Did the New Year creep up on you? If your first thought was yes, or you gave a quick head nod to that statement, you’re not alone. Many dealerships are still catching their breath from the Q4 push to move inventory and end the year on a high. While year-end sales are the lifeblood of the industry, the “rush” often means that long-term digital strategy for the upcoming year gets pushed to the back burner.
If you didn’t get a chance to sit down for a formal year-end review with your marketing partners, you aren’t behind yet, but now is the time to act. A proactive Q1 reset is the secret to ensuring your 2026 budget isn’t just spent, but invested in all the right places.
Measuring Your Success
In a market where full ad-to-lead attribution remains a technical challenge, understanding your true Return on Investment (ROI) requires looking at the metrics that bridge the gap between a click and a sale.
- Measure “Effective Attention” with EPM: We use our Engaged Prospect Metric (EPM) to track shoppers who spend at least 30 seconds on a specific Vehicle Details Page (VDP). Check with your providers to see if they are tracking something similar.
- Why? Unlike a standard click, EPM filters out accidental taps and ensures your budget is capturing real, in-market interest. A shopper spending 30 seconds on a single VDP shows a lot more intent vs. a click to a homepage that maybe stuck around for 10 seconds or less.
- Engagement is a term we hear a lot about in the digital space; Google even has its own engagement metric in GA4. Measuring engagement isn’t a substitute for leads; it’s a metric to help you understand the value of your non-converting traffic and the effectiveness of your vehicle merchandising.
- Why? Unlike a standard click, EPM filters out accidental taps and ensures your budget is capturing real, in-market interest. A shopper spending 30 seconds on a single VDP shows a lot more intent vs. a click to a homepage that maybe stuck around for 10 seconds or less.
- Evaluate “Turn” and Floor Plan Savings: High inventory levels and rising interest rates make “floor plan” costs a heavy burden for dealers.
- If spending an additional $60/car on targeted marketing helps move a unit in half or a third of the time, you can save significantly on interest and depreciation (probably more than you would by reducing your advertising budgets).
- If spending an additional $60/car on targeted marketing helps move a unit in half or a third of the time, you can save significantly on interest and depreciation (probably more than you would by reducing your advertising budgets).
- Analyze Platform-Specific Intent: Google and Microsoft excel at capturing people searching for specific VINs, while Meta and TikTok reach the 80% of buyers influenced by search and online video before they ever submit a form.
- Correlate Digital and Physical Results: If digital results are strong but sales are slow, it’s time to look inward.
- What’s the shopping experience like on your website? If a shopper lands on a VDP, can they see and review all the information they need to? What does your lead response look like?
- What’s the customer experience like in store, over email or on the phone? How hard is it for a shopper to get their questions answered, and how long do we string them along until they can make a purchase decision?
Expanding Your Opportunities
In a competitive market, sticking only to “crowded” auctions can drive up your Cost-Per-Click (CPC). To find more efficient growth, dealerships should explore expansion opportunities:
- Microsoft Ads: This network reaches an audience with higher household incomes and stronger purchasing power, and because many local competitors ignore it, you can often secure premium placements at a lower cost.
- TikTok AIA (Automotive Inventory Ads): Shoppers spend a staggering amount of time on this platform, averaging 129 minutes daily in Canada. TikTok is a tool for building brand authority and awareness, and staying top of mind with shoppers during the research phase; it is not a traditional “lead-gen” channel, but it influences the decision-making process early on.
Shop Your Website
You can run perfectly optimized ads, but if your website experience is broken, your spend is wasted, so, before scaling your 2026 budget, perform this audit:
- Real Photos vs. Stock Images: Shoppers want to see the actual unit on your lot. Ads driving traffic to a VDP with stock photography or outdated information can damage trust.
- Price Transparency: Hidden prices are a major friction point. Transparency builds trust before the customer ever steps into the showroom.
- User Experience: While the majority of ads will drive traffic to a VDP, if the shopper wants to look around your site more, are they able to easily navigate and find what they might be looking for? Are you putting your priorities over theirs in terms of customer experience, website flow and messaging?
- Don’t Forget About Mobile: While you might be spending the majority of your day on a desktop to work deals, don’t forget to check the mobile experience of your website, because that’s likely where 60 – 80% of traffic is coming from.
- Answer the Phone: If an ad successfully drives a phone call but it goes unanswered, your marketing performed perfectly, but your internal process failed.
Ready for Your Reset?
We all know Rome wasn’t built in a day. There’s a lot to consider when it comes to your business and how to effectively (and efficiently) allocate your time and marketing dollars. The most important thing you can do is to just start. Inaction isn’t an option in 2026. If you need help with where to get started, our team is always available.
We recently hosted a webinar, Stop Wasting Ad Spend, which covers some of the elements above. Part 2 will be in March, so make sure you’re signed up for our monthly newsletter to get the link as soon as it’s available 👉 sMedia Newsletter Signup.
Whatever 2026 has in store, from sudden forks in the road to the occasional pothole, we are committed to being the extension of your team that helps you navigate every turn. We’ll be right here for the entire ride, ensuring your strategy stays on track and your dealership continues to grow through every up and down.
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Related Reads:
- Stop Wasting Ad Spend
- Turning Shoppers Into Leads
- Personalizing Automotive Shopping
- Screen to Showroom: Enhancing Your User Experience
- Rethinking Leads: How Modern Shoppers Really Engage with Your Dealership
- Google vs. Meta AIA Ads: Where Dealers Should Spend Right Now
- Stop Chasing Ghosts: Why “Leads” Are a Flawed Metric for Dealership Success
