To all our automotive friends, clients and partners. When it comes to digital marketing there are more options than ever and everybody has the same old “according to Google…we are the best” sales pitch. That can’t be true for everyone.

What you know is that you are spending more money with Google and Bing than ever before. What a lot of you may not know is that Google and Bing both have amazing teams that conduct quarterly business reviews of their highest certified companies in the industry. To put it in perspective, these companies generate about 2/3 of all automotive digital ad spend which is in the BILLIONS annually. Yup, Billions. Our favorite and most invaluable part of their reviews are the reports that compare key performance metrics of each company to the rest of the industry’s largest and certified vendors…across their entire portfolios. We are like kids in a candy store waiting to see how we rank against our peers. It’s a report card that you have most likely never seen from your current vendor. Collectively we are talking about a comparison of metrics on billions of annual ad spend. It’s the only raw un-biased data in this multi-billion-dollar industry that serves as a report card on some of the metrics the search engines consider the most important factors for their advertisers. You can’t fake it, hide from it, or create your own definition of those metrics. It is what it is.

The reports clearly illustrate there are major differences in each company’s performance. I will let our incredible numbers speak for themselves against any and all certified companies. I wish I could post last quarters reports right here, right now but Google and Bing have very strict rules on sharing this information and do not permit it be shared publicly via mass communications. However, each partner can share this invaluable report with their clients and prospects in one on one communications. But nobody really does, until now. For us, it’s all that matters. You should be asking for this report regularly. It’s free, its available and its unbiased. Every company has every right to share it…or not. Some vendors focus on inexpensive brand campaigns and others include off-brand conquest campaigns which are much more expensive. But everyone is running model specific campaigns that are critical for dealer’s sales. Make sure you know how aggressive your vendor is working for you, it impacts the metrics. This report just breaks it down in a no-nonsense way on the industry averages and who generates the most quality traffic for the lowest cost…plain and simple. Since it covers all certified companies and the billions spent by advertisers…its impossible to argue it’s not right.

So, if you are a Dealer, member of an Ad Association or OEM and want to see our data, just comment on this post and we will send you the latest reports directly. Our only requirement is that you not post it anywhere publicly because that violates Google and Bing’s rules for sharing this data.

Now that you know this unbiased data exists, our strongest advice is to stop listening to these hyped-up sales pitches…just ask for the reports directly from their Quarterly Business Reviews. If they say they don’t have those reviews, find out if they are actually certified. The irony is most of the certified partners will not give it to you. It would clearly showcase their actual results, for their clients, compared to the rest of the industry. Ask yourself, if your kid wouldn’t give you their report card from school, would you be okay with that? Trust me Dad…I am doing great and my grades versus my peers don’t matter. Really?

Dealerships, Ad Associations, and OEM’s don’t have to settle for average or below average results. Google and Bing are keeping score for you. See for yourself.