Finding 01p. 8
Most conversions are phone calls.
In Dealer eProcess data, 67% of hard conversions from Google Ads were phone calls. In about one million SEM calls, only 12.84% were sales opportunities.
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Exposing the Outcomes of Google SEM Campaigns
Read our one-minute summary, or ask your AI what this report means for your dealership.
This report explores the widespread inflation of Google Ads results in the automotive industry, uncovering that a majority of conversions are misrepresented as sales opportunities. Dealers must transition from Cost Per Lead (CPL) to Cost per Sales Opportunity (CSO) to more accurately measure the effectiveness of their advertising efforts.
In Dealer eProcess data, 67% of hard conversions from Google Ads were phone calls. In about one million SEM calls, only 12.84% were sales opportunities.
Many agencies don't separate sales calls and forms from service or administrative ones.
Move from Cost Per Lead (CPL) to Cost per Sales Opportunity (CSO).
Invest in call management, track shopping events, report CSO, EPS & PER, stop optimizing sales campaigns on calls & store visits, and add marketplace & local audience data.
Why Google Ads results are hard to measure, and the case for moving from CPL to CSO.
How agency bonuses and OEM co-op pushed Google Ads spend without clear KPIs.
Hard conversions vs engagement measurements, sorted by sales, service or admin.
Most conversions are calls, few are for sales, and many sales calls are mishandled.
An open spec for tracking shopper engagement on dealer websites.
Marketplace referral traffic shows higher shopper engagement than Google SEM.
How a reported 55% bounce rate hid a true abandon rate of 73%.
Using marketplace audiences and first-party data to lift Google Ads.
Buying your own name, napkin math for sales opportunities, OEM co-op and call handling.
Seven steps, from call management to adding in-market audience data to Google.
What Google, agencies and OEMs need to fix in conversion setup and reporting.
Short on time? Read the Executive summary (p. 2) and the Recommended actions (p. 24). About 7 minutes.
The team, the method, and where the data came from.
Over the past two decades, Google Ads have become a central part of automotive digital marketing, with most dealerships heavily investing in the platform to drive sales. However, this report uncovers a critical flaw in the way ad performance is measured and reported. Many Google-certified agencies conflate various types of conversions, such as phone calls and form submissions, without differentiating their purpose—whether they are sales, service, or administrative inquiries.
As a result, dealers are led to believe their Google Ads campaigns are more successful than they are in terms of generating sales opportunities. The report calls for a shift in the industry’s approach to ad reporting and strategy. It urges auto dealers to adopt a Cost per Sales Opportunity (CSO) framework that accurately reflects whether a conversion translates into a true sales lead. The report also highlights the importance of leveraging third-party marketplace data to enhance Google Ads effectiveness and reduce wasteful spending.
Pick your seat to see what this report means for your job.
Quick answers about the report and who it's for.
Often, yes. Are Google Results Inflated? found that many agencies count sales, service and administrative calls and forms alike, so Google Ads reports can make campaigns look stronger than they are. The report says generating a sales opportunity with Google SEM is 5-10x more expensive than dealers think.
Only 12.84%, in an analysis of about one million Google SEM calls by InteractiveTel. That figure comes from Pasch Group's report Are Google Results Inflated?, which uses data mostly from January to May 2021.
In Dealer eProcess data, 67% of Google Ads hard conversions were phone calls. Many agencies don't separate sales calls from service or administrative ones, so Are Google Results Inflated? sorts phone conversions into call buckets by department.
CSO measures what it costs to generate a real sales opportunity, not just any lead. Cost Per Lead (CPL) counts leads of any type. Are Google Results Inflated? recommends replacing cost per lead with CSO in reports and includes a napkin-math formula for estimating it.
Start by reporting Cost per Sales Opportunity instead of cost per lead. Are Google Results Inflated? recommends seven actions, including investing in call management, tracking shopping events, no longer optimizing sales campaigns on calls and store visits, and adding marketplace and local audience data to Google Ads. GMs should ask their agency how many conversions were real sales opportunities.
In the report's data, yes. Referral traffic from marketplace websites was up to 3x more engaged and twice as likely to convert. Are Google Results Inflated? recommends adding marketplace audience data to Google Ads.
Not on its own. In one example in Are Google Results Inflated?, a reported 55% bounce rate hid a true abandon rate of 73%. The report lists metrics dealers should remove from reports and metrics to request instead.
It draws on about one million Google SEM calls analyzed by InteractiveTel, data from Dealer.com, Dealer eProcess, CallRevu, CallSource, CarWars, Cars.com, Autotrader, CarGurus and Dealer Inspire, and Google Ads campaign reports sent in by dealers. Most datasets cover January to May 2021. Brian Pasch wrote it, and it was published in August 2021.
Yes. It's a free 31-page PDF from Pasch Group, written for dealership marketing leaders and GMs. Download it on this page. Short on time? Read the executive summary and the recommended actions, about 7 minutes.
Are Google Results Inflated?. Free, and yours in under a minute.
Are Google Results Inflated? · 31 pages
Based on interviews with dealership leaders using AI in sales and service, this report shows how the strongest stores split work between AI and people, manage the handoff, bring staff along and measure what AI actually adds.
In collaboration with ImpelThe 2027 Automotive CRM Research Report examines how AI, CDPs, cloud data warehouses and evolving CRM platforms are reshaping who controls dealership data and customer communications, and the new standards dealers should demand as CRMs expand into service, F&I, lifecycle marketing, compliance and AI-agent governance.
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