PPC for the motor trade
Automotive PPC that follows your stock
PPC for car dealerships and garages built around live stock, tight local targeting and finance-compliant copy, reported in test drives and sales rather than clicks.
- Campaigns follow live stock
- Sales and workshop calls split
- Finance copy kept compliant
Quick answer
ProntX manages automotive PPC for UK car dealerships, independent garages and dealer groups. We build Google Ads campaigns around live stock, add vehicle listing ads where eligible, run separate workshop campaigns and keep finance wording compliant. Management starts from £450 a month on a rolling contract, with ad spend paid direct to Google.
Automotive PPC means paying for ads on Google and Microsoft search that appear when drivers look for a car you have in stock or a service your workshop offers. ProntX manages PPC for car dealerships and garages across the UK, building campaigns that follow your live stock, cut out the searches that never buy a car, and report cost per test drive and cost per sale instead of clicks.
Why generic Google Ads set-ups struggle with cars
A standard account built by someone who does not know the motor trade tends to show ads for “cheap cars” across half the country, pay for searches about parts, car hire and jobs, and send everyone to the homepage. The ads keep running on a model that sold last Tuesday. Spend goes out, the enquiries that arrive are poor, and the conclusion is that PPC does not work for dealers. Usually the set-up is the problem, not the channel.
What stock-led PPC looks like
Campaigns are organised around what is on your forecourt: models, body types and price bands, each landing on a page that shows matching cars. Budgets lean towards stock you need to move. Workshop campaigns run separately with their own budget, because a service booking and a car sale have very different values.
Campaign types
Which campaign types work for PPC for car dealerships?
Most dealer accounts need four or five campaign types. Each has its own budget so one cannot quietly swallow the others.
Feed
Vehicle listing ads
Google’s vehicle ads show a photo, price, mileage and your location at the top of results, built from your stock feed. UK dealers are already running them; we check your account and feed qualify before building.
Search
Model and body type
Text ads for searches such as a used model near a town or an automatic estate under a set price, sent to a page listing matching stock.
Search
Your dealership name
A low-cost campaign on your own name so portals and competitors do not sit above you when someone searches for you directly.
Aftersales
Workshop and MOT
Local ads for MOT, servicing, diagnostics and repairs, scheduled around workshop hours and capacity.
Remarketing
Return visitors
Display and YouTube ads for people who viewed a vehicle but did not enquire, capped so they are not followed for weeks.
Automated
Performance Max, carefully
Useful once tracking is solid and conversion data is plentiful. Run too early, it tends to chase cheap clicks, so we add it later if at all.
Wasted spend
How do you stop wasted spend in automotive PPC?
With a strict search terms review every week in the first months, a tight geographic radius and ad schedules that match when someone can answer the phone.
| Search people type | Why it rarely sells a car | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Parts, spares, breakers | Looking for a component, not a vehicle | Negative keywords from day one |
| Car hire, lease deals, jobs | Different product or no purchase at all | Excluded, unless you offer leasing |
| Scrap my car, sell my car | Sellers, not buyers | Moved to a separate car buying campaign if you buy stock |
| Model reviews and problems | Early research months before purchase | Excluded from sales ads, covered by content instead |
| Areas you do not serve | Too far to view or collect | Radius set from your real customer postcodes |
If you already run Google Ads, our PPC audit will show how much of last quarter’s spend went on searches like these.
Stock sync
How do ads keep up when stock changes every day?
By connecting campaigns to your stock feed and setting rules, so ads pause when a model sells out and budgets rise on stock that is ageing.
- Feed checks for missing prices, wrong mileage and poor photos
- Ads pause automatically when no matching vehicles remain
- Extra budget for stock past your target days in stock
- Price changes reflected in ads without manual edits
- Landing pages that show the specific car or a filtered list
- Sold vehicle pages that redirect to similar stock, not an error
Feeds and landing pages depend on your website. If listing pages are slow or forms break on mobile, our car dealer web design team can fix them, because paying for clicks to a broken page is the most expensive mistake in PPC.
Finance in ads
What rules apply when you advertise car finance on Google?
FCA consumer credit rules apply to the ad itself, not just the landing page. A monthly payment in a headline triggers a representative example of at least equal prominence, which rarely fits in a search ad.
In practice we keep monthly figures out of search ad text and put the compliant representative example on the landing page, where it sits no less prominently than the payment figure. Incentive wording such as “instant decision” also triggers a representative APR, so we avoid it in short ad formats.
If you act as a credit broker, the broker statement and your firm’s legal name go on the landing page. Accounts that promote finance heavily can also be asked by Google to complete financial services verification. Your compliance lead or finance provider signs off finance wording before launch.
Measurement
How do you measure automotive PPC results?
Cost per enquiry is the starting point, but cost per test drive and cost per sale are what decide whether PPC is worth it for your dealership.
