Google AdWords is launching a brand new ad format exclusive to OEM automotive advertisers in the US.  The new ad unit is the first of its kind to use swipeable imagery, allowing advertisers to showcase a vehicle while still keeping the other important text information on the screen.

The ads are in two variations – “Model Automotive Ads” and “Dealer Automotive Ads”.

To help shoppers navigate from the mobile showroom to a test drive at their local dealership, we’ve built Automotive ads to work seamlessly together. Auto shoppers who start their search with a car model can easily tap on the “Dealers” button in the Model Automotive ad to get directions to or call local dealerships. For example, if someone taps on the Model Automotive ads “Dealers” button after searching for “2016 Toyota Prius,” Google will automatically show Dealer Automotive ads for Toyota dealerships near their location.

Here is an example:

The sample image shows 9 slideable images, which also matches the number of slideable articles and recipes we see in carousels in the search results too.

Shoppers can swipe through high-quality images of a car’s exterior and interior, view details about performance and features, find a local dealer, or navigate directly to your website to build the car of their dreams. Brands are seeing more than a 30% average increase in engagement rate with Model Automotive ads compared to standard text ads.

These new ads are tagged with a yellow ad tag in the top corner.  And when you click through to “Dealers”, a local 3-pack appears, but as a new style local 3 pack.  This feature should definitely catch the eyes of local SEOs.  While this is exclusive to auto dealers, there is always the potential that Google could move this same technology and ad styles into other market areas.

This is the first time Google has had a sponsored local 3-pack result, outside of the Home Services Ads being tested in a few US locations.

Google has been testing this ad format with both Toyota and Dealer.com with good results.  But it also makes it that much more important for auto dealerships to advertise, since those all important organic listings will be pushed down further in the search results.

For access, you must be an authorized dealership or franchise within the US, then reach out to your AdWords rep or account team.