Writing ad copy for auto parts is different, more complex than many industries.
The number of SKUs and combinations by year, make, and model can give any ad copy writer a migraine.
From my experience, automotive PPC ad copy tend to be generic; for whatever reason — but my hunch is because it takes less management and adjustments.
And to be honest, most auto parts business do not have the manpower and experience to manage everything in-house.
Ad copy is complex; there are many elements that make up a great ad copy like headlines, descriptions, dynamic keyword insertion, landing page, keyword match types – to name a few.
But it’s not impossible.
These PPC ad copy tips that will change your game
Writing good ad copy can make a big difference — getting more relevant website traffic that are more likely to become paying customers.
Re-energize your ad copy with these ideas.
Automotive PPC ad copy Tip #1
Match your ad copy to car owners buying cycle.
Whether they are researching, considering, or ready to buy a vehicle from you — writing your PPC ad copy with the most targeted keywords will increase your ad’s CTR.
If people are searching for “cold air intake kits,” then your ad copy should be tailored around that search phrase.
Someone searching for cold air intake kits have not told us what year, make, or model they own yet. So ad clicks should take the vehicle owner to a category page for cold air intakes.
When someone is search for more specific like “cold air intake for chevy silverado 3500,” then your ad copy should be like Summit Racing, which is an aftermarket auto part store, instead of a Chevrolet dealership in Northridge, CA.
See how ad copy can play a critical part in getting the right type of visitors to your website?
Pro tip: Don’t do what Chevy of Northridge is doing. This waste money, gets the wrong customer, and will not convert. Whoever is managing their dealership PPC should probably negative out “cold air intake.”
Automotive PPC ad copy Tip #2
Let your audience self-qualify before they click.
If you are selling a high-ticket auto parts like intercooler systems, turbo performance kits, or tuners and programmers, it can help you get qualified clicks by including your price in the ad copy.
This will help you pre-qualify your visitors. They won’t be shocked with the price on your website.
You create transparency between you and the customer and it gives them a good shopping experience. The last thing you want your customers to feel is they have been baited and switched on.
Any vehicle owner who is not serious will most likely avoid clicking on your ad — your price will turn them away.
So you end up only attracting visitors that understand the value of your product and ready to pay for it.
Don’t add extra pain to your visitors by shocking them on your landing page.
Disclosing your price in your PPC ad copy can avoid this friction.
Automotive PPC ad copy Tip #3
Be geographically relevant to your audience.
This is especially useful if you have retail stores.
You can target your automotive PPC campaigns down to the city level. That means you can use location in your ad copy.
Local ads resonates better with your visitors — when they recognize the city they are searching in.
Here’s an example for corporate catering in Los Angeles.
Three of four brands took the extra effort to customize their ad copy to include Los Angeles, and will be the business to collect more granular campaign data.
Chipotle is quite a shock to be honest.
Not only their ad missed the opportunity to be locally relevant, they are also not leveraging Google Ads ad extensions to maximize the campaign’s performance.
In fact, one of the biggest ad extension all four ads are missing is the Call Extension.
Automotive PPC ad copy Tip #4
Use the search phrase in your ad copy headline.
When a searcher sees the search term in your ad copy, they are more likely to click through to your landing page.
Your headline is the most prominent part of your ad copy. So put it to good use.
We use this tactic, selectively, one of our aftermarket auto parts client, bankspower.com
A search for “chrome exhaust tips” return the ad with the exact phrase. This ad has a CTR of over 10% consistently.
Of course, other retailers like carid.com is also using the same tactic — so we have our work cut out for us 🙂
You have two ways to create such exact match headline.
You can create single keyword ad groups (SKAGs) or use dynamic keyword insertion (DKI).
When you create SKAGs, you can create specific headlines because you are, essentially, you have one exact match search term.
A word of caution when using DKI. Be careful with the search phrases you’re bidding on. If mismanaged, you could have really strange looking headlines that lose its relevance.
