What’s the best ROI for my ad budget?

Dealers are always looking for the “secret sauce” in advertising – that magic channel or strategy that generates the most sales for the least spend. It’s a common question: “What’s the best ROI for my ad budget?” In other words, where should you allocate those precious marketing dollars to get the biggest bang for your buck? The answer is critical, especially when margins are tight. A recent industry stat revealed that 81% of dealers say inefficient ad spend is their number 1 marketing challenge link. Wasted ads mean wasted money, so finding the best return on investment (ROI) isn’t just a goal – it’s a necessity.

In this article, we’ll explore how to identify and maximize the ROI of your dealership’s advertising. We’ll cover which channels often deliver strong returns, how to track ROI properly, and strategies to continually improve performance. Plus, we’ll show how Motrvu is built to solve the exact problem of inefficient ad spend, ensuring every dollar works harder for you.

Understand Where Your Buyers Come From

To get the best ROI, first ground yourself in customer behavior. You need to be present where your buyers actually spend time and make decisions. Research shows today’s auto shoppers are overwhelmingly online: 95% of car buyers use digital channels to gather information, and twice as many start their research online versus at a dealership link. That means digital advertising (search engines, social media, etc.) tends to have a higher ROI than traditional channels like newspaper or radio for most dealers, simply because that’s where the audience is.

Consider some data from recent surveys:

• Digital Ad Spend is Dominant: Roughly 70% of U.S. car dealers’ media budgets were spent on digital advertising in recent years link. Dealerships have been increasing digital spend because it’s trackable and effective. In fact, automotive digital ad spend jumped 11.7% in 2023 and is projected to keep rising link – a strong indicator that dealers see returns there.

• High-ROI Channels (Surprising Insights): When dealers were asked which advertising delivered the highest ROI, some answers were unexpected. Nearly 80% of dealerships rated audio streaming ads (like Spotify or Pandora) as “worth the ad dollars” – topping the ROI list link. Streaming TV and online video ads were close behind at ~70% approval . Social media and search ads, while crucial in strategy, were mentioned as the most popular formats, but interestingly audio streaming had the edge in perceived ROI. The takeaway? Don’t overlook channels like digital radio; sometimes the best ROI can come from less saturated channels where your message stands out.

• Search and Intent: That said, bread-and-butter channels like Google Search Ads often yield excellent ROI because they capture active purchase intent. For example, Google Vehicle Listing Ads (VLAs) – those car listings that appear atop search results – are incredibly efficient as a low-funnel tactic link. They hit shoppers who are literally searching for the cars you have, meaning conversion rates are high. Paid search in general is usually a close second priority after VLAs, because again, you’re reaching people who have self-identified as in-market (by searching keywords like “2020 Honda Accord for sale”). These typically deliver strong ROI if managed properly, since the traffic is highly qualified.

• Social Media Ads: Targeted social ads (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) are a bit higher in the funnel – you might catch people earlier in their decision – but they can still be very efficient, especially given their lower cost per impression. The key is targeting in-market audiences (for example, using Facebook’s data to find users recently browsing car sites). While a Facebook ad click might not be as “hot” as a Google search click, if the cost per click is much lower, the ROI can balance out link. Many dealerships find a sweet spot with social retargeting (showing ads to people who visited your website already) which often yields excellent ROI by re-engaging warm prospects at a low cost.

Knowing these tendencies, you can start prioritizing your ad budget roughly as: ensure coverage of low-funnel, high-intent channels (search, VLAs) first, then allocate to social and video for broader reach – and perhaps experiment with channels like streaming audio which might give you an edge in ROI if your competitors are absent there.

However, remember: your best ROI channel might differ. Each local market is unique. That’s why tracking and measuring is so important, which leads to the next point.

Track Every Dollar and Every Lead

You can’t determine ROI without accurate tracking. “Best ROI” is not just about which channel or campaign feels effective – it’s about cold, hard data on what you get back for what you spend. This means implementing robust attribution and analytics for all your advertising.

