Do you know what days of the week and times are best to run your Google ad’s?
Why does it matter, you ask?
Well, knowing when to post can guarantee maximum conversion rates, impressions, CPA, or other beneficial metrics.
If you have been using your PPC account for several months, identify what days of the week and ad account’s time zone offer the most profit to your business.
This is called paid ads scheduling/schedule ads or dayparting in Google Ads.
And to help you with this, you should start using the Dimensions tab (one of the best options in Google Ads).
On the other hand, it might be challenging to run your Google Ad’s account for the first time/on viewer’s time zone. You are confronted with an enormous interface of charts, settings, and tables, and figuring out where to start may be challenging to say the least.
Your central focus will be on organizing your ad groups, keywords, and ppc ad campaigns and managing the possibilities of smart ad campaigns, dynamic ad groups, and any other thing that Google provides you when you create an account.
Creating bid adjustments in an area that most people ignore. Moreover, Google does not tell you more about bid adjustments while starting your ad campaigns; however, they are precious when you want to tweak your ad campaign with higher results.
You have a few bid alternatives while you are creating your Google Ad’s campaigns. For example, you may use an automatic bidding strategy to enhance conversions or clicks, or you can set your bids manually.
Google’s automated bidding algorithms enable it to put bids on your behalf depending on what it knows will bring you the desired outcomes.
This removes several of the uncertainty from determining how and when to bid on the keywords. But this also implies you might lose control over how much you are spending on each click.
On the other hand, the manually bidding approach lets you make bids for every keyword, giving you greater flexibility and making account maintenance much more time demanding.
In addition, whatever bidding technique you select, you get the choice of increasing or decreasing your offers when specific conditions are satisfied.
This implies you may invest less on hits you believe are much less critical to the organization and extra on clicks from people you think are more valuable to your business.
As you configure the Google Ad’s bidding, then will find that you can only make a few particular bid modifications. Some are more complex than others, but they are still all Google Ad’s bid modifications.
You will also observe that every bid adjustment category has its set of conditions in which it may be used and its own set of modification options.
Google will inform you of such limits when you configure your bid changes, but you should be conscious of them at all times.
When examining the possible ranges of modifications, keep in mind that a drop of 100% will prohibit your advertising from appearing.
Selecting this option allows you to altogether opt-out of seeing adverts in that set of conditions. With that said, here are the types of bid adjustments:
You may also implement alterations depending on demographic factors such as age, household income, and gender. This is one aspect of Google Ad’s demographic targeting small business owners.
This sort of change is available in the new Google Ad’s experience in ppc campaigns and ad groups.
Bids might be reduced by 90 percent or increased by 900 percent.
Ad scheduling changes allow you to vary the ad bid and regularity based on time of day/viewer’s time zone or days of the week. To use these Google Ad’s bid modifications, you must first create your ad scheduling.
That plan is easy to generate and allows you to change the days of the week quickly, and times your ad will show. Moreover, Ad schedule/Ad scheduling modifications can be used in ppc campaigns.
Device bid changes allow you to change the regularity of your adverts depending on the devices used by the searcher, such as:
This form of modification may be used in ad groups and ppc campaigns. However, always remember that if you adjust both the movement and the ad group, Google will utilize the ad group adjustment.
Moreover, you can reduce the bid minimum to 100%, which will result in advertisements no longer being displayed on that device. Furthermore, you can raise the bid by approximately 900%.
You can change the frequency with which your ad shows depending on the viewer’s location by using location adjustments.
Geographic areas such as countries and cities can be used to define the location. Join this with location extension to provide various bids to clients who are geographically close to your business.
This is an alternative method for adjusting the Google Ad’s bidding. Rather than increasing your general bid, you can modify your bid for call ppc ads campaigns alone.
The bid revisions will affect how frequently consumers see call extensions and call-only ads.
Methods of targeting Bid modifications are a more complex option. This allows you to generate bid changes for targeting strategies such as topics and placements for display network ads.
The remarketing list of your search advertisements is one of the most complex Google Ad’s bid modifications you can use.
To apply this bid adjustment, you must first create a remarketing list, which is simple to accomplish.
