Nick Bruce has raced side-by-sides, dirt bikes, and ATVs since he was a kid. Adrenalin Motorsports grew out of that passion, starting as a new business trying to scrape by in Casa Grande, Arizona, halfway between Phoenix and Tucson.
For years, the store ran on Nick’s name, and word of mouth in the racing community carried the business. Then the Thatchers, a father-and-son team, stepped in. Bruce Thatcher’s father left a long career running a used car dealership to become Adrenalin’s general manager, a role he has held for more than a decade. A few years later, Bruce took over marketing through his own firm, T2 Marketing.
Together they turned a small-market store into a destination dealership. Today, it brings in 600 to 1,000 leads a month from buyers in eight states, from 21-year-olds with new motorcycle licenses to retirees who just want to ride.
We have people driving past 40 dealers just to get to us.“
— Bruce Thatcher, Marketing Manager, Adrenalin Motorsports
Auto showed their units; powersports could only describe them
Paid search costs more than it used to and returns less. Cost per click rose 19.3% through 2025, while click-through and conversion rates fell, according to The State of the Dealer: 2026. A text ad can describe a unit. It can’t show one.
Bruce knew from experience what showing the real unit could do. He’d run vehicle ads for used cars and golf carts and watched them deliver: a real unit, with its photo and price, at the top of Google, in front of the shopper searching for it.
Powersports couldn’t get in. Google’s vehicle listings started with cars only. No ATVs, no UTVs, and no side-by-sides. When the program opened to other vehicles, the early alpha state couldn’t handle the inventory data, and Adrenalin’s units never went live.
That gap hit Adrenalin harder than most. Its customers range so widely that, as Bruce puts it, they’re “hard to tie down to a demographic.” His marketing depends on broad, high-intent search “to catch as many people as possible.”
The beta that puts ATV and UTV units at the top of Google
When Dealer Spike opened its Google Vehicle Ads (GVA) beta testing to powersports, Bruce didn’t need a pitch. “As soon as I heard you had a beta going, I said, ‘Yep, I’m in,’” he says. “I knew it could work because I’d already been there and done it.”
Right now, almost no powersports dealers have their real units at the top of Google. Bruce saw that window and jumped through it. Being one of the first in your market is when this placement works hardest.”
— Tim Kearney, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Dealer Spike
GVA puts real units at the top of Google Search, with the photo, price, and dealership name, when a shopper is looking for that kind of machine. Every click goes to the unit’s detail page on Adrenalin’s own Dealer Spike website, not to a marketplace or an OEM site.
Adrenalin’s team didn’t have to build anything. The ads pull directly from the dealership’s inventory, and Dealer Spike set up Google Merchant Center and connected everything. GVA runs alongside Adrenalin’s existing paid search campaigns, adding Google’s highest-intent spot to a program that was already working.
Bruce went in with grounded expectations. Based on his experience at other dealerships, he expected roughly 100 leads a month on a $1,000 monthly budget. “That sounds crazy, like $10 a lead,” he says, “but from the other dealerships I’ve worked for, it’s very realistic.” GVA cleared that bar.
The placement is fantastic, and it’s exceeded expectations.“
— Bruce Thatcher, Marketing Manager, Adrenalin Motorsports
A lot of leads, a lot of calls
Bruce doesn’t judge marketing by impressions or cost per click. When asked which metric mattered most, he didn’t hesitate: “Deals, at the end of the day.”
In his latest GVA report, the phone calls stood out. Shoppers who see a specific unit at the top of Google want to talk about that unit.
In the last 30 days, Adrenalin sold 88.2% more units than it did during the same period last year. Bruce is careful about where the credit goes. “I’m not going to give all the credit to the Google Vehicle Ads,” he says, “but there’s definitely some that comes into it.”
Prep your team for the phones
Bruce’s advice to other dealers: the calls will come, so be ready for them.
The phone calls are what’s grabbing people. They see a unit online; that’s what they click, that’s what they want information on.“
— Bruce Thatcher, Marketing Manager, Adrenalin Motorsports
That means a trained team, unit details on hand, and transparent pricing. “Don’t skimp on the phone calls,” Bruce says. “Be extremely real with people. You’ll get more deals that way.”
Adrenalin follows its own advice. Its side-by-side listings break out the sale price, freight, prep, doc, and title fees, with the out-the-door price right on the photo. That’s the standard set by the highest-turning dealers in the industry, who list a price on 83.30% of their units, according to The State of the Dealer: 2026.
Chasing number one
Bruce isn’t worried about other dealers copying the playbook. He wants them to hear how it’s working. “If they’re going to copy, they’re going to copy,” he says. “They might as well hear the benefits of it.”
The goal now is to become “the number one dealer in the country,” reaching more riders in more states with the same approach that already has buyers driving past 40 dealers to get there. For Bruce, it all comes back to the riding community: “safe riders and happy customers.”
