Top PPC Strategies That Work On Any Budget presented by Mark Irvine IS20G15 - Baltimore, MD Lord Baltimore Hotel April 15-17, 2024

1. Top PPC Strategies That Work On Any Budget
Presented By Mark Irvine

2. Mark Irvine
Vice President of Search
SearchLab
❖ Over a decade of PPC Experience
❖ Former PPC Data Scientist –
Analyzed trend data of 30,000+
Google, Bing & Facebook ad
accounts
❖ Voted the #1 Most Influential PPC
Expert by Microsoft and PPC Hero.

3. 3
No matter their experience or expertise,
your agency has zero experience running your dealership.
Understand what makes sense for you and
hold your partners accountable.

4. DIGITALDEALER.COM
#1
Own your
own data

5. Always Own Your Own Accounts
If you do not own these accounts, you can’t evaluate your own
performance.
You do not want to be lied to!
Google Ads &
Other Ad Accounts
Google Analytics
Website Platform

6. #2
Write Ads that
Actually Help People

7. Keywords – The Digital Stone
Age

8. The Old Way of Writing Ads is Lame
Most advertisers write their PPC ads with the keyword in mind
2024 Nissan Rogue

9. The Old Way of Writing Ads is Lame
Most advertisers write their PPC ads with the keyword in mind, but this
generally leads to lazy, boring, and lame ads.
2024 Nissan Altima

10. Automating Boring is Easy.
Google will even do it for you.
And all your competitors.

11. But laziness has a steep price!
Google’s attempts to separately maximize each headline
can lead to some…poorly optimized ads
Reviewing most recently most viewed ads in an account -

12. All in the Name of Google Quality Score
Although keywords are still relevant in writing new PPC
ads, they are only one factor of how Google evaluates
an ad’s Quality Score
1
2
3
Keyword
Relevance
Expected CTR
Landing Page
Experience

13. Focus on More than Just your Keywords
Keyword relevance is the
LEAST important factor
of Quality Score
A high-quality ad & landing
page experience is
4 times more
important
in your PPC campaign!

14. Every search result will have 7 ads.
Stand out from your lazy
competitors' ads

15. Keywords Don’t Capture Intent
Ford Dealership
Looking for
New Car
Looking for
Used Car
New
Parent
Poor
Credit
Looking for
Service
Comparing
Offers
Looking to sell Past
Customer

16. Keywords Don’t Capture Intent
Looking for
New Car
Looking for
Used Car
New
Parent
Poor
Credit
Looking for
Service
Comparing
Offers
Looking to sell Past
Customer

17. 17
No single ad
can be perfect.

18. Write
different
ads for
every need

19. Write Ads for Different Personas
People’s needs differ, so should your ads!
Think of best messages for different customers.
Persona Needs Message
Mass Market Sensitive to Price “Save $2,995 off MSRP”
Looking for inventory Options, Customization, Availability “Largest Inventory in Dallas”
“3 left in stock!”
Buy backs Competitive Deals on current car “Save even more when you trade in
your Car for the New 2024 Model”
Economically Stressed or Poor Credit Financing options “$0 down and Easy 0% APR
Approval.”
Also considering your competitors Comparing solutions Highlight what differentiates you
from other brands

20. Be Found Where They’re Searching
2022 Nissan Rogue
Trade in used car
Oil Change

21. DIGITALDEALER.COM
Where in the World Are
Your Local Searches?
#3

22. Most Marketers
Answer this
Question Too
Quickly!

23. Most Dealerships Set Locations Just Once
When creating a new PPC campaign,
most dealerships make this decision
in a matter of seconds while planning
their PPC campaigns.
Over 85% of campaigns created will
NEVER update their location targeting
settings after launching!