You may utilize this advanced bid adjustment if you are running advertisements on YouTube or the Display Network.
It relates to the material chosen by Google to be more in-demand, with more traffic and viewer engagement, as well as more impressions each day.
On the other hand, your ad should be eligible to appear on this content. In that instance, your bid adjustment may raise your bid.
The top content bid adjustments are applied to ad groups. It applies to the Google Display Network of websites and applications, as well as YouTube.
Adjustments cannot be used to lower the bid. However, you can boost it by up to 500%.
Below are the steps that will help you to set your bid modifications:
Choose the campaign/ad campaigns you want to make bid modifications for, then tap the ad scheduling option appearing on the left side. If no bid modifications are configured, it should appear like the image shown below.
After you have decided on your time ranges, hit the “edit ad schedule” option and fill in the blanks.
Remember that Google has recently altered the settings, and you only ever have six-time frames in a single day.
Before you save your new ad schedule, it should appear like the image as shown below. Save the file.
Create your test reporting plan after you have saved this. This test is best measured by looking at the findings week after week and reporting on the desired parameters.
Then, after 1 or 2 months, you can gather the findings and decide whether or not to continue with the time of day bid strategy.
Following are the reasons why any digital marketers uses Google Ad’s bid adjustments:
Bid modifications are also a quick and easy approach to test different campaigns.
You might, for example, see how much one of your existing campaigns might work as “mobile-only” by boosting the bid on smartphones and reducing the bid on other gadgets.
If anything goes well, you may want to explore making it a distinct campaign. On the other hand, delete your bid change to restore normalcy if things do not go as planned.
You may optimize your targeting by modifying who you ad spend most of your ad money on using bid modifications.
For instance, if you understand you are just more inclined to make deals at a specific time of day, you might boost the bid adjustment at that period.
You should be able to use your budget quite effectively if you improve your targeting. As a result, the ROI should be higher.
After you understand Google Ad’s bid modifications better, look at certain Google Ads bidding tactics and recommendations:
When creating your Google Ad’s bidding tactics, make use of real-world data. Taking the attempt to know how you operate across different sectors is part of this.
Keep an eye out for differences in locations, Target audiences/potential customers, online shoppers, location, time, and device. Try not to be hurried when reviewing the facts.
Make sure that you have waited long enough to allow for conversion delays. Alternatively, you may have to wait sometime for plenty of data to give meaningful insights.
As you plan your bid modifications and entire bidding strategy, consider your goals to achieve in mind. Your objectives will decide which ads and campaigns receive higher bids and which receive lower bids.
Allowing Smart Bidding to handle bid modifications for you is the most convenient option. These tactics will alter your bids automatically, depending on several parameters.
For example, target CPA and Target ROAS optimize for location, time, device, and target audience or online shoppers/potential customers for each ad auction.
A bid simulator is available in Google Ads. Take the initiative to use this to assist you in choosing an appropriate beginning place for the bids.
While human bidding has advantages and disadvantages, thus do automated Smart Bidding systems. They are beneficial for individuals who must manage many campaigns. It avoids wasting ad spend time.
The caution here is that you always wait until you have sufficient google ads data before using automated bidding. Therefore, to gather the data you require, experts usually recommend beginning by manual bidding.
You may try moving to automated bidding when you have a good quantity of data and have experienced some early success.
Some experts believe that 30 conversions each month in any ad campaigns is a good starting point. However, when you get to this level, you must seriously consider adopting an automated technique.
By using manual bidding in Google Adwords, you may avoid accidentally coming too near to or exceeding your budget.
Although Google Ads allows you to select your budget, the automatic bidding approach may make bids that are higher or lower than you wish. Manual bidding is the way to go if you want total control.
To understand better when to utilize automated bidding generally, you should also be conversant with specific tactics.
For instance, the Target CPA Smart Bidding technique is excellent for increasing conversions. Nevertheless, to collect adequate data, you need gradually transition to this method over time.
Another example is the improved CPC approach, which is excellent for increasing conversion value and conversions.
In addition, it is one of the most cost-effective solutions since it blends Smart Bidding alongside manual bidding.
Even if you use Smart Bidding to automate the whole process, you need to set up a system to handle your bids.
