01 — Executive Summary
Key Performance Indicators
Total Spend
£344.13
Search £205.67 + PMax £138.46
Total Clicks
385
Search 153 + PMax 232
Total Impressions
11,360
All networks combined
Total Conversions
88
Tracked across 10 days
Search CTR
4.13%
Used Cars Search campaign
PMax CTR
3.03%
DM | PMax_Local campaign
Search Avg. CPC
£1.35
Google Search network
PMax Avg. CPC
£0.60
Cross-network (display/search mix)
02 — Campaigns
Campaign Performance Breakdown
| Campaign | Status | Cost | Clicks | CTR | Opt. Score |
| DM | Search | Used Cars | Enabled | £205.67 | 153 | 4.13% | 77.6% |
| DM | PMax_Local | Enabled | £138.46 | 232 | 3.03% | 83.3% |
Campaign Notes
- Search campaign takes the larger share of budget (59.8%) and delivers high-intent traffic at £1.35 CPC - users actively searching for used cars in the Northamptonshire area.
- PMax_Local runs at a much higher CPC this period (£0.60 vs £0.01 in the full March report) - this suggests PMax is now spending more on search inventory rather than cheap display/video. A positive sign for lead quality.
- Both optimization scores unchanged at 77.6% and 83.3% - Google recommendations in-account should be reviewed to improve these.
03 — Period Comparison
Changes vs. Previous Period (17 Mar – 26 Mar 2026)
| Campaign / Ad Group | Spend Now | Spend Before | Clicks Now | Clicks Before | Trend |
| Search — sell the car | £68.32 | £36.12 | 20 | 11 | +89% spend |
| Search — used | £55.06 | £31.95 | 37 | 23 | +72% spend |
| Search — buy cars | £31.74 | £45.58 | 41 | 38 | -30% spend |
| Search — car dealerships | £32.10 | £42.43 | 16 | 9 | -24% spend |
| Search — brand | £6.45 | £23.15 | 17 | 33 | -72% spend |
| Search — second hand | £12.00 | £5.60 | 22 | 12 | +114% spend |
| DM | PMax_Local | £138.46 | £127.93 | 232 | 214 | +8% spend |
What Changed & Why It Matters
- "sell the car" group +89%: Significantly more budget going to seller-intent keywords. If the business buys cars, this is a great signal.
- "brand" group -72%: Brand keyword spend dropped sharply - fewer people searched for brand-specific terms this period, or bids were reduced. Worth monitoring to protect branded traffic.
- "second hand" +114%: This ad group is scaling - more budget, more clicks. Healthy growth in a core category.
- PMax stable: Only +8% increase, consistent delivery. The higher CPC (£0.60 vs previous £0.01) indicates a shift toward higher quality search placements within PMax.
04 — Daily Performance
Day-by-Day Results: 27 Mar – 5 Apr 2026
Daily Clicks, Impressions & Cost
10-day period — Wednesday 1 Apr was the peak day
| Date | Clicks | Impressions | Conversions | Cost |
| Fri, 27 Mar | 36 | 1,005 | 12 | £20.18 |
| Sat, 28 Mar | 47 | 1,083 | 10 | £48.50 |
| Sun, 29 Mar | 24 | 853 | 4 | £10.79 |
| Mon, 30 Mar | 30 | 855 | 8 | £49.43 |
| Tue, 31 Mar | 35 | 1,128 | 12 | £27.15 |
| Wed, 1 Apr ★ | 59 | 1,128 | 23 | £42.83 |
| Thu, 2 Apr | 33 | 1,216 | 9 | £23.54 |
| Fri, 3 Apr | 40 | 1,381 | 6 | £27.26 |
| Sat, 4 Apr | 49 | 1,668 | 3 | £44.15 |
| Sun, 5 Apr | 32 | 1,043 | 1 | £50.31 |
Daily Trends
- Best day: Wednesday 1 April - 59 clicks, 23 conversions, £42.83 spend. Best cost-per-conversion of the period at ~£1.86 per conversion.
- Sunday 5 Apr: Highest cost (£50.31) with only 1 conversion and 32 clicks - the worst efficiency day. Weekend Search costs can spike with lower intent traffic.
