COVID-19: Don’t Make the Mistake of Stopping Your Google ads Campaigns!

Stopping your Google ads campaigns will negatively affect your dealership. In fact, the majority of campaigns operate on smart bidding model to obtain the best possible performance. However, this system necessitates the algorithms to learn how to function properly and make you visible to your target consumers, and this takes some time.

Google ads algorithms collect the information transmitted by users while browsing online. The most important criterion is the freshness of this data, and your campaign’s algorithm is based primarily on the most recent data.

When you stop your Google ads campaigns, this essential data disappears! The algorithm will then have to start learning again when it is restarted. The return to maximum performance may be quite long, which will penalize you when lifting the social distancing measures linked to COVID-19.

When social distancing ends, you will have to restart your Google ads campaigns along with all your competitors. The economic recovery will be accompanied by very strong competition for keywords. This will dramatically increase your cost per click (CPC), up to two to three times than the present price.

The algorithm strives to target users as precisely as possible and present them with ads that really interest them to give you real conversion opportunities. However, your Google ads campaigns may lose targeting accuracy and be shown to people who are less interested in your vehicles and less able to convert. Again, this is due to the lack of recent data available. If you decide to stop your Google ads campaigns overnight, it may take you several weeks to find a cost-per-click value which resembles pre-COVID-19 costs.

Another consequence of stopping your Google ads campaigns completely is that you won’t be able to identify periods of economic recovery or to see which keywords (and therefore which vehicles or services) are most sought after by consumers. You’ll miss the opportunity to be really responsive when you need to.

The situation caused by COVID-19 is exceptional and the economic recovery should be relatively strong once the period of social distancing is over. Dealers who have decided to completely stop their Google ads advertising will then experience a more unstable period.

On the other hand, if you choose to keep your campaigns active, even with a minimal budget, you will be among those who are continuously present, and your algorithms will keep benefitting from fresh daily data to effectively target your consumers.

Right now, your communication needs to focus on one essential goal, which is to inform consumers that you are open for car services, and that they can explore your vehicles in detail on your website to buy them when dealerships reopen. Also, customers need to know they can even buy online if you have this feature. Stopping your Google ads campaigns prevents you from sharing this information as early as possible in the purchasing process, that is, in the search pages. Your potential consumers may prefer competing sites.

Online searches for new vehicles have decreased, but there are still consumers who want to change vehicles, so it is important to remain visible to be part of their final selection. According to Google, around 70% of potential buyers continue to research vehicles and 50% plan to delay their purchase for up to 4 months. There are a lot of sales opportunities being created right now that will have been filled by the time the dealerships reopen.