How should a dealer choose a car dealer marketing company?

Ownership is the first filter

If the company owns your ad accounts, pixels, audiences, website content or first-party data, your spend is building its asset and switching means starting over. Dealer-owned accounts with agency access is the arrangement that protects the store. Establish it before anything else.

Transparency of media versus fees

A dealer should be able to see working media and management fee as separate line items. Bundled pricing hides whether the store is buying media or management, and a percentage-of-spend model rewards spending more. Ask for the split in writing.

Measurement you can audit

A credible partner reports to sold vehicles and incremental lift, not to impressions and last-click conversions, and will show how the match from ad to sold is made. A company that reports only vanity metrics is protecting itself from being judged on outcomes.

Read the exit before the launch

The most revealing terms are the offboarding ones. What data, accounts, audiences and content leave with the store, in a usable format, if the relationship ends? A company that answers that cleanly in writing is a different proposition from one that answers it in a meeting.

Steps in a fair selection

Write the goals and constraints first, including any manufacturer program rules. Invite three or four companies to respond to the same brief.

Ask each for a sample report, a sample contract and two references with your brand or a similar market. Compare answers on ownership, fees, measurement and exit before looking at creative work.