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Shopping Ads for Heavy Equipment?
Posted by on April 9, 2026 at 3:32 pmOne of my clients sells commercial trucks targeted to utility & forestry markets. Their units cost in the $100-$300k range. They have both custom builds and products "on the lot". Most do not require a CDL to operate.
We're already running traditional SEM (Google & Bing) + display retargeting. We've turned off LinkedIn as it seems it's not a platform our targets engage with.
Our goals have shifted to prioritize the readily available inventory. So someone brought up google shopping ads. I've been doing a lot of research and am seeing conflicting results on whether or not Google even allows commercial vehicles. But when I search for our truck type, I do get served what I think are google shopping listings.
Shopping ads also seem iffy for products in our price range but what do I know? Not much apparently.
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1 Reply
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The bigger challenge isn’t policy, it’s intent. Shopping is great for “ready to buy” queries, but heavy equipment buyers often need more research and sales touchpoints.
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If you are not tracking form fills, phone calls and non-purchase conversions goals, I would set those up to make sure you are tracking all the possible conversion goals options. Unless there is a policy against selling those SKUs, you should be able to do it.
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Google Shopping ads for $300k trucks will leak revenue. Badly.
Few users are looking to “Add-to-cart” a forestry truck.
Shopping ads work best with high-intent, low-friction consumer goods, the kind you find in the supermarket/mall
With heavy equipment, you should focus on driving prospects to targeted landing pages where you can qualify them for budget, model, and so on.
Using the retail approach to heavy equipment is how you waste a $20K budget in a week
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Indeed, Google allows shopping ads for vehicles, even those like commercial trucks, but there could be inconsistency in its implementation, depending on the classification and adherence to the policies of the Merchant Center.
However, for equipment within the range of $100k-$300k, it is advisable to use Shopping campaigns more as a visibility and lead generator than a purchase converter. This is because the buyers are usually very careful, and thus, they conduct thorough research before making any decisions. If you decide to run a test campaign, it should be limited to the “in stock” inventory, and the title and specifications should be well optimized.
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Technically you can run shopping ads, but you won’t see a great ROI on them your vertical. You’re better off sticking with search like your doing already.
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That’s not a great idea.
Lead gen makes more sense in that market. The people who buy bulldozers buy multiple bulldozers per year and they don’t buy them off a Shopify site.
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The catch for $100-300k units isn’t policy, it’s intent. Most buyers research for months and want quotes, not impulse buys.
If you still want to push the on-lot inventory, test a tiny campaign on just those SKUs. Use custom labels in the feed for bid modifiers, high-res 360 photos, and titles that scream “in stock ready to ship”.
Send every click to a dedicated landing page with a simple quote form and call tracking so you capture leads instead of hoping for checkout.
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