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Digital Marketing That Fills Your Lot
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This session walks through what the top-performing dealers are doing differently in paid search — how they build a strategy that fits their market, the two metrics that actually matter, and a four-question check you can run on your own account this week.
Get the Full Data Report
This webinar session draws data from The State of the Dealer: 2026. This report pulls from real signals—website analytics, inventory interactions, inquiry paths, and follow-up activity—across 6,800+ dealers and 1.5 million units sold in a single year.
Have Questions About Paid Search?
Q: I’m running 100% intent campaigns today. How much budget should I shift toward awareness?
Don’t blow up what’s working. Start by carving out 15–20% of your monthly budget and reallocating it up the funnel. Watch your lead volume and cost-per-lead over the next 30 to 60 days. If you see a lift, push it to 25–30% — especially during your off-season months, when awareness and consideration plays are more cost-effective. The goal isn’t a week-one overhaul. Change one or two variables, measure, then move.
Q: What percentage of my spend should go to each funnel stage?
There’s no fixed split, and any rep who hands you one is guessing. The smarter play is a shared budget that reallocates dynamically based on real demand in your market. Some days that means more dollars at awareness; the next day, consideration pulls ahead. Every market is different, every dealer is different, and the time of year changes everything. Let the data drive the allocation — not a static spreadsheet.
Q: How far in advance should I ramp up paid spend before my peak season?
Plan on 30 to 60 days of runway, minimum. Campaigns spin up faster than they used to thanks to shorter learning periods, so getting live isn’t the hurdle. The real risk is showing up late — after your buyers have already moved through awareness and consideration and locked in with a competitor. For longer buying cycles, push that runway out further. Labor Day to Memorial Day is a six-month shopping window, and you want to be in the conversation from the start.
Q: Should I be bidding on my competitors’ names?
Yes — but be selective. Don’t waste budget bidding against every dealer in your market. Focus on three filters: price, product, and service. If a competitor consistently undercuts you and you’re not willing to chase them to the bottom, skip them. If they sell a completely different type of unit, your buyers aren’t cross-shopping you anyway. The competitors worth bidding on are the ones who genuinely compete with you on what you sell, how you price, and the experience you deliver. That’s where conquest spend actually moves units.
Q: My market isn’t a clean circle around my dealership. How should that change my targeting?
It should change it significantly — and this is where most dealers leave performance on the table. The default is to draw a 60-mile radius and call it done. But you know your market better than any algorithm: maybe buyers don’t cross the state line because of tax differences, maybe a mountain range or river cuts off a chunk of that circle, maybe a highway pattern pulls traffic in one direction and not the other. Get that intel to your account rep. Targeting tailored to how buyers actually move through your market beats a generic radius every time.
