Vehicle ads overview

Vehicle ads are a performance-focused lower funnel ad format, which allows auto advertisers to promote their entire inventory of vehicles to interested customers shopping for vehicles on Google. This format shows customers an image of the vehicle with important information such as make, model, price, mileage, and advertiser name. Showing inventory of available vehicles enriches the customer's purchase experience and provides more qualified leads for auto advertisers. Vehicle ads help advertisers drive sales by optimizing for both online conversions (leads) and offline conversions (store visits).

Clicking on a vehicle ad will take the customer to the vehicle description page (VDP) on your website. From there, they can perform additional actions such as contacting the dealer, filling out a lead form, etc. before visiting the dealership. Refer to the "Availability" section below for more information regarding participation in this program.

On this page

• Benefits
• Availability
• How vehicle ads work

Benefits

Vehicle ads help you get in front of auto shoppers online at the right moment, with the right listings and information to move them closer to a purchase. Key benefits include:

• More qualified leads: Showing customers key information and visuals about the car before they click, helps provide more qualified leads
• Omnichannel goals: Optimize for both online conversions (leads) and offline conversions (store visits)
• Automated targeting: Vehicle ads show your most relevant listings for a related user query

Availability

Vehicle ads support both new and used vehicle inventory from dealer, retailer stock, aggregators, or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Vehicle ads from private sellers, individuals, or auto brokers aren't permitted.

Vehicle ads may be used to promote only non-commercial passenger vehicles, such as cars or pickup trucks (utes in AU).

Examples of not-allowed vehicle types are recreational vehicles, commercial vehicles, farm vehicles, buses, 2-wheelers, trains, boats, airplanes, or outdoor utility vehicles.

Vehicle ads are currently available in the US, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and in a limited beta in select countries. Merchants in the United States, Canada and Australia can enable the Vehicle ads add-on directly in Merchant Center.

If you’re an auto advertiser of the EEA or the UK and interested in participating, check the prerequisites and then submit the contact us form after the requirements are met. 

How Vehicle ads work

To use vehicle ads, you must create Performance Max campaigns with vehicle feeds on Google Ads. Performance Max with vehicle feeds is a cross-channel performance focused format powered by Google AI to help drive vehicle sales for advertisers.

Advertisers are required to upload their vehicle data feed to Merchant Center. The advertiser’s feed must contain pertinent details about their vehicles, including make, model, price, mileage, color, and more. Google uses these details to match a customer's search to the most relevant cars. You must also link your Google Ads account to a Merchant Center account and a Google Business Profile. A store feed alternative to Business Profile linking is available if you don’t own or manage the profiles for your dealer locations. Learn more about how to simplify your vehicle ads experience with the Vehicle Feed Service Provider program.

Google will test different combinations of the assets available to create high performing ads across formats and networks that work best for your goals and the audiences you want to reach. If you attach a vehicle feed without separately adding other assets such as descriptions, headlines, and images, by adding them under asset groups or by opting into automatic asset creation under campaign settings, your Performance Max campaign will show your vehicle ads only on Google search.