Digital marketing for the motor trade
Automotive digital marketing measured in sold cars
Digital marketing for car dealerships and garages that joins search, paid ads, social and aftersales email into one plan, then tracks each enquiry through to a sale or booking.
- One plan across every channel
- Cost per sale tracked
- Aftersales retention built in
Quick answer
ProntX is an automotive digital marketing agency for UK car dealerships, independent garages and dealer groups. One senior team plans search, paid ads, social, email and website work around your stock and workshop targets, and reports cost per sold car. Plans start from £595 a month on a rolling contract, with ad spend paid direct.
Automotive digital marketing is the joined-up plan that brings car buyers and workshop customers to your business online, then tracks each one through to a sale or a booking. ProntX runs digital marketing for car dealerships, independent garages and dealer groups across the UK, with one senior team covering search, paid ads, social, email and your website, and one report that shows what each sold car actually cost you to win.
The problem most dealers describe
Leads arrive from everywhere: portal enquiries, phone calls, website forms, Facebook messages, WhatsApp and walk-ins who saw a post last week. Each supplier reports its own numbers and every one of them looks good. Meanwhile portal fees keep rising and nobody can say with confidence which channel produced last month’s sales. Buyers research across many websites before visiting just a couple of forecourts, so the online journey decides who gets the visit.
What a joined-up approach changes
Instead of buying channels separately, we start from your sales and workshop targets, set up tracking that follows an enquiry into your CRM or DMS, and then decide where the next pound should go. Some months that means more paid search on a model you have overstocked. Other months it means pushing service plans to existing customers by email. The plan moves with your stock.
The channels
What does an automotive digital marketing strategy include?
Six channels do most of the work for motor trade businesses. You will rarely need all six at once, and we recommend a starting mix after the audit rather than a fixed bundle.
Organic
Search and Maps
Model and town pages, aftersales pages and a Google profile per site. Slow to build, cheap to run once it works. Detail on our automotive SEO page.
Paid
Search and vehicle ads
Model searches, stock feed ads and workshop campaigns that can be switched up or down weekly. See automotive PPC.
Social
Video and catalogue ads
Walkaround clips, handover posts and stock catalogue ads that follow people who viewed a car. See automotive social media.
Retention
Email and SMS
MOT and service reminders, finance renewal prompts and part-exchange offers to existing customers. Often the best return in the whole plan.
Conversion
Your website
Fast listing pages, a working part-exchange form, a clear finance calculator and reservations. See car dealer web design.
Trust
Reviews
A consistent request at handover and at workshop collection, with replies to every review, good or bad.
Measurement
How do you measure digital marketing for a car dealership?
By cost per sold car and cost per workshop booking, not by clicks or followers. That means tracking the enquiry beyond the website and into the conversations your sales team has.
| Stage | What we track | Where it commonly breaks |
|---|---|---|
| Visit | Source, campaign and the vehicle or service page viewed | Portal and social traffic lumped together as “direct” |
| Enquiry | Calls, forms, chat, WhatsApp clicks and finance applications | Calls not tracked, so search and social look weaker than they are |
| Response | Time from enquiry to first reply | Weekend and evening leads waiting until Monday |
| Appointment | Test drives and valuations booked | Bookings kept in a diary nobody links back to the lead |
| Sale or booking | Sold vehicles and workshop jobs matched to the original source | No shared reference between the website and the DMS or CRM |
The response stage is where we see the most avoidable loss. A buyer comparing several dealers will usually go with whoever answers clearly and quickly. Before we raise any ad budget, we check how fast leads are answered and whether weekend enquiries reach a person.
Budget
How should a dealer split budget between portals and its own channels?
Gradually, and based on your own cost per sale. We do not tell dealers to drop portals. We measure what each source really costs, then move spend in small, reversible steps.
Step one: a clean baseline
For the first six to eight weeks we track every enquiry source alongside your portal package, so you can see cost per enquiry and cost per sale side by side. Many dealers find that a large share of “portal” buyers had also seen their own website or social posts, which changes how the portal fee looks.
Step two: shift and test
Once the baseline is clear, we move a set amount into the strongest own channel for a defined period and watch whether total sales hold. If they do, the next step follows. If they drop, we reverse it. The aim is fewer rented leads over time, not a risky overnight switch.
Aftersales
Why should aftersales be part of your digital marketing plan?