- Impressions trend upward: From ~850-1,000 in early days to 1,381-1,668 by end of period - reach is growing, suggesting PMax is finding its audience.
- Conversions declining toward weekend: Weekday conversions (8-23) significantly outperform weekend (1-4). Consider reducing weekend bids or budgets.
05 — Search Keywords
Keyword Performance (Search Campaign)
| Keyword | Match | Cost | Clicks | CTR |
| sell my old car | Phrase | £53.82 | 14 | 5.13% |
| used cars dealerships | Phrase | £34.98 | 13 | 3.32% |
| car dealers near me | Phrase | £30.56 | 14 | 5.96% |
| used car Northamptonshire | Phrase | £16.44 | 20 | 6.87% |
| buy car | Phrase | £14.60 | 21 | 3.66% |
| sell my vehicle | Phrase | £11.18 | 4 | 5.06% |
| cars for sale in northampton | Phrase | £10.52 | 7 | 2.37% |
| second hand vehicle for sale | Phrase | £8.06 | 9 | 2.66% |
| ets cars thrapston | Phrase | £4.39 | 8 | 25.00% |
| second hand dealers near me | Broad | £3.87 | 12 | 2.21% |
| buy a used car | Phrase | £3.73 | 3 | 3.37% |
| used car dealers | Phrase | £3.63 | 4 | 5.71% |
| sell your car | Phrase | £3.32 | 2 | 33.33% |
| pre owned cars | Phrase | £2.89 | 10 | 3.29% |
| thrapston car sales | Phrase | £2.06 | 9 | 13.04% |
| car dealership website | Phrase | £1.54 | 2 | 66.67% |
TOP KEYWORDS BY CLICK VOLUME
used car Northamptonshire20 clicks car dealers near me14 clicks used cars dealerships13 clicks second hand dealers near me12 clicks Keyword Insights
- Best CTR: "car dealership website" at 66.67% - very high intent, user specifically looking for a dealership website. Low spend (£1.54) suggests budget needs increasing here.
- "sell your car" at 33.33% CTR - excellent seller intent keyword. Only £3.32 spend - significant room to scale this keyword.
- "ets cars thrapston" at 25% CTR - branded local search remains strong. Very efficient at £4.39 for 8 clicks.
- Highest spend: "sell my old car" at £53.82 - top investment this period targeting car sellers. CTR of 5.13% is solid.
- 17 keywords at £0 spend - these are inactive due to low bids or low search volume. Review and either pause or increase bids.
06 — Actual Search Queries
What People Searched For
| Search Query | Impr. | Clicks | Cost |
| sell my car | 54 | 5 | £25.41 |
| used dealers near me | 19 | 0 | £0.00 |
| car sales thrapston | 17 | 3 | £0.63 |
| car sales near me | 16 | 0 | £0.00 |
| we buy bmw | 16 | 0 | £0.00 |
| car shop northampton | 11 | 0 | £0.00 |
| cinch cars | 10 | 0 | £0.00 |
| sell my car northampton | 9 | 2 | £4.51 |
| thrapston car sales | 9 | 1 | £0.31 |
| ets thrapston | 8 | 3 | £0.70 |
Top Search Terms by Impressions
Most frequently triggered words
Search Query Notes
- "sell my car" is the top query by impressions (54) and cost (£25.41) - clear seller intent. Important audience for a used car dealer.
- "we buy bmw" appeared 16 times with 0 clicks and 0 cost - irrelevant query triggering ads. Consider adding "bmw" as a negative keyword unless you specifically buy BMW vehicles.
- Competitor brand queries (cinch cars, car shop northampton) are appearing - add these as negatives to avoid wasting budget on competitor navigational searches.
