When your goal is a long-term, successful PPC campaign that brings you a steady stream of qualified leads, you need to run A/B continuously.
Also known as split testing in digital marketing, this is the only reliable way to determine which variables contribute to higher conversions and profits.
Once you pinpoint the profitable ad variations, you can implement them across all of your campaigns for the best results.
In general, the idea is to run two or more simultaneous Google Ads campaigns that differ in small ways, both in your ad and your landing pages. You start with a main campaign as your control, and then create additional ads and landing pages with slight differences to see how well they perform against each other.
After a period of time, you’ll know which ads and landing pages perform the best. From there, you can analyze which variables are present on your high-performing ads and pages, apply them to all of your campaigns, and then start testing other elements to get even better results.
For example, you might run five campaigns with the same ad, but users are redirected to five different landing pages, each with a unique heading. Or, your landing pages might have a different format, colors, or typography. You can test any element, no matter how small, and sometimes it’s the small things that count most.
If you’re curious about split testing your PPC ads, this article will help you understand how this process works and how to apply it in your campaigns.
You can run an A/B test for just about any element you can alter in your Google Ads campaign. For example, it’s common for people to test the following:
There are two main elements that power A/B testing: time and structure. Let’s look at each of these in-depth.
Running digital marketing A/B tests is easy, but you need to set it up to extract actionable insights, and that’s where things can get a little challenging. If you follow these tips, you’ll have an easier time.
Your control campaign is the original, unaltered version. Always keep your control running alongside additional campaigns with changes. After your tests, when you find your highest performing campaign, that should become your new control to replace the old. From there, you’ll aim to beat your control once more by testing new elements.
Repeat this process indefinitely, and always remember to maintain your control so you can see what elements are performing better against your existing standard.
The first thing to remember is not to attempt to test too many variables at once. Testing multiple things at once will make it hard to know which change is responsible for an increase or decrease in conversions. Stick to testing a single variable until you’re satisfied with those results and then start testing the next element.
When running a test, you’ll need ample time to generate enough traffic, clicks, and sales to see what’s working between each version being tested. You won’t get results overnight or even in a week. Your A/B tests need to run long enough to create statistical significance in the results.
The suggested time period is however long it takes to reach 10,000 sessions, also known as the “10,000 experiments rule.” This is an alternative version of the concept that it takes 10,000 hours to become proficient in a given skill. The idea behind this is that deliberate experimentation is more valuable than deliberate practice. It’s true – if you don’t experiment deliberately, you won’t get the data you need to see what’s working in your PPC campaigns. However, 10,000 experiments (or 10,000 interactions) can seem like a bit much for smaller businesses.
Reaching this goal could take months for many organizations that don’t have a massive PPC budget. However, if this applies to you, set a goal to reach 1,000 sessions or put a cap on your tests at the 60-day mark. Either way, just wait until you have a decent amount of data to work with even if you don’t reach that 10,000 mark.
Running split tests without specified goals isn’t going to help you. It’s crucial to know exactly what you want to get out of your tests. For example, everyone wants more leads, but what does that look like beyond the surface? Would you feel like you achieved your goal if you got 500 new leads that never make a purchase? Or do you only consider it a success if you generate targeted leads that at least have the potential to buy in the future?
Getting targeted leads is just one example of a specific goal. You may want leads who will sign up for your email list and then watch a video or follow you on Instagram. For long-term success, you’ll want to align your A/B tests with your goals, otherwise you could spend years testing the wrong elements – the ones that don’t directly influence the actions you’re trying to elicit.
To get actionable insight from your tests, you’ll want to identify the metrics that denote success or failure other than just the number of leads you collect. These might include:
To make improvements, you have to know how your experiments are performing.
Figuring out if your tests are successful requires some serious data analytics. You’ll need to analyze a handful of key metrics to see how people are reacting to the changes you’ve made, and you can accomplish this with a visual form of behavioral analytics. According to Investopedia, behavioral analytics can support a number of different hypotheses at once and makes it easier to evaluate your experiments.
When you have a visual data report of your tests, it’s easier to understand which elements are supporting your goals and if a certain version of your ad copy is good enough to apply to all of your PPC campaigns and/or become your new control. Additionally, tracking key performance indicators will help determine whether your adjustments are driving meaningful engagement and conversions.
Also called session replays, this is where a user’s actions are recorded as they interact with your website. Mouse movements, clicks and taps, and scrolling are the most common actions recorded.
Implementing session recordings into your split tests can help you improve your PPC ad campaigns immensely. Not only will you have data, but you’ll have a real-time account of how users interacted with your page, which will give you some specifics you can’t get any other way. For instance, a user might start to fill out a contact form and then stop at a certain question. Or, they might abandon the checkout process at a certain stage and their mouse clicks might tell you why.
