Index
Before you start: requirements and necessary accounts
Step 1: Create and configure Google Merchant Center
Step 2: Verify the business as a dealership
Step 3: Prepare the vehicle inventory feed
Step 4: Upload the feed to Merchant Center and resolve validation errors
Step 5: Link Merchant Center with Google Ads
Step 6: Create the Performance Max campaign for VLA
Step 7: Configure conversions and tracking
What to do during the first few weeks
Frequently asked questions
Before you start: requirements and necessary accounts
Before starting the configuration, check that you have everything you need. Attempting to configure VLA without meeting any of these requirements causes blocks that can take days to resolve.
What you need:
A Google account (Gmail or business account with Google Workspace). The dealership's own website with individual listings for each vehicle: each car in stock must have its own page with a unique URL, visible price, and accessible contact form or phone number. Google crawls these pages to verify that the price in the feed matches the price published on the website.
A verified physical location in Google Business Profile where buyers can visit the vehicles. Without physical location verification, Google will not approve VLA campaigns.
Documentation proving activity as a dealership or professional car dealer. Google may request this during the verification process.
Admin access to Google Merchant Center and Google Ads (or the ability to create them from scratch).
To understand the full context of what VLAs are and how they work before entering the technical configuration, you can review the complete guide to Google Vehicle Ads for dealerships.
Step 1: Create and configure Google Merchant Center
Google Merchant Center (merchant.google.com) is the platform where the inventory feed is managed. It is the central point of the entire VLA configuration.
Create the account:
Access merchant.google.com and sign in with the dealership's Google account. If you don't have a Merchant Center account, click "Get started" and complete the form with the business name (the commercial name of the dealership as it appears in Google Business Profile), the country of operation (Spain), and the time zone.
Configure business information:
Once the account is created, go to "Business info" in the side menu and complete all fields: physical address of the dealership, contact phone number, and website URL. This information must match exactly with what appears in Google Business Profile.
Verify and claim the website:
Under "Business info" → "Website", enter the URL of the dealership's website. Google offers four verification methods: adding an HTML tag in the <head> of the website, uploading an HTML file to the server, verifying via Google Analytics (if already installed and linked to the same Google account), or verifying via Google Tag Manager. The fastest method is usually Google Analytics if it is already installed.
Once the domain is verified, you must "claim" it: indicate that you are the owner of that website and that you have the right to use it for advertising in Merchant Center. Verification and claiming are separate steps in the interface.
Step 2: Verify the business as a dealership
Google requires verifying that the advertiser is a dealership or a professional car dealer before allowing VLA ads. This step does not exist in standard Google Shopping and is specific to Vehicle Ads.
The verification process is started in Merchant Center from "Programs" → "Vehicle Ads" or from the business identity verification section. Google may request documentation proving activity: business license, registration in the tax register with the vehicle trading heading, or equivalent documentation.
The review time varies between 1 and 5 business days. If the application is rejected, Google indicates the reason and allows the documentation to be resent. The most frequent reasons for rejection are illegible documentation, business name in the documentation not matching the one registered in Merchant Center, or lack of clear evidence of vehicle sales activity.
Step 3: Prepare the vehicle inventory feed
The feed is a structured data file containing information on all vehicles in stock. It is the most critical element of the configuration because it determines which ads are shown and with what information.
Basic feed structure:
The vehicle feed has a specific format different from the standard Google Shopping feed. The minimum mandatory attributes are:
Attribute | Format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Unique text |
|
| Text (max 150 characters) |
|
| Text (max 5000 characters) | Vehicle description |
| URL |
|
| Image URL |
|
| Number + currency |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Text |
|
| Text |
|
| Number (4 digits) |
|
| Number + unit |
|
| 17 alphanumeric characters |
|
Recommended optional attributes:
fuel_type (petrol, diesel, hybrid, electric), transmission (manual, automatic), body_style (sedan, suv, hatchback, etc.), color, additional_image_link (up to 10 additional images), vehicle_registration_date (date of first registration in YYYY-MM-DD format).
Best practices for the title:
The title is what most influences which searches trigger the ad. The recommended format is: [Brand] [Model] [Version/Engine] [Year]. For example: "Seat León 1.5 TSI FR 2021" is better than "Used grey Seat León Madrid". Geographical modifiers in the title do not improve targeting (Google already does this based on the ad's location) and take up useful characters.
To get a ready-to-use feed template with all the attributes, you can download the free Google VLA guide for dealerships.
Step 4: Upload the feed to Merchant Center and resolve validation errors
Upload the feed:
In Merchant Center, go to "Products" → "Feeds" → "+" (add feed). Select Spain as the country, Spanish as the language, and "Vehicles" as the feed type (not standard "Products"). Assign a name to the feed and indicate the upload method.
There are three upload options. Scheduled URL upload is the most recommended: you enter the URL where the feed is hosted (an XML or CSV file publicly accessible from your server or DMS) and configure how often Google downloads it (every 6 hours, every 24 hours). Manual upload is suitable for small stocks or initial testing. Google Sheets allows linking a spreadsheet directly.
Resolve validation errors:
After uploading the feed, Merchant Center takes between 30 minutes and several hours to process it. Errors are displayed under "Products" → "Product status" broken down by type. The most frequent ones:
Image error: The image does not meet the minimum resolution requirements or has a watermark. Solution: ensure all images in the feed are at least 400×300 pixels and have no overlaid text.
Price does not match the website: The price in the feed differs from the visible price on the vehicle listing page on the website. Google crawls both and compares them. Solution: synchronize the feed prices with the website or check if included/excluded VAT is causing the discrepancy.