At a minimum, ensure that you:

• Use unique tracking for each campaign: For digital, use UTM parameters on URLs, conversion pixels, or unique phone numbers for each ad source. If you run a Facebook ad campaign and a Google ad campaign, and they both lead to your website, you need to know which leads came from where. Tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and call tracking numbers are vital. According to CallRail, attribution can improve marketing efficiency by 15–30% because you can cut spend on what’s not working link. In other words, just measuring properly can boost ROI by eliminating waste.

• Define what a “return” means: ROI = (Sales Revenue from ads – Cost of ads) / Cost of ads. For car dealers, you might measure ROI in terms of gross profit from vehicles sold via that channel, or you might take a simpler approach and measure cost per lead or cost per sale. Choose a primary KPI that equates to return for you. It could be Cost Per Sale if you have good sales tracking, or Cost Per Lead (with an assumed closing ratio) as a proxy. The key is you know what success looks like.

• Connect leads to sales: This is the tricky part but where many dealers find revelations. Use your CRM to tie ad-sourced leads to eventual sales. For example, if you spent $500 on a Google Ad campaign in June and it brought 20 leads, and from those leads you sold 3 cars with $6,000 total front-end gross, you have a very strong ROI (return $6k on cost $500). Meanwhile, maybe you spent $500 on a radio ad and can’t attribute a single sale – that likely was a poor ROI. But you’d never know without tracking sources in your CRM and asking customers how they heard about you.

• Account for all expenses: When calculating ROI, include the full cost. If you’re boosting Facebook posts, include that spend. If you pay an agency or employee to manage ads, that cost should ideally be factored in. This gives you a true sense of ROI net of management costs, not just raw media spend.

The best ROI for your ad budget will become evident once you have clear data. You might discover, for instance, that your Google Ads deliver leads at $40 each, of which 10% buy ($400 cost per sale), whereas your third-party lead provider delivers leads at $60 each with a 8% close ($750 cost per sale). In that case, Google is better ROI and you’d shift budget accordingly. Or you might find Facebook leads are cheapest but often poor quality – maybe they convert half as well as search leads. These nuances can only be seen via diligent tracking.

Dealerships that excel in marketing treat data like their GPS – it guides every move. In fact, 84% of marketers say attributing sales to marketing is very important to growth link, yet only 10% feel confident in doing so. This is where a platform like Motrvu can change the game, by automatically tracking and attributing leads to your various campaigns with precision.

Prioritize High-ROI Marketing Activities

Not all marketing requires paid ads; some of your best ROI might come from optimizing things you already do or low-cost initiatives. Let’s briefly consider a few areas often yielding great ROI:

• Re-engagement and Retention: Marketing to previous customers (service reminders, trade-in offers, referral programs) often has superb ROI. These efforts cost little (often just email or direct mail) and the audience is highly likely to respond. For example, an email campaign to your sold customers inviting them to trade in and upgrade can yield sales at virtually $0 ad cost aside from the email software.

• Google Business Profile & Reviews: This is essentially free but can massively influence sales. Showing up in local search results with a high star rating brings in a lot of walk-in and organic leads – which is effectively “free ROI.” Investing effort here (like reputation management) can out-return many paid ads. Nearly 93% of consumers base buying decisions on online reviews , so a strong reputation literally converts to revenue with minimal spend.

• Website Conversion Optimization: If your site converts more visitors into leads, every ad dollar becomes more efficient. Improving your website forms, adding live chat, ensuring mobile speed – these can improve conversion rates and thus ROI on all traffic sources.

• Social Media Organic & Content Marketing: While not “ads” in the traditional sense, a savvy content strategy (blogs, videos, social posts) can generate leads at a very low cost. It’s slower burn and takes creativity, but the ROI can be huge because one viral post or well-ranked blog article could bring leads for months with no ongoing cost.

Ultimately, the mix of your marketing should be evaluated for ROI. Often, the best ROI is achieved not by one channel alone but by the synergy of multiple. For instance, you might find that running Google search ads gets you leads, and at the same time running Facebook retargeting on those who clicked multiplies your close rate – the combination yields the best overall ROI.

Continuously Test and Reallocate

“Set it and forget it” does not apply when seeking maximum ROI. The dealers getting the best return on their ad budgets treat marketing like an investment portfolio – constantly monitoring and re-balancing it. What works one quarter might dip the next due to competition or market changes, and new opportunities might emerge.