24. 24
Don’t Rely on your Guts
Be cautious not to:
Where YOU would search for your
next car
Because you’re unique!
You might have a different experience and
need that some of your searchers

25. 25
Don’t Rely on your Guts
Be cautious not to:
Where YOU would search for your
next car
This is tempting!
But no neighborhood is universally the
same demographic in any way.
Think of areas that target
demographics live

26. 26
Don’t Rely on your Guts
Be cautious not to:
Where YOU would search for your
next car
This is also sounds smart
But remember – you’re targeting them
based on where they are searching, NOT
where they live!
With mobile search making up 70% of all
search traffic – anticipate that a users
search locations may differ from your
internal customer data.
Think of areas that target
demographics live
Rely on your internal customer
data

27. Do Your Research in Google Analytics
Start by looking in Google Analytics to see where you’re being
found today – and how users from outside your city convert on
your site now.

28. Location Targeting Options
Conventional Radius Places of Interest
● Countries
● States/ Territory
● Counties
● Cities & Town
● City Neighborhoods / Districts
● Zip Codes/ Post Codes
● Congressional Districts (US)
● Nielsen DMA
● Around an individual
location
● Around your GMB
location
● Around each of GMB
locations
● Airports
● Colleges &
Universities
● Malls & Shopping
Centers
● Landmarks

29. DIGITALDEALER.COM
29

30. Radii Targeting
How much larger is a target region with a 10-mile
radius
than a target region with a 5-mile radius?
2x the radius and the
target
Grows 4x!

31. Radii are Tricky
Let’s increase our targeting from 5 miles to…
New Radius How it sounds… What it is
6 miles Increase by 20% Increase by 44%
8 miles Increase by ~50% Increase by 150%
10 miles Double Increase by 300%
20 miles Quadruple Increase by 1500%
This is a deceiving simple way to get someone to expand their reach
significantly more than they may originally think!

32. Radii are Tricky
The opposite is also true!
Let’s slim our targeting from 50 miles to…
New Radius How it sounds… What it is
6 miles Increase by 20% Increase by 44%
8 miles Increase by ~50% Increase by 150%
10 miles Double Increase by 300%
20 miles Quadruple Increase by 1500%
If your budgets are stretched too thin, this is an easy concession that
doesn’t sound as big as it is.
New Radius How it sounds… What it is
40 miles 80% of original 64% of original
30 miles 60% of original 36% of original
20 miles 40% of original 16% of original
10 miles 20% of original 4% of original

33. Making Distance Work
How do we know if we’re targeting the right area?
Enter the distance report in Google Ads!

34. Making Distance Work
These cascading radii are inclusive of one another.
What’s “within 5 miles” is also “within 10 miles”

35. Making Distance Work
Exporting these reports to Excel allows you to decide how
“local” your ads need to target – or if location plays a
smaller factor than you first think!

36. Don’t Fall into a Binary Approach
Some local areas may be better than others.
Use Bid Adjustments to make that adjustment!
100 miles
50 miles
20 miles
Main City Full bids
-15% Bids
-30% Bids
-50% Bids

37. Localize Your Ads
Localizing your ad’s message can really help your ads’
performance –
but writing ads for every city you serve might be burdensome or
difficult to manage.

38. Customize Your Ads Based on Where
People are Searching
If you’re targeting a large number of towns and cities, you can
dynamically customize your ads to show differently depending
on where people search -

39. Customize Your Ads Based on Where
People are Searching
Depending on where your ad is triggered, Google & Bing will
dynamically insert the relevant city’s name into the ad itself
without having to create ads or campaigns!

40. Recap

41. Recap
1
2
3
4
5
You need access to your own Google Ads account to
evaluate their performance!
The other 6 ads on the SERP are boring – be different to be
better!
Write ads for the searcher in mind, not their keyword!
Review where your ads are running – use data to target better!
Localize your ads with dynamic location insertion!

42. 42
Any Questions?

43. 43
Top PPC Strategies that Work on Any Budget
Mark Irvine
Vice President, SearchLab
Mark.Irvine@SearchLabDigital.com
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