Invalid VIN: The chassis number does not have the correct format (17 alphanumeric characters, without I, O, or Q). Solution: verify the VIN in the vehicle's documentation and correct the feed.
URL not accessible: The URL of the vehicle listing returns an error or does not load. Solution: verify that the URLs in the feed correspond to active pages on the website.
To understand in depth how to keep your feed automatically updated, you can review the guide on how to sync your dealership's stock with Google VLA.
Step 5: Link Merchant Center with Google Ads
Before creating the campaign, you must link the two accounts.
From Merchant Center: Go to "Settings" → "Linked accounts" → "Google Ads". Click "Link account" and enter the Google Ads customer ID (a 10-digit number that appears at the top of the Google Ads interface). Submit the request.
From Google Ads: Go to "Tools and settings" → "Linked accounts" → "Google Merchant Center". The pending request from Merchant Center will appear. Accept the link.
Once linked, Google Ads campaigns can access the Merchant Center inventory to create VLA ads.
Step 6: Create the Performance Max campaign for VLA
VLAs are managed exclusively through Performance Max type campaigns in Google Ads. You cannot create a VLA campaign with other campaign types (Search, standard Shopping, etc.).
Create the campaign:
In Google Ads, click "New campaign". Select the objective "Leads" (for lead generation) or "Sales" (if you have sales conversion tracking configured). For the campaign type, select "Performance Max".
In the campaign settings, enable "Use a product data feed" and select the linked Merchant Center account. Ensure the selected feed type is "Vehicles".
Configure the budget:
Define the daily budget. The minimum recommended for the algorithm to optimize is £10-15 per day. With less budget, the data volume is insufficient for system learning.
Configure the bidding strategy:
For new campaigns with no conversion history, the recommended strategy is "Maximize conversions". Once the campaign has enough registered conversions (minimum 30-50 per month), you can change to "Target CPA" by setting a maximum cost per lead.
Asset groups:
Performance Max requires at least one asset group with images, ad texts, and audience signals. For VLA, the asset group is less critical than in other Performance Max campaigns because the ads are generated automatically from the feed. Even so, Google recommends adding high-quality images of the dealership or the sales process and text that reinforces the business's value proposition.
Step 7: Configure conversions and tracking
Without conversions configured, the Performance Max algorithm cannot optimize. This step is essential for the campaign to work correctly.
Configure the conversion action:
In Google Ads, go to "Tools and settings" → "Conversions" → "New conversion action". For a dealership, the most relevant conversions are contact form submissions from the vehicle listing page and phone calls initiated from the ad.
For the contact form, the simplest way is to configure the conversion as a "Page view" and indicate the URL of the confirmation page that appears after submitting the form (the "thank you" page). When a user reaches that URL after clicking the ad, Google registers a conversion.
For calls, Google Ads offers call conversions that trigger when the user clicks the phone number on the ad.
Install the Google tag:
For conversions to be registered correctly, you must install the Google tag (Google Tag) on all pages of the website. The simplest way is via Google Tag Manager if already installed, or by adding the code snippet directly into the <head> of the website.
Verify that conversions are working:
Before launching the campaign, use the "Tag Assistant" extension for Google Chrome to verify that the tag is active on the relevant pages and that conversions trigger correctly when the form is completed or the phone is clicked.
To integrate VLA conversion tracking with other business KPIs, you can consult the guide on essential KPIs for used car dealerships.
What to do during the first few weeks
Week 1-2 (learning period): Do not make changes to the budget or bidding strategy. The algorithm needs data to optimize and changes during the learning period reset it. Check daily that the feed has no new errors in Merchant Center.
Week 3-4: Start reviewing key metrics: impressions, clicks, CTR, and first conversions. If the CTR is very low (less than 2%), check the quality of the images in the feed. If there are clicks but no conversions, review the user experience on the most clicked vehicle listings.
From month 2 onwards: With enough data, you can evaluate if the cost per lead is competitive compared to traditional portals and decide whether to scale the investment. To understand which metrics to analyze and how to interpret them, you can review the guide on how to measure the performance of your Google Vehicle Ads campaigns.
More than 750 dealerships already use Dealcar to manage their daily operations
Dealcar is an official Google partner for Vehicle Ads in Spain. Merchant Center configuration, inventory feed generation, automatic stock synchronization, and campaign management are all done from the same platform where you manage stock and documentation. No additional technical configuration required from the dealership.
Discover more about Google VLA integration with Dealcar at dealcar.io/dealcar-boost.
If you want to see how it works, you can book a free demo at dealcar.io.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the complete setup take?
With all requirements met (website with vehicle listings, verified Google Business Profile, documentation available), the technical setup can be completed in 2-3 hours. Verification of the business as a dealership can take an additional 1 to 5 business days.
Can I set up VLA if my website is on Framer, Webflow, or WordPress?
Yes. What matters is that the website has individual listings for each vehicle with a unique URL, visible price, and contact form. The underlying technology does not affect the ability to use VLA, although Google tag installation may vary depending on the platform.
What happens if the feed has errors in some vehicles but not all?
Only vehicles with errors are excluded from ads. The others are published correctly. Feed errors are shown in Merchant Center with the number of affected vehicles and the type of error, allowing you to correct them selectively.
Can I use VLA and standard Google Shopping at the same time?
Yes. They are different feed types and campaigns. If you have accessory products or merchandising in addition to vehicles, you can have a standard Shopping feed for those products and a vehicle feed for the stock, managed independently in Merchant Center.
Do VLAs work on mobile?
Yes, and in many cases, most of the traffic comes from mobile. It is essential that the vehicle listings on the website load quickly on mobile and that the contact form is easy to use on a small screen. A listing that takes more than 3 seconds to load on mobile leads to abandonment before the user takes any action.