07 — Devices & Networks
Where & How Ads Were Seen
By Device
Mobile dominates at 98.8% of spend
| Device | Cost | Clicks | Impr. |
|---|
| 📱 Mobile | £340.24 | 369 | 10,388 |
| 💻 Computers | £2.52 | 11 | 797 |
| 📟 Tablets | £1.37 | 5 | 175 |
| 📺 TV | £0.00 | 0 | 0 |
By Network
Search vs. PMax cross-network
| Network | Clicks | Cost | CPC |
|---|
| Google Search | 152 | £205.56 | £1.35 |
| Search Partners | 1 | £0.11 | £0.11 |
| Cross-network (PMax) | 232 | £138.46 | £0.60 |
08 — Audience Demographics
Who Saw Our Ads
By Gender
66.7% Male / 33.4% Female
| Gender | Impressions | Share |
|---|
| Male | 1,532 | 66.72% |
| Female | 767 | 33.41% |
By Age Group
55-64 is the dominant age bracket
| Age | Impressions | Share |
|---|
| 18-24 | 93 | 4.05% |
| 25-34 | 336 | 14.63% |
| 35-44 | 433 | 18.86% |
| 45-54 | 471 | 20.51% |
| 55-64 | 520 | 22.65% |
| 65+ | 449 | 19.56% |
09 — Scheduling Analysis
Best Days & Hours
Impressions by Day of Week
Sunday & Saturday highest this period
Impressions by Hour
Peak: 09:00–12:00 window
Scheduling Recommendations
- Weekends peak in impressions (Sunday 1,896 / Saturday 2,751) but conversion data shows weekends underperform - high impressions but low conversions. Reduce bids Sat-Sun by 15-20%.
- Best hours: 08:00-12:00 - morning browsing window shows the highest activity. Consider bid adjustments +10-15% during this window.
- Friday this period is strong (2,386 impressions) - a reversal from the full March data where Friday was anomalously low. Suggests the Friday budget issue has been resolved.
- Late evening (21:00-23:00) and overnight hours have very low impressions - ad scheduling can safely reduce bids during these hours.
10 — Auction Insights
Competitive Landscape
Your impression share: 18.60% — Top of page rate: 32.07% — 9 competitors tracked
★ You (ETS Thrapston)
Impression Share18.60%
Top of Page Rate32.07%
motorway.co.uk
Impression Share11.32%
Top of Page Rate93.20%
carwow.co.uk
Impression Share13.50%
Top of Page Rate86.92%
autotrader.co.uk
Impression Share10.13%
Top of Page Rate88.85%
webuyanycar.com
Impression Share<10%
Top of Page Rate91.65%
cinch.co.uk
Impression Share<10%
Top of Page Rate78.65%
Competitive Takeaways
- Your impression share improved from 18.19% (full March) to 18.60% this period - a small but positive trend.
- cinch.co.uk is a new entrant in this period's auction data (wasn't in the previous full-period report). They overlap with you at 3.38% - worth monitoring as they scale.
- Competitors continue to dominate top-of-page (87-93%) vs your 32.07%. To compete for top positions on your highest-intent local keywords, consider raising bids specifically for "ets cars thrapston" and "thrapston car sales" where you can win branded searches.
- Your outranking share data shows you are winning auctions against all listed competitors where you overlap - a strong signal despite lower impression share.
11 — Optimisation & Recommendations
Account Health & Next Steps
DM | Search | Used Cars 77.6%
DM | PMax_Local 83.3%
Priority Recommendations for Next Period
- Scale "sell your car" + "car dealership website": Both have 33-67% CTR but tiny spend. Increase bids or budgets on these ad groups - they are clearly resonating with searchers.
- Add negative keywords: "bmw", "cinch", "car shop northampton", "we buy any car", "webuyanycar" - these queries waste impressions with 0 clicks. Add as negatives in the Search campaign.
- Reduce weekend bids: Conversions drop sharply on weekends (Sun 5 Apr: 1 conversion from 32 clicks and £50.31 spend). Apply a -20% bid adjustment for Saturday and Sunday.
- Increase morning bids (08:00-12:00): Highest impression window. A +10% bid adjustment here could capture more of this peak traffic.
- Verify conversion tracking: The daily conversion numbers (12, 10, 4, 8...) seem to be counting micro-conversions or page events. Confirm these represent genuine leads/calls, not just page views.
- Push Search campaign optimization score from 77.6% to 80%+: Review Google's in-account recommendations - likely involves adding responsive ad assets or sitelink extensions.