Because workshop customers return every year, cost far less to reach than new buyers, and are the most likely source of your next sale or part exchange.
- MOT reminders timed from each customer’s MOT due date
- Service plan offers after a vehicle’s first service with you
- Finance end prompts a few months before an agreement finishes
- Seasonal workshop campaigns: winter checks, air conditioning, tyres
- Local workshop search campaigns run alongside the reminders
- Email sent under the soft opt-in for existing customers, with opt-out in every message, as the ICO’s PECR guidance requires
Our email marketing service covers set-up of these automated reminders in the system you already use.
Rules
Which advertising rules apply across every automotive channel?
Finance, pricing and driving footage all carry rules that apply the same way on a website, an ad and a social post. We build them into templates so nothing gets missed.
Finance
FCA consumer credit
Monthly payment figures need a representative example no less prominent, and brokers show the required broker statement and firm name, whatever the channel.
Pricing
Headline prices
CMA guidance updated in November 2025 says headline prices should include unavoidable fees, which matters for dealers that add a compulsory admin or preparation charge.
Footage
CAP Code motoring
Videos and images must not condone unsafe driving or make speed the main message. Cars on public roads should be seen within speed limits.
We draft to these rules, but your compliance lead or finance provider approves finance and pricing claims before anything is published.
Who it is for
Which motor trade businesses do we market?
Anyone whose customers search, compare and enquire online before buying a vehicle, a part or a repair. The channel mix changes a lot between them.
- Franchised dealers working within manufacturer marketing rules
- Independent used car and van dealers
- Motorcycle and specialist or classic dealers
- Independent garages, MOT centres and bodyshops
Automotive aftermarket businesses, such as parts, accessories and detailing suppliers, sit closer to ecommerce: product feeds, shopping ads and repeat purchase emails matter more than Maps. Dealer groups need the same channels as an independent, plus reporting that compares sites fairly. We shape the plan to the business model rather than selling one dealer package to everyone.
Pricing
How much does automotive digital marketing cost?
Automotive digital marketing with ProntX starts from £595 a month for a single channel. Most dealers run two or three channels together, and ad spend is always paid direct to Google or Meta, separate from our fee.
| Scope | Typical monthly fee | Common mix |
|---|---|---|
| One channel | From £595 | Usually SEO or paid search plus tracking set-up |
| Independent dealer or garage, multi-channel | Typically £1,200 to £2,500 | Search, paid social and aftersales email |
| Dealer group | Typically £2,500 to £5,000 or more | All channels across sites, with group and site reporting |
Fees exclude VAT and depend on scope. Contracts roll monthly. Full details are on our pricing page.
SEO and AI search
from £595/month
Local and small business SEO, GEO and AEO included
What is includedPPC and Google Ads
from £450/month
Management fee. Ad spend is paid direct to Google
What is includedOur free audit reviews your enquiry tracking, response times, portal reliance and channel mix, and is delivered as a personal video within 2 working days. Our portfolio includes car marketplace and auction designs. Request your free audit.
How it works
What happens after you get in touch
- 01Free audit
We review your site, search visibility, ads and competitors, then send a short video walkthrough with the quickest wins.
Request audit - 02Plan and price
A one-page plan with goals, channels, timeline and a fixed monthly price. No surprises later.
See prices - 03Launch in weeks
Tracking first, then quick wins, then the bigger builds. You see progress in the first month.
See our work - 04Report and grow
Monthly report in plain English: leads, sales, cost per result and what we do next.
Talk to us
Same industry
More for automotive
FAQ
Automotive digital marketing questions, answered
Still unsure? Ask us anything. We reply within one working day.
What is automotive digital marketing?
It is the combined use of search, paid ads, social media, email and your website to bring in car buyers and workshop customers, measured against sales and bookings. The difference from buying each channel separately is that one plan decides where budget goes based on stock levels, workshop capacity and cost per sale, rather than each supplier pushing its own channel.
Should we stop paying for portal listings?
Not straight away, and possibly never. Portals reach a huge audience of buyers. The aim is to know what each portal sale really costs compared with your own channels, then move spend gradually where the numbers support it. We track both side by side for several weeks before recommending any change.
Is a specialist automotive agency better than a general one?
Specialists know the stock feeds and the main portals, which helps. The risk is a templated package sold to hundreds of dealers. What matters most is whether the agency understands stock-led advertising, finance promotion rules and lead tracking into your DMS. Ask any agency, including