If you’re running Google Ads at your dealership, you’ve probably heard of Performance Max (PMax) and Smart Campaigns. Google pitches them as an effortless way to advertise across its entire ecosystem including Search, YouTube, Display, Maps, Gmail, the Discover feed, and even Google Play. All with a single campaign and minimal setup.

Just set a budget, add your website, maybe upload a few images, and Google’s machine learning takes care of the rest.

Sounds great, right?

But here’s the truth most vendors won’t say out loud: these “smart” campaigns often make it harder, not easier, for dealerships to know what’s working and where their budget is going.

And in a business that depends on real leads and real revenue, that lack of control can cost more than it saves.

What Are PMax and Smart Campaigns?

Let’s break it down clearly.

Performance Max (PMax) is Google’s fully automated campaign type. It is designed to simplify advertising by running your ads across the entire Google Ads network. That includes Search, YouTube, Display, Maps, Gmail, the Discover feed on mobile devices, and even Google Play.

All of that is managed under one campaign with minimal setup. You provide a few creative assets, set a budget, and Google’s system decides where your ads show, who sees them, and when.

Smart Campaigns follow a similar logic but are geared toward small businesses that want an even more basic, hands-off approach. These campaigns offer fewer customization options and are intended to be a “set it and forget it” solution.

In theory, this kind of automation sounds ideal. In practice, especially for car dealerships, it introduces challenges that most GMs and marketing leads don’t see until after the budget is gone.

Why Dealerships Get Burned by Over-Automation

The pitch for PMax sounds appealing. Efficiency. Reach. Hands-off optimization. But the reality paints a different picture.

Here’s what we’ve seen at Studio19:

• You don’t know which keywords are triggering your ads

• You can’t tell if the clicks are from in-market buyers or random browsers

• Ads show up in placements that look good on reports but do nothing for your showroom

• Reports show conversions, but you can’t connect them to revenue

Because PMax is designed to optimize for general engagement metrics like clicks or leads, it often sacrifices quality for quantity. That’s not good enough when every ad dollar should drive meaningful outcomes.

The Google Search Partners Problem

One of the biggest budget drains in PMax and Smart campaigns is a hidden setting: Google Search Partners.

Search Partners sounds harmless enough. In reality, it is a massive ad network that allows third-party websites to show your ads in exchange for a cut of the revenue. Anyone can host these ads, often on low-quality or spammy sites set up purely to generate fake clicks.

Click farms, irrelevant placements, and traffic from outside your target market all fall under this umbrella. And the worst part? You often don’t even know it’s happening.

When you use PMax or Smart Campaigns, you cannot turn off Search Partners. Google controls the placement, and a large share of your budget can end up funding meaningless clicks that never bring a buyer to your store.

To make matters worse, because PMax also spreads your budget across Display, YouTube, and Gmail, your actual Search budget often runs dry before a serious buyer even types in a high-intent keyword.

At Studio19, we automatically block Search Partners when pushing ads through Google’s RSA (Responsive Search Ads) format. We don’t spend a single dollar unless someone is actively searching for what you’re selling. If no one is searching, we’re not spending. That is how we protect your budget and your performance.

What Dealerships Need Instead

Dealerships aren’t like other businesses. You sell high-value products that depend on local visibility and real-time market behavior. A one-size-fits-all ad strategy won’t cut it.

You need to:

• Target buyers who are actively searching for your inventory

• Appear only when it counts, not across random ad placements

• See exactly which keywords, campaigns, and clicks are driving sales

• Avoid wasting spend on top-of-funnel or non-converting traffic

• Optimize daily, even hourly, not monthly

This isn’t about more automation. It is about smarter automation.

What to Ask Yourself

If you’re currently using PMax or Smart Ads, pause and ask:

• Are we driving traffic or actual showroom activity?

• Can we track our ad spend back to sales?

• Are we paying for clicks with no way to prove ROI?

• Are we spending most of our daily budget before serious buyers even start searching?

If the answers aren’t clear, it’s time to rethink how your marketing is structured.

Where Studio19 Comes In

Studio19 was built to eliminate these blind spots. Our platform gives you:

• Real-time, in-market targeting based on high-intent search behavior

• Full control over where your ads run and what they say

• Zero budget wasted on Search Partners or untargeted placements

• Clear attribution that links clicks to cars sold in your DMS

• Constant optimization that works without human micromanagement

No fluff. No guesswork. Just better decisions and better results.

Dealers deserve more than a padded report. You deserve performance that shows up on your lot.

Book a demo at studio19.io
Let’s take the budget you’re already spending and put it to work where it counts.

Studio19: Built for dealers.