Every call, form, finance application and chat from an ad is tracked. Calls matter most: in dealer accounts a large share of calls from search ads can be workshop enquiries, so we separate sales and aftersales calls with different tracking numbers. Otherwise sales campaigns look better than they are and workshop ads get no credit.
Each month we match enquiries to appointments and sales from your CRM or a simple shared sheet. That shows which models and campaigns bring buyers, which only bring tyre-kickers, and where the next pound of budget should go. More on our general approach is on the Google Ads management page.
First 30 days
What happens in the first month of a car dealer PPC account?
The first month is about tracking and clean-up before any budget increase. Spending more on a leaky account only makes the leak bigger.
Week 1
Tracking
Call numbers for sales and workshop, form and finance tracking, and a check that conversions reach Google correctly.
Week 2
Structure
Campaigns rebuilt by model, body type and service, with the radius set from your real customer postcodes.
Week 3
Feed
Stock feed cleaned and connected, vehicle ads tested where eligible, sold stock rules switched on.
Week 4
Review
First search terms clean-up, landing page fixes and a call with you to agree next month’s priorities.
Pricing
How much does car dealer PPC management cost?
ProntX manages automotive PPC from £450 a month. Your ad budget is paid straight to Google, separate from our fee, so you always see exactly what the clicks cost.
| Account | Typical management fee | Usual scope |
|---|---|---|
| Garage or small independent | From £450 | Workshop and model search, name campaign, call tracking |
| Larger independent or single franchise | Typically £600 to £1,000 | Adds vehicle ads, remarketing and stock rules |
| Multi-site group | Typically £1,000 to £2,000 or more | Per-site budgets, feeds and group reporting |
Fees exclude VAT, depend on scope and roll monthly. See the pricing page for full plan details.
PPC and Google Ads
from £450/month
Management fee. Ad spend is paid direct to Google
What is includedSEO and AI search
from £595/month
Local and small business SEO, GEO and AEO included
What is includedWe will look at your search terms, stock feed, tracking and finance wording, then send a personal video with the fixes in priority order within 2 working days. Request your free review, or compare with longer-term automotive SEO.
How it works
What happens after you get in touch
- 01Free audit
We review your site, search visibility, ads and competitors, then send a short video walkthrough with the quickest wins.
Request audit - 02Plan and price
A one-page plan with goals, channels, timeline and a fixed monthly price. No surprises later.
See prices - 03Launch in weeks
Tracking first, then quick wins, then the bigger builds. You see progress in the first month.
See our work - 04Report and grow
Monthly report in plain English: leads, sales, cost per result and what we do next.
Talk to us
Same industry
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FAQ
Automotive PPC questions, answered
Still unsure? Ask us anything. We reply within one working day.
Is PPC worth it for a small used car dealer?
It can be, but only with tight targeting. Small dealers lose money on broad national searches and research-stage clicks. Narrow campaigns on the models you hold, a realistic radius and solid call tracking usually make PPC pay. If your budget is very small, a workshop campaign or vehicle ads alone may be the better starting point.
How much ad budget does a dealership need?
It depends on your area, stock volume and how competitive local dealers are in Google. We estimate a starting budget from keyword data for your models and radius during the audit, then adjust once real cost per enquiry is known. You set the cap and the money goes direct to Google, never through us.
Are Google vehicle ads available in the UK?
UK dealers are running vehicle listing ads, and agencies in the motor trade are offering them, but availability can depend on the account and on whether your stock feed meets Google's requirements. We check eligibility and feed quality in your account before promising anything, and run standard search campaigns alongside.
Can we show monthly finance prices in our ads?
A monthly figure triggers a representative example that must be at least as prominent, and that rarely fits in a search ad. So we usually keep monthly figures on the landing page with a compliant example and use ad text for stock, location and service points. Your compliance contact approves the final wording.
Should we bid on our own dealership name?
Usually yes. Name searches are cheap because your ad is highly relevant, and without one a portal or a nearby dealer can appear above you. It also lets you control the message, for example promoting a weekend event. We keep this campaign small and separate so it never inflates overall results.
How soon will PPC bring enquiries?
Ads can bring enquiries within days of launch. The first two to four weeks are a learning period while we remove poor searches and Google's bidding adjusts. Cost per enquiry usually settles over the first two to three months, and that is when budget decisions become reliable.
Do you run Facebook and Instagram ads too?
Yes, through our social team. Search catches people actively looking, while stock catalogue ads on social reach people who viewed a car or fit your buyer profile. Many dealers run both, with search taking the larger share of budget at first. See our automotive social media marketing page.
Who owns the Google Ads account?
You do. We set up or work inside an account registered to your business, billed to your card. If you leave ProntX, the account, history and conversion data stay with you. We never run client campaigns from an agency-owned account, so there is nothing to hand back or negotiate.
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