Monday Motivation:

Billy Donovan brings the FIRE

We started our Monday with a video of legendary basketball coach Billy Donovan in "Billy Donovan Brings the FIRE.” He reminds us that success takes relentless energy, unwavering commitment, and the willingness to push ourselves beyond our comfort zone.

Perfect inspiration to charge into the week, ready for anything.