Dealer Ad Spend per Vehicle Sold

What does the average dealer spend on advertising per car?

According to NADA, as reported by Inside Radio in May 2026, the average dealer spent $739 on advertising for each new vehicle sold in 2025, $34 more than the year before. Dealers spent a record $9.96 billion on advertising in total, and 74.9% of it went to digital media. NADA reports the figure per new vehicle sold, so used units are not in the divisor.

source (checked September 30, 2026)

Where does the digital money go?

Search engine marketing took the largest share, more than one in five dollars, with third-party listing sites close behind, according to Dealership Guy's summary of the same NADA data. Social media advertising rose to 14.2% of spend in 2025, up from 12.7% in 2024.

source (checked September 30, 2026)

How do I work out my own ad spend per unit sold?

Add up every advertising line for the month, including listing sites, search, social, traditional media, and agency or vendor fees. Divide by units sold. Run it two ways, because only one compares to NADA. The numbers below are an example, not a benchmark.

	Example store
Monthly ad spend, all channels	$30,000
New units sold	40
Used units sold	60
Spend per new unit (compare to NADA's $739)	$750
Spend per unit, new and used	$300

What do other dealers say is too much?

Dan Sayer, a dealer, wrote on DealerRefresh in March 2025: "Your per vehicle spend is currently too high at north of $400 per unit sold." He also wrote that he had fired Cars.com and AutoTrader and kept CarGurus and Carfax. On a smaller used lot the math gets worse. u/RexRaider, who works at a Canadian dealership, wrote on r/askcarsales in January 2026: "Almost $10k CDN per month. We only sell 4-10 used cars per month. It's not worth $2000 per car to advertise. So we're using Google, and Facebook for the most part."

Why track spend per unit instead of the total budget?

A rooftop selling 300 cars a month can spend more in total and less per car than a store selling 40. Per-unit math also lets you rank channels. Divide each channel's monthly cost by the units you can trace to it, or by its vehicle detail page (VDP) views if you can't trace sales, and fire the ones whose math keeps breaking.

Common questions

Should I count used cars in my per-unit number?

For your own tracking, yes, since your ads move both new and used units. To compare with NADA, divide by new units only, because that is how NADA reports its average.

Is $739 a target?

No. It is an average, and stores differ by brand, market, and new-to-used mix. Track your own number month over month and by channel.

How does VinScroll show up in this math?

Count it like any other channel. Ad spend runs at cost in your own Meta ad account, and the monthly VinScroll fee belongs in the numerator too, so add both before dividing by units sold. The monthly email report adds reach, video views, VDP clicks, and cost per VDP view.

What do dealers spend on advertising per vehicle sold?