Session replays are an excellent way to improve your conversion rate, and when paired with A/B testing, they’re even more powerful.
Heatmaps can provide you with valuable insight into which parts of your web pages are performing well (or not). These maps will show you where your visitors are focusing most of their attention, where they’re clicking, if and how long they’re scrolling, and what might be distracting them from taking the desired action.
For example, a scrolling heatmap can tell you if users even saw your CTA. Perhaps many don’t scroll down far enough, and you’ll need to move the CTA higher up on the page. If you don’t use a heatmap, you won’t know that many of your visitors never even saw your CTA. All you’ll know is that you didn’t get clicks. This could lead in circles, causing you to test different CTAs, when your original one might be just fine when made more visible.
Sometimes, it’s your traffic source that supports a more successful Google Ads PPC campaign. Make sure you’re tracking where your visitors come from so you can determine which traffic sources lead to higher conversion rates. You might find some sources to be complete duds, and that means you’re either targeting the wrong audience within that PPC platform or the platform itself isn’t where your market spends time.
Many businesses run PPC ads on every platform they can find, like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Ads. However, some markets rarely (or never) spend time on certain platforms. For example, if you’re trying to reach a highly technical and scientific-minded market, you probably won’t reach many people on Instagram. Sure, there are plenty of science-related accounts, but they’re not usually scholarly. It just doesn’t attract that type of market. Instagram is more for entertainment and visual appeal than sharing scientific research, discoveries, and theories.
If you discover that some of your traffic sources aren’t producing conversions, reconsider if you’re on the right platform. If you think you are, then start adjusting your target audience. If that doesn’t generate more leads, consider abandoning the platform because it’s not worth wasting ad spend where you aren’t getting results.
A/B testing is a crucial component in your Google Ads PPC lead generating campaign. The key is to define your paid search goals before setting up your experiments, and only test one change at a time.
Be willing to wait for statistically significant results so that you can know for sure that you’re making the right changes. Keep your control clean and consistent but replace it when you find a new ad or landing page that consistently achieves a higher conversion rate.
Last, don’t stop split testing when you get your first taste of success because there’s always room for improvement and you can always do better. You’ll need to adjust your goals and hypotheses over time, but that’s just part of the process. Split testing should be a continuous endeavor and if you get stuck, you can always reach out to a professional PPC marketing company.
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Pay-per-click (PPC) remains one of the fastest paths to pipeline, but the economics vary widely by industry and are shifting as AI reshapes the SERP. CPCs are up versus prior years, conversion rates have improved in many categories, and lead quality is increasingly a function of how well advertisers feed first-party data into bidding models.
The table below summarizes 2025 search-PPC benchmarks by sector—CPC, conversion rate (CVR), and cost per lead (CPL)—so you can compare what “good” looks like in your niche and calibrate ROI assumptions.
Use these numbers as directional guardrails, then layer in your own close rates and LTV to get to the only metric that matters: profitable growth.
In short, AI is changing the way PPC campaign management is occurring, and it's happening FAST.
ROI ≈ (Close-Rate × Avg Customer LTV ÷ CPL) − 1
Example (legal): if close-rate 12% and LTV $6,000 on CPL $132 → ROI ≈ (0.12×6000 / 132) −1 ≈ 4.45x (345% net). Improve any one input (faster intake bumps close-rate; better routing lowers CPL) and ROI jumps. Benchmarks for CPL/CVR above provide solid starting points. LocaliQ
PPC will keep paying when two things are true:
(1) you can convert and qualify leads quickly, and
(2) your bidding models are trained on the outcomes that actually make you money.
As AI compresses differences in targeting, the edge shifts to first-party data, creative velocity, and value-based bidding.
Treat the benchmarks above as starting points, then rebuild your ROI math from the ground up: ROI ≈ (Close Rate × LTV ÷ CPL).
Contact us today for your customized PPC audit to see how we can improve your search engine marketing ad spend.
When you’re running pay-per-click (PPC) ads, it’s easy to assume clicks mean genuine interest, but most car shoppers are just kicking tires online. Seeing your inventory once doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy anytime soon or even at all. If you want to reach the portion of clicks that come from serious buyers, you need to use retargeting.
The reality is that even prospects who intend to buy a car will bounce before contacting you or visiting your lot in person. And if you don’t have a way to keep them aware of your business, when they’re ready to buy, they’ll buy from a competitor. Running retargeted ads will keep your dealership in their awareness even after they bounce.
According to a 2022 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study, the average person spends more than 14 hours searching for a new car, which includes visiting around 5 websites before making a purchase decision. The sites they visit include automakers, dealers, third-party sites, and pre-owned car lots with online inventory. Your prospects aren’t going to buy right away, so to get the sale you need to reel them back in. If you’re not using retargeting – also called remarketing – in your PPC campaign, you’re missing out on hot leads.
