No matter how long you’ve been running your PPC ads, you can always increase conversions just a little bit more. Sometimes that will involve tweaking your copy, your images, and the placement of page elements, and other times that will involve adjusting your target audience. When your goal is to increase your PPC conversions, you need to focus on landing page optimization and run a comprehensive landing page testing process.
To start getting better results, here are 8 PPC landing page tests you can run. Incorporating split testing into your strategy can help you compare different versions of your page to determine which one performs better. By testing landing pages systematically, you’ll identify changes that can drive significant improvements in your campaign’s overall performance.
Dynamic landing pages are essentially PPC landing pages that automatically change their content based on user input, like keywords, location, and more. This makes it easy to create a personalized experience for your visitors without having to create hundreds of PPC landing pages that perfectly match all possible combinations of your dynamic keywords.
When you start testing your PPC ad landing pages with dynamic landing pages, you’ll be able to tell which pages are converting better based on dynamic keywords being generated from your Google Ads. This will give you better insight into the efficacy of your ads and will help you learn more about your target market.
How many options do you give your visitors on your own landing pages? Do you have one product they can buy with a single click, or do your customers have to make a selection from a variety of options and variants?
At first glance, you might think giving your customers more options will generate more sales, but that’s not what the data says. In fact, if you’re not generating the sales you want, offering too many options could be what’s standing in the way. Landing page conversion rates often drop when too many choices are presented.
You’ve likely heard of “analysis paralysis” – the inability to make a decision when you’re presented with an overload of information. This occurs when someone is afraid of making the wrong decision and foregoing the ideal solution. When it comes to generating sales, giving prospects too many choices can result in analysis paralysis, and will actually cause more people to walk away than buy from you.
This phenomenon was demonstrated in 2000 in what has been dubbed “The Jam Experiment.” In this experiment, shoppers at Draeger’s Supermarket were given the opportunity to sample different flavors of Wilkin & Sons jams during two different sampling sessions hosted on different days. During the first session, shoppers were given 24 flavors to choose from, and during the second session, they were given just 6 flavors to choose from. The display with 24 flavors attracted more attention but resulted in one-tenth fewer sales. In other words, more people bought jam when they had fewer choices.
If this is what happened with something as simple as jam, imagine how an abundance of choices could be impacting your ability to sell important, high-ticket products and services.
Have you ever wondered why the fast-food chain In-N-Out Burger does so well without selling franchises or going public? Sure, they have amazing service and their food is good, but you can say that about a lot of businesses. From a marketing perspective, In-N-Out derives their success from having a simple menu consisting of burgers, fries, and drinks. However, unlike other burger joints you’ll only find three burgers on the menu: a hamburger, a cheeseburger, and a double cheeseburger.
While it’s true that a short menu tends to lower the spend per sales ticket, it increases the speed of service, which increases customer satisfaction and generates loyalty. After all, many people admit to driving for hours just to visit a newly opened In-N-Out Burger. Some have even waited in line for twelve hours to buy their food.
The lesson here is that people don’t want too many choices, and you’ll generate more sales by limiting the number of choices you offer to boost your lead generation efforts.
Your call-to-action (CTA) is more important than you might realize. Not only does your CTA entice people to click, but it can also influence whether or not visitors follow through with filling out your web forms.
For example, Culligan, a company that sells water filtration devices, experimented with their CTA by testing two variations. The first said “Get a Quote” and the second said “Get Pricing.” While both of these phrases mean the same thing, the results demonstrated the importance of matching visitor expectations. The page that used “Get a Quote” as the CTA saw 104% more form submissions. Why?
It’s because “Get a Quote” implies that the visitor will be asked to fill out a form with their information so they can talk to a service rep and get a personalized quote. “Get Pricing” implies that by clicking, the user will be taken to a page listing all the prices for various services. When asked to fill out a form, many users who expected immediate pricing ended up bouncing.
Check your CTA copy and really think about what you’re telling the user with your choice of words. There is a reason some CTAs convert better than others, and it’s not always because the copy is more persuasive – sometimes it’s because certain CTAs create a disconnect between the user’s expectations and reality. Make sure your CTAs create an accurate picture of what users can expect after they click.
What’s going on in the world that people are going to know about? Incorporate some current events into your PPC search ads to capture attention and see if you can get conversions. If you can come up with a clever search ad that is related to current events, like sports matches or upcoming national holidays, you’ll probably win some people over just by being clever.
Experiment with ads that play off of local events, local culture, holidays, and more. If you don’t have any ideas, consult with a professional PPC marketing agency because creating Google Ads like this is exactly what they do for their clients.
Your PPC landing pages should be extremely simple and users should intuitively know how to navigate, read, and understand what you want them to do next. If you have any page elements that get in the way of this process, you’ll want to eliminate them no matter what. For example, you could have the most beautiful slider at the top of your page that showcases brilliant photos of your products, but sliders have been shown to create resistance for visitors and they are a hindrance to conversions.
The problem with sliders is easy to see. The images change faster than visitors can take in the information they’re trying to read. Even if your slider doesn’t change that quickly, people are so used to nuisance sliders that they’ll just automatically start scrolling down the page when they see a slider.
Other page elements that can be difficult include pop-ups that open in a new window (these are largely forbidden by PPC platforms), pop-ups that aren’t easy to close, and videos without controls that prevent the user from pausing the video.
Check in with your landing pages to see if you have any elements that might be distracting or annoying to visitors and if anything looks like it might be in the way of getting conversions, make a new page and remove the element and test them both to see which page converts better.
Pop-ups are okay to use on landing pages with PPC ads as long as they are overlays and not new windows/tabs. Whether you already have pop-ups, or you’re just about to add some to your landing pages, make sure you spend a significant amount of time creating your campaigns.
Pop-ups are worth continually refining until they are pixel-perfect in terms of landing page design and size. You’ll also want to work on simplifying the copy. For example, avoid having paragraphs worth of text on a pop-up – most people won’t read that much copy. Use a short, powerful headline with a subheading, but limit the copy to a few lines.
Concerning the information, you ask for in your pop-ups, consider asking only for a first name and email address. If having a subscriber’s last name will help you in the future, then ask for a last name. However, if you’re only going to communicate with people online through email, a first name is all you need, and you’ll get more signups by asking only for a first name. However, some marketers have found that they get even better results by not asking for a name at all, and only asking for an email address. If a name is needed, they can use progressive profiling to get it later.
Which method is right for you? The only way to know is to run some experiments to test all of your options. However, if you’re not going to use progressive profiling, be sure to ask for at least a first name so you can get the higher open rates from sending out emails with personalized subject lines.
Many years ago, long form sales pages dominated the internet because everything was so new. Some speculate that long content made the business look more like an authority, especially when the content was full of good information. However, that was a time when people were primarily viewing websites from desktop computers. Today, most people are on mobile devices when viewing web pages, and long content is hard to read on mobile devices.
Sometimes long form sales pages are effective today, but not always. The only way to know how your content will perform in long vs. short forms is by testing it out yourself. However, remember that the key to generating conversions by shortening your content is to put your signup form or buy button front-and-center for your visitors. Go with a minimalist design to eliminate visual clutter and focus visitor attention on your signup form.
You can create landing pages that have a condensed version of your content on top with the extended version down below. Experiment with all of these options to see what works best for you.
If your product or service is used by people in different industries, then you need landing pages designed specifically to reach those individual markets. For example, you might run the same PPC ad for a variety of audiences, and that can work. However, you need individual, customized landing pages for each of your target audiences.
Elements to customize on each landing page include:
According to Unbounce, the highest converting landing pages have several key elements: compelling headings, a single and focused CTA, a clear value proposition, clear features and benefits, and testimonials or social proof. These elements should be present on all of your landing pages, but the content should change based on the target audience. You can also use a landing page builder to quickly create multiple pages for A/B testing purposes and multiple PPC landing page examples.
These are just a few ideas for what elements you can test to increase your PPC ad conversions in various search engines. As long as your conversion rates are below 100%, there is room for improvement. Never stop testing your Google Ads and landing pages; there’s always something you can adjust to squeeze out some more conversions.
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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.
