What to budget for digital marketing as an automotive dealership

Fibvo editorial · 30 September 2023 · 4 min read

A car sale's margin alone may not obviously justify a large marketing spend, but factoring in the ongoing service relationship — often worth more over several years than the initial sale margin — changes the calculation significantly.

What the spend typically covers

• Website and inventory/pricing content maintenance, an ongoing cost.
• Targeted Google Ads for test-drive bookings on specific models.
• Service reminder and retention tooling, often underfunded relative to its impact.
• Local Google Business Profile and review management.

Why service retention spend often deserves more budget than it gets

Marketing budgets frequently skew toward sales acquisition while underfunding service retention tooling, even though a retained service customer over several years is often worth as much as the original sale margin.

The service relationship that follows a car sale is often worth more over time than the sale margin itself — budget accordingly.

Adjusting around OEM campaign cycles

Coordinate local budget increases with OEM national campaign launches or model updates, since national awareness campaigns create local search demand a dealership's own campaign can capture.

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Written by Fibvo — Bengaluru and Erode, India — working with clients in other time zones. Questions, or think we have it wrong? Tell us.