Buying a car isn’t a small decision. People compare makes, models, and deals and look for dealerships with great reputations. Getting a single click from a potential car buyer isn’t enough to make the sale. And when they bounce, there’s no guarantee they’ll remember you exist. You’re paying for all those initial clicks, and if potential leads never come back you’ve wasted your ad spend. When you use retargeting, you’ll have another chance to turn their curiosity into a conversation, and that’s why remarketing is an essential component in every PPC ad campaign.
PPC ad retargeting for car dealerships shows your ads to people who have already clicked on an ad or visited your website. When implemented strategically, it keeps your dealership visible across multiple platforms and follows those people across the web. For example, when you run retargeted ads on the Google Display Network, your display ads will show up on the blogs, news sites, and apps your prospects frequent.
You can also run retargeting campaigns on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. As long as your prospects scroll through their daily feed, your ads will show up for them if they’ve already interacted with you. YouTube also offers retargeting options with video ads that play right before the content. In fact, don’t underestimate the power of YouTube video advertising. According to data from Wyzowl, video ads convince 84% of people to buy a product or service.
Not everyone searching for a new car will respond to the same bland, boilerplate message. For example, someone browsing luxury SUVs isn’t going to click on an ad that says, “Low APR on all models!” That’s where remarketing shines. It lets you tailor your message to what each user actually wants, which increases response rates.
With retargeting, you can segment your audience based on their interests and behavior. For example, someone comparing financing terms won’t be swayed by flashy sports car imagery. With retargeting, you can show truck shoppers truck ads and sports car shoppers sports car ads. It sounds simple, but it’s one of the most powerful marketing methods of all time. People are far more responsive to messages that feel personal. You may have caught their attention with a general ad at first, but once they start browsing those SUVs on your website, you can retarget them with SUV ads.
When you use retargeting, you can provide different calls to action (CTAs) to users based on how they’ve engaged with your web pages. A visitor who spent a lot of time on your truck inventory pages can be served ads for your latest truck deals. Someone who checked out your lease specials can be hit with ads that talk about financing offers. It’s deceptively simple and brutally effective. Relevance is everything. When your ads reflect what the prospect was already thinking about, it feels personal and resonates.
A next-level tactic is using engagement depth to determine how strong your call to action should be. For instance:
· Multi-page viewers and long dwell times. These are warm leads and can be retargeted with stronger CTAs like “Book a test drive” and “Get a quote today.” They’re close to converting and just need a little push.
· Single-page bouncers. These are people who just peeked at your site. They can be re-engaged with lighter touchpoints like a general promotion or model comparison guide to reel them back in.
· Abandoned lead forms. If someone started filling out a form but didn’t finish, retarget them with a reminder and a stronger offer to sweeten the deal (e.g., “Complete your form for $500 off!”).
This level of nuance turns retargeting into a conversion machine and allows you to show the customer exactly what they want to see.
People don’t buy cars from whatever dealer they find first. That’s too risky. They buy from dealerships they trust and that feel familiar. You can build that sense of familiarity and trust through retargeting. For example:
· Consistent branding across ads. Using consistent branding, design, and messaging throughout your ads reinforces your dealership’s identity.
· Frequency builds familiarity. People need to see a brand between 5-7 times before they’ll remember it. Retargeting puts your dealership in front of people over and over again. Even if they don’t click right away, it’s helping to establish your credibility.
· Social proof works. When you use social proof like customer testimonials or awards in your ads it builds trust with your prospects.
Trust is earned over time, and retargeting will help you get it.
If you’re not using retargeting, your competitors definitely are. Car dealerships operate in one of the most brutally competitive markets out there, with national chains and franchise giants dominating search results and flooding ad channels with endless budgets. If you’re not showing up again and again, your competitors will, and they’ll scoop up all your leads.
The good news is you don’t need a massive marketing budget to get results. Retargeting allows smaller, local dealerships to play smart rather than trying to play big. When you focus on local PPC with hyper-targeted remarketing, you can reach a smaller, more qualified audience – people who are actually in your area, browsing your inventory, and likely to buy soon.
And unlike those cookie-cutter campaigns from national dealers, you can make your messaging feel personal and specific to your local community. That’s an edge big budgets don’t have.
Every visitor who leaves your website without converting is a potential sale but not necessarily lost. With smart retargeting, you can bring them back into your funnel and stay top-of-mind while your competitors waste money shouting into the void. Persistence wins the sale and retargeting is how you stay on the map.
To be blunt, search ads can get expensive fast, especially when clicks can cost a couple dollars per click. Pouring money into cold traffic is gambling on people who may not be ready to engage. Retargeting changes everything.
Display retargeting clicks typically cost a fraction of what you’d pay for search ads using competitive keywords. You’re no longer paying top dollar to get someone’s attention from scratch – you’re nudging people who already know who you are, and those people are more likely to respond. This makes retargeting one of the most cost-effective ways to use your advertising budget.