Here’s a process to ensure you’re always optimizing ROI:

1. Monthly (or Weekly) Review: Look at performance metrics of all channels. Which had the lowest cost per sale? Which had the highest gross per sale? Identify top and bottom performers.

2. Cut the Waste: If a campaign or channel is consistently underperforming (low ROI or no trackable results), pause it or reduce spend. For instance, if that experimental billboard hasn’t brought any uplift and you can’t justify its cost, divert those funds elsewhere.

3. Scale Up Winners: Conversely, if one channel is crushing it (say your paid search is yielding a 10:1 return), see if you can scale it – increase the budget there until you maybe hit diminishing returns. This sounds obvious, but many times budgets are set in stone annually and not fluid – you have to be willing to move money around for ROI.

4. Experiment in Small Doses: Keep a small portion of budget for trying new things – maybe 5-10%. Marketing is always evolving. Today TikTok or OTT streaming ads might be tests; tomorrow something else. By testing on a small scale, you might find a future star channel for ROI. (Like those dealers who discovered TikTok leads early and rode that wave to extra sales at low cost.)

5. Leverage Automation: Modern ad platforms (Google, Facebook) have AI-driven bidding strategies that optimize for conversions/ROI. Use them – but monitor them. They can quickly adjust bids to maximize conversion value for you, often outperforming manual bidding. And a tool like Motrvu can layer on additional intelligence, perhaps automatically pausing campaigns that drop below a certain ROI threshold or alerting you to unusual spikes/dips.

Consider also external factors. The “best ROI” might shift with seasons (truck ads might do better in spring when people get tax refunds, etc.) or inventory changes (no point pushing ads on models you barely have in stock – that ROI will tank). So, an adaptable strategy wins.

Tracking performance across multiple ad platforms and tying it back to real ROI can feel like a full-time job—and in many dealerships, it’s either under-resourced or skipped entirely. That’s exactly why we built Motrvu.

Most dealerships don’t have time to manually track ad performance across platforms—let alone optimize it daily. That’s why we built Motrvu: to make smarter marketing automatic.

Motrvu plugs into your existing channels—Google, Facebook, and more—and connects with your dealership systems like your website and CRM. You simply upload your content, set a target (like reach or leads), and Motrvu takes care of the rest.

Behind the scenes, Motrvu uses intelligent automation to manage and adjust your ad spend in real time. High-performing campaigns get more budget. Underperforming ones get dialed back. No spreadsheets. No guesswork. Just 5–10x more reach and better ROI—on autopilot.

You’ll still get full visibility, with a live dashboard showing exactly where your budget is going and what it’s returning—down to the dollar. You’ll see what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve without lifting a finger.

Motrvu doesn’t try to reinvent your marketing. It makes what you’re already doing work harder—and deliver more.

Conclusion: ROI is a Journey, Not a Destination

Finding the best ROI for your ad budget isn’t a one-time answer – it’s an ongoing process of informed decision-making. By understanding where your customers are and which channels tend to perform, you can make smart initial allocations. By rigorously tracking results and being willing to shift budgets, you ensure you’re always investing in what works.

The best ROI often comes from a balanced strategy: dominating high-intent channels like search, smartly engaging on social and emerging platforms, and squeezing the most from every lead with great follow-up and retention marketing. When you have clarity on the returns each channel provides, you can confidently cut what doesn’t pay off and double-down on what does.

Remember that marketing is dynamic. Competitors, market conditions, and technology changes will require you to recalibrate. That’s why a tool like Motrvu is so valuable – it gives you the real-time vision and flexibility to keep maximizing ROI no matter what changes. It’s like having a financial advisor for your ad spend, always ensuring your “investments” yield the best returns.

At the end of the day, the best ROI for your ad budget is achieved by spending smart, not just spending more. With data on your side and Motrvu in your toolkit, you’ll transform your marketing from a cost center into a profit engine. Every dollar will be accountable, and you’ll know with certainty that your advertising is driving measurable growth for your dealership. That’s the power of mastering ROI – and it’s within reach for any dealership willing to embrace the right practices and technologies.