Why Auto Dealers Should Take Advantage of Demand Gen Now
In today’s competitive automotive market, shoppers are engaging with content long before they ever hit Search or see a VDP. Google’s Demand Gen campaigns make it possible for dealers to reach potential buyers earlier on the platforms they use most: YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Shorts. If you’re already using Performance Max or Search campaigns, Demand Gen helps you get in front of your audience earlier in the journey and drives higher quality leads to your site.
Why Demand Gen Works for Dealers
Demand Gen gives dealerships the ability to reach in-market auto shoppers before they ever search for a vehicle online. By showing up in high-engagement environments like YouTube, Gmail, Shorts, and Discover, dealers can build awareness and interest early in the buying cycle. These platforms allow you to tell your story visually through image carousels, walkarounds, and short-form video. This gets your vehicles in front of shoppers from the first impression. When you pair these capabilities with first-party CRM data and website audiences, you can also scale your reach through Google’s in-market and lookalike audience targeting, bringing more relevant traffic into your funnel.
Demand Gen + Performance Max = Full-Funnel Synergy
Demand Gen campaigns complement your existing Performance Max and Search strategies by building a full-funnel marketing approach. Use Demand Gen to prospect visually and warm up new shoppers, then let PMax and Search campaigns convert those warmed-up prospects into hard leads. Because Demand Gen integrates with Google’s conversion tracking tools, you can even credit engaged-view conversions – meaning if a shopper watches your video and later converts through another channel, you’ll still see the assist. This makes your marketing attribution smarter and your campaigns more efficient.
What You’ll Need to Launch
To get started, you’ll need a few essential audience signals and creative assets. For targeting, use CRM lists of recent sales or service customers, retarget website visitors who’ve shown buying intent, and build in-market auto audiences based on brand, body style, or new vs. used interest. You can also create custom segments to conquest shoppers browsing your competitors. On the creative side, prepare video assets in a short, easy-to-digest format and image ads in square and landscape formats. Carousels with 5 to 8 frames can showcase in-stock inventory or highlight special offers.
What to Track
When running Demand Gen, it’s important to measure both upper- and mid-funnel performance. Focus on engagement metrics such as time on site, scroll depth, and VDP clicks, along with lead actions like calls, chats, and digital retailing starts. Google’s engaged-view conversions will help you assess video impact on your downstream results. To go deeper, consider running geo-based or audience holdout experiments to measure true lift and incremental conversions driven by Demand Gen. Be patient. These campaigns typically require a 2-to 4-week learning period before you begin optimizing.
Keep Growing Your Market with Demand Gen
If your dealership wants to drive better traffic, improve video engagement, and fuel more VDP views, now is the time to launch Demand Gen. It’s one of the best ways to reach today’s shoppers in the moments that influence their decisions; before they even search.
Need help planning or launching your first Demand Gen campaign? Strong Automotive’s team is ready to help you build a strategy tailored to your inventory, market, and goals.
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John Paul Strong
John Paul Strong combines his two decades of automotive marketing experience with a team of more than 150 professionals as owner and CEO of Strong Automotive.
