Paid search + local SEO + inventory-synced creative across 4 rooftops.
A 4-rooftop dealer group across two metro markets came to us at a moment that's common in automotive retail: strong unit sales on the floor, but marketing spend that no one could trace back to actual front-end gross. Each rooftop had been running its own digital presence — one with a legacy automotive SEO vendor, two with OEM co-op-funded campaigns run by the manufacturer's preferred agency, and one with no paid search at all. The result was exactly what you'd predict: CPLs ranging from $61 to $114 per rooftop, inconsistent inventory exposure, and a group GM who couldn't tell which channel was producing real buyers versus tire-kickers.
The structural problem was fragmentation. When four rooftops run separate campaigns, cross-rooftop cannibalization is inevitable — two of this group's locations were bidding against each other on the same high-intent keyword clusters, driving up their own CPAs. Add OEM creative lockdowns on brand campaigns, a VDP (vehicle detail page) experience that hadn't been updated in two years, and a finance-form follow-up sequence that averaged 48 hours of response time, and you have a funnel that was burning budget at the top and leaking at the bottom.
The ask: build a unified acquisition system across all four rooftops, eliminate internal cannibalization, reduce CPL to under $60 group-wide, and instrument the funnel so every dollar of spend could be connected to a test drive booked or a unit sold.
Audited all four active Google Ads accounts, mapped every keyword to a single rooftop owner, and consolidated into one managed campaign structure with geo-targeting and location extensions enforcing territory separation. Eliminated 34 keyword conflicts across rooftops within the first 30 days. Blended group CPL dropped from $84 to $67 by month 2 based on this structural fix alone — before any creative or landing page work was shipped.
Built a dynamic creative pipeline that pulls live inventory data from each rooftop's DMS and auto-generates search ad extensions and display units at the model/trim level. No more static "come visit us" ads running against in-market shoppers who are already 70% through the purchase funnel. In-stock models with available inventory surfaced first; units within 30 days of floor plan expiry flagged for higher-urgency creative variants. Test-drive form CTA matched to shopper's stage in the consideration cycle.
Every rooftop's VDP was running generic factory templates with no local trust signals. We rebuilt the conversion layer on each VDP: added social proof from Google reviews, surfaced finance-ready pre-approval CTAs, and reduced the finance form from 14 fields to 6. Finance form completion rate lifted 2.1x group-wide. Average lead-response time cut from 48 hours to under 4 hours by restructuring the lead routing and notification system in the dealer CRM.
Each rooftop's Google Business Profile was claimed, verified, and optimized with weekly photo updates from active inventory, service department posts timed to appointment availability, and a review velocity program that brought all four locations above a 4.3-star average within 90 days. Organic Maps visibility increased group-wide; by month 8, GBP-driven phone calls and directions requests were up 44% compared to pre-engagement baseline.
Built a reporting dashboard that stitched Google Ads lead data to the DMS deal log via rooftop-specific UTM parameters and a custom CRM integration. For the first time, the group GM could see CPL, lead-to-test-drive rate, and lead-to-sold-unit rate per rooftop per month — and compare them side by side. Budget reallocation decisions backed by real data: underperforming rooftops had spend cut; overperforming rooftops had it increased mid-month, not at the quarterly review.
| Month | Blended CPL | Test Drives / Mo | Lead → Sold Rate | Monthly Gross Attr. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline (pre-eng.) | $84 | 47 | 2.1% | — |
| Month 1 | $79 | 48 | 2.1% | $128K |
| Month 2 | $67 | 54 | 2.2% | $152K |
| Month 3 | $63 | 61 | 2.3% | $174K |
| Month 5 | $59 | 68 | 2.4% | $196K |
| Month 8 | $55 | 74 | 2.5% | $218K |
| Month 11 | $52 | 80 | 2.7% | $241K |
The first thing we fixed wasn't the ads — it was the fact that two of your own stores were bidding against each other. Once you stop paying double for the same in-market buyer, CPL drops fast. Everything else compounds from there.
This engagement maps to our Passenger tier at $3,297/mo. Full execution: paid search, local SEO, creative, CRM integration, and unified reporting.
View all tiers →25 years of real marketing P&L from 17+ venues — what we'd do if we were starting over today.
Download The PlaybookNo cost. Immediate access. 10-page PDF.
The multi-rooftop consolidation audit takes 30 minutes. We map every keyword conflict, every budget leak, and tell you exactly what a unified acquisition system would cost versus what you're spending now.
Book a Strategy Call