In the Game of Thrones world that’s arguably as intense as the competitive retail space, it’s a scenario where “Kill or be Killed” is replaced by “Sell or Be Sold”.  As we closed out Season 8 of GOT, we saw first hand what happened when a dragon flew through the city and redefined “hot seat”.

Avoid the hot seat at your dealership by eliminating your advertising waste.

So how do you make your Google Ads more valuable?

I’ve seen the SEO’s who increase the overall activity to a dealer’s website with blog articles that yield searches out of state and out of the country. Feels good. Looks good, but we’d be mistaking activity for achievement.

And then your agency partner mesmerizes you into multi-channel funnel tracking? Last click. First click. Time decay. Those only predict online conversions. Sure text, form fills and phone calls—matter at some level. They are symptoms, not solutions though.

This is the uncertainty of the current dimension of Google Ads that so many Car Gurus miss. All the artists, rock stars, kings and queens can offer up the different thoughts, but their best bet is to understand the shopper journey and the ultimate trackable source of ROI. Sales.

As we dive deep into all the possibilities consider the following. Learn something. Build something. Unlearn it. Rebuild it.

We are in the process of rebuilding where shoppers are in the car buying journey. How many cars are going to locations via digital retailing? How many sales without leads are being submitted?

Start embracing zip codes as the ultimate conversion. It’s no more absurd than the new king of the seven--or did it become six--kingdoms. This is the primary, if not only, conversion metric to drive toward. Is my bidding by zip code resulting in a ratio for profitability? As sales tighten it’s a KEY consideration, if not THE consideration.

Where did you sell the car answers all the questions in one fell swoop--without getting burned.