First, Google Ads recommends generating essential bids that will allow you to accomplish your overall objectives.
After that, use bid modifications to account for campaign performance variances between segments such as device type or location.
Any overlap with bid modifications should also be considered in your plan. Keep in mind how Google Ads handles overlapping bid modifications for the time of day, location, and target audience/online shoppers.
When configuring the Google Ads bidding, be sure to distribute your money among many tactics.
This is a great safety net since it assures that you do not wasting ad spend/waste your overall budget if a bidding strategy or ad campaigns fails to yield results.
There are a few things you can do to increase the efficiency of the bid changes. First, begin by attempting to adhere to campaign-level alterations.
Always make group-level changes if the performance of campaigns varies significantly among them. However, it is highly efficient and creates changes based on more significant amounts of data.
Campaigns, after all, will have more data than commercials since they are more significant groupings.
Another effective method is to test for merging your campaigns. However, remember that you may utilize segments to perfect your bid modifications even if you combine campaigns.
Even though you pick the best bid changes and bidding method, you still need the correct keywords to be successful.
So opt for keywords that have a cheap ad costs per click and a higher conversion data volume. That would be a nice balance for most businesses between garnering enough clicks and staying within their budget.
Search for long-tail keywords having precise matches as well. Again, there is plenty of purpose behind such keywords, and they tend to give a significant profit on ad investment.
However, they are much less competitive since they are more particular.
Remember to explore negative keywords in conjunction with your primary keywords. It allows you to avoid spending money and time attracting queries that are unable to convert.
Keep in mind that the primary objective of your Google Adwords bidding is to acquire clicks that turn into conversions.
Therefore, take the time to adjust your landing page and ad copy to maximize conversion rates. They should accurately express your service or product as well as what distinguishes you.
In the headers, they must also utilize identical terms, ideally the exact phrasing. Again, this will significantly lower your bounce rate.
While being at the top of Google Ads will earn you more hits, it is not always the greatest option for your Ad Costs per click and ad budget.
In several circumstances, the second place will receive nearly as many hits as first. This seems to be the case even though the offer for the top position maybe 2 to 3 times.
Although you may lose some clicks by going for the second slot rather than the first, you will also have a cheaper CPC and will still receive sufficient returns to justify your efforts.
Being ranked second might also improve your conversion rates and bounce rate. But, again, this is caused by human behavior and the idea that people tap on every first link they see without even checking if it is appropriate.
Whether they are peering at the second or third place, they will most likely require a few moments to determine its significance.
Consequently, you will have a higher response rate and ad spend less money on clicks that do not convert.
Google Ads bid adjustments make it simple to tailor your bids to particular visitors depending on characteristics such as demographics, location, device, retargeting, scheduling, and others.
This will allow you to make better use of your budget. Moreover, It also cuts down on time you should ad spend generating distinct ads and building up different budgets.
It becomes a natural component of Google Ads bidding after you get used to putting up bid modifications.
For the best results, incorporate the changes with additional bidding techniques and advice.
If you need help with your dayparting strategy, contact us about hiring our PPC management services for expert management of your Google Ads campaigns.
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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.
| Sector | CPC (2025) | CVR (2025) | CPL (2025) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attorneys & Legal | $8.58 | 5.09% | $131.63 | High LTV offsets cost; intake speed drives ROI. |
| Home Services | $7.85 | 7.33% | $90.92 | Strong local intent; geotargeting and call flows matter. |
| Healthcare (Physicians & Surgeons) | $5.00 | 11.62% | $56.83 | Wide variation by specialty; appointment UX boosts CVR. |
| Real Estate (Agents/Brokerages) | $2.53 | 3.28% | ~$100.48 | Lower CVR keeps CPL high; lean on LSAs/retargeting. |
| B2B / Business Services | $5.58 | 5.14% | $103.54 | Longer funnels—optimize to qualified pipeline value. |
| Restaurants & Food | $2.05 | 7.09% | $30.27 | Efficient lead costs; fast payback with online ordering. |
| Automotive – Repair/Service | $3.90 | 14.67% | $28.50 | Top-tier CVR; excellent for local lead generation. |
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.