· Lower CPC, higher intent. Retargeting costs less per click, but you’re targeting people who already visited your site and showed interest.
· Better conversion rates. Familiarity breeds trust. Retargeted visitors are statistically more likely to convert than new users who just clicked an ad out of curiosity.
· Higher ROI. Since retargeting reaches warm leads, the cost of acquiring a lead is usually lower, which means your overall cost per lead is lower and you get better ROI.
If you’re skipping remarketing because you think it’s just something “extra” that doesn’t make a difference, you’re not saving money – you’re losing easy wins. Instead of perpetually chasing new, cold traffic, invest in converting the traffic you’re already getting. That’s exactly what remarketing does.
Generic ads are fine for first impressions, but once someone has browsed your inventory it’s time to get specific with dynamic retargeting. Here’s how it works:
When a prospect views a specific vehicle on your site, you can use retargeting ads to show them the exact vehicles they viewed and others like it down to the year, color, trim, and mileage. For example, if they looked at a black 2005 BMW 535i, that’s exactly what they’ll see in the ad – the same photos, same specs, all across sites like YouTube, Facebook, news platforms, and more. This reminds your prospects of exactly what they want.
Dynamic retargeting works by integrating your live inventory feed with your ad platform, like Google Ads or Meta. This means the vehicles displayed in your ads will always be up to date and won’t feature cars you sold last week.
Beyond personalization, dynamic ads are an incredible tool for creating a sense of urgency:
· Leverage scarcity. With these ads, you can leverage the power of scarcity by stating that your inventory won’t last. Using messages like “Only 1 left” or “Recently reduced” signals that the opportunity won’t last.
· Show what’s popular. If a particular model is getting a lot of views, let your prosects know. People don’t want to miss out on a good deal.
· Trigger action with FOMO. Fear of missing out is real, and when people see the car they want again – with a reminder that it might sell soon – they’re more likely to come in for a test drive.
By using retargeted ads, you can increase conversion rates by up to 200% compared to standard display ads. These ads feel more like a helpful reminder than an outright advertisement.
If you’ve never run paid ads before, it’s easy to assume your only options are basic keyword targeting and generic follow-up ads. But today’s ad platforms give you a buffet of hyper-specific targeting capabilities to fine-tune exactly who sees your ads, where, when, and how.
One of the most effective PPC retargeting tactics for car dealerships is location-based targeting. With radius targeting, you can serve ads to people within a specified distance from your dealership, like within 10-15 miles. These will be prospects who are not only likely to visit your site but could realistically walk into your showroom today. Don’t waste ad spend on clicks from people three states away.
Then there are device-specific campaigns. If your analytics show that 75% or your traffic comes from mobile (this is common), you can launch a mobile-only retargeting campaign with click-to-call buttons, mobile-optimized landing pages, and a map and directions built right into your ads. This will improve the user experience and increase conversion rates.
Timing also matters. When you schedule your ads you can control when they appear. Run them during lunch breaks, in the evenings, or on weekends when people have more time to browse car listings and are more likely to make big purchase decisions.
Other strategic targeting elements include:
· Demographic targeting. You can tailor your messages based on age, income level, and household status. A 25-year-old college grad and a 45-year-old parent are not shopping for the same reasons even though they might buy the same car.
· Behavioral triggers. You can create audiences for your retargeted ads based on repeat visits, clicks, video views, or interaction with a specific feature like a trade-in calculator.
· Lookalike audiences. Build new audiences that resemble your best customers. Platforms like Meta and Google are really good at identifying similar users based on their behavior online.
The bottom line is that retargeting doesn’t have to be broad. With the right strategy, it becomes a smart, cost-effective system for reaching the right prospects at the right time.
Have a sale, lease offer, or year-end clearance? Retargeting can amplify the urgency to act now. By offering short-term discounts and financing deals, you can tap into the urgency people feel when presented with time-sensitive offers. Emphasize the end date using a countdown timer or final deadline to create FOMO (fear of missing out).
With this type of retargeting, you can align your ads with your email messaging to increase conversions even more. For example, if you sent out a promotion to your email list, they’re likely to see your retargeted ads and be reminded of the deal you’re offering.
Retargeting is the PPC secret weapon most car dealerships don’t take advantage of. Using this strategy can make the difference between a one-time curious visitor and a buyer ready to schedule a test drive. If you’re spending money on clicks without retargeting your visitors, you’re wasting your ad spend.
At PPC.co, we specialize in high-performance white label PPC campaigns that include smart retargeting from day one. Whether you’re launching your first campaign or looking to tighten up your existing ad strategy, we can help you capture more leads, drive more traffic, and move cars off your lot. Let’s turn those clicks into closed deals – contact us now to get started.