How wrong can it get? See for yourself…
Here’s a funny ad from eBay some time back using what appears to be dynamic keyword insertion 🙂
Automotive PPC ad copy Tip #5
FOMO can be your best ally.
Now, before you go and create ad copy with chalk full of “fear-of-missing-out” language, be mindful to use it sparingly.
You don’t want across desperate, or worse, compromise your brand’s voice.
Best situations to appeal to FOMO in your automotive PPC ad copy when you run sales, seasonal offers, promotions or exclusive offers.
A few examples include:
“Limited Time Offer”
“Sale Ends in X Days”
“We Pay Your Tax”
“Exclusive Online Offer”
“Limited Quantity In Stock”
You get the idea. There are endless ways to create FOMO in your PPC ad copy headline — limited by your creativity.
The whole point is to get your visitors to act immediately, click, and make the purchase right away.
Automotive PPC ad copy Tip #6
Match your ad with your landing page.
This sounds straightforward, but it’s a huge miss for many brands who have hundreds to thousands of simultaneous ads running.
Don’t take your visitors for fools — it will be your biggest mistake.
Continuity from your ads to your landing page goes beyond the basic PPC strategy — it crosses over to conversion rate optimization (CRO) as well. But that’s another topic.
The rule of thumb is to keep your message consistent and flowing from your ad to your landing page.
If you offer free shipping in your ad copy, offer free shipping on your landing page.
When you’re running a discount in your ad copy, then make sure you send visitors to a landing page offering the discount.
If you offer a free service in your ad, don’t just offer a free trial.
PPC ad copy Tip #7
Responsive search ads (RSA, currently in beta as of this article).
Google Ads can create combinations of ad copy and test it automatically in rotation as it analyzes its performance.
As you can imagine, this can be very powerful.
Google Ads’ ability to automatically test, optimize, and serve the best performing ad to your visitors changes the game for automotive advertisers.
According to Google Ads,
Assets can be shown in any order, so make sure that they make sense individually or in combination, and don’t violate our policies or local law.
For a single ad, you can create variations of headlines and descriptions.
Google will mix and match your headlines and descriptions up — test variations of it with the goal of finding the best ad and serving that to your prospects.
You can create up to 15, and make sure your headlines are unique enough — as it plays into your ads’ strength.
These descriptions will be used as your D1 and D2; again mixed and matched by Google’s AI.
This is a simple monitor that tells you if your ad headlines and description have met Google’s minimum requirements for its RSAs.
As an automotive advertiser, you must continue to monitor the performance and results of your RSA ads.
Automotive PPC ad copy Tip #8
Focus on the vehicle owner, not yourself.
Research has found that referring to yourself turns people away — they don’t care about what you think about yourself.
They care about one thing. If you have the right performance parts for their truck or car at the right price.
After all, whatever you are selling should be solving a need — more horsepower, more mileage, more efficiency, etc.
“We can help you find your Chevy Silverado performance part.” will get more clicks than “Shop parts for your truck today.“
By focusing on your customers, you message will appeal to their needs, offer to improve their lives, and give them a much better experience.
PPC ad copy Tip #9
Use your keywords in the URL display path.
By including your keywords in your ad’s display path, your automotive PPC ad can stand out to the searcher.
It’s also another chance to emphasis your keyword.
This reinforces familiarity and relevance to what your visitor is searching for.
Whether it’s a auto part, make, or model, this is a great place to enhance your automotive PPC ad copy.
The more specific you are in giving your visitors what they’re looking for, the better. You’ll draw attention to your ad — and if none of your competitors are using this, you are already ahead.
Wrapping It Up
To continue improving your automotive PPC performance, you can start incorporating these things into your ad copy, test them, and then continuously make improvements.
A/B test, experiment and split test your ad copy, headlines, your price options.
Test all of it so you don’t miss out on the best versions of your automotive PPC ad copy.
