Dealership ads that fill your shop, not theirs
Meta and Google campaigns for US car dealers, pointed at a site you own and tracked from the click to the enquiry to the sale. No boosted posts. No black box.
What it's costing you
You're paying for clicks that land on somebody else's platform, next to a hundred identical cars, and you can't say which dollar brought which buyer. That isn't advertising. That's rent.
Why most dealership ads fail
Four ways dealers burn the budget
Boosting posts and calling it advertising
The boost button optimises for cheap engagement, not for someone who is actually buying a car this month. You get likes from people three states away and a report that looks busy.
Sending paid traffic to a marketplace listing
You pay for the click, the marketplace keeps the buyer, and your ad sits next to a wall of near-identical cars. You have just bought traffic for somebody else's asset.
No idea which ad made the money
Without tracking from click through to enquiry to sale, you are guessing which half of the budget works. So you either cut everything or keep paying for the losers.
A lead lands and nobody answers
The average dealer takes 1hr 38min to respond, and 43% of internet leads never get a real phone call at all. The ad did its job. The follow-up ate the margin.
What we run
Machines, not magic
Every campaign is built so we can explain exactly why it worked, then change one variable at a time and measure what moved. That is the whole method.
Meta ads built around your stock
Campaigns pointed at real cars on your floor, aimed at buyers in your actual catchment, sending them to your own vehicle page rather than a listing you rent.
Google search for in-market buyers
Meta finds buyers before they are looking. Google catches them at the moment they already are. Most dealers need both, running to different intent, not one budget split blindly.
Retargeting the people who nearly bought
Someone who viewed three cars on your site and left is the cheapest buyer you will ever get back. Most dealerships never speak to them again.
Local presence and Google Business
The map pack and your reviews are what a buyer checks right before they drive out. Free trust, if it is kept current and consistent.
One-tap texting on every enquiry
The ad is only half of it. Every car page has a text button that opens a message already filled in with the vehicle, so the lead reaches you the second it exists.
Tracked click to enquiry to sale
UTM tagging on everything, conversion tracking wired properly, and every enquiry logged. No black box, no 'trust us, it's working'.
Why it works now
The buyer already decided online
43%
of internet leads never get a real phone call
60%
submit a lead online before visiting
1hr 38min
average dealer response time
43.2%
of dealer leads are mishandled
Questions
What dealers ask us first
What should a dealership spend on ads per month?
Anchor it to your own margin rather than a benchmark. Total gross on a used unit runs around $4,000 once F&I is in, so the honest question is what spend reliably produces one extra sale. We would rather start you smaller with proper tracking, find what works, then scale it, than take a big budget and guess with it.
Meta or Google for a car dealership?
They do different jobs. Google catches somebody already searching for the car, which is high intent but limited to whoever is looking right now. Meta puts the car in front of people before they start searching, which is where volume comes from. If you can only run one, run the one that matches whether you need demand captured or demand created. We will tell you which, honestly, based on your stock.
Can you run ads if we don't have a proper website yet?
We can, but we usually tell dealers not to. Paid traffic pointed at a weak site is the most expensive way to find out your site is weak. Fix the destination, then buy the traffic. That is also why the audit is free and comes first.
We already advertise on the car listing portals. Isn't that enough?
Those are rented buyers. You compete on price beside a wall of similar listings, the subscription rises, and when you stop paying you keep nothing. Meanwhile 60% of shoppers now submit a lead online before they ever visit a lot, so the first impression is happening off the portal anyway. Running your own ads to your own site means every buyer who ever enquired stays on your list, not theirs.
How do we know the ads are actually working?
Because you see the chain, not a summary. Every click is tagged, every enquiry is logged against the ad that produced it, and the sale is recorded against the enquiry. If a campaign is not paying, you will see it before we do, and we will tell you to kill it.
Do you lock us into a contract?
No. We would rather keep the account because it is making you money than because you signed something. If it is not working and we cannot fix it, you should be able to walk.
Stop renting buyers. Start owning them
Book a free audit and we'll show you where your current traffic is going, what it's costing you, and whether ads are even the right next spend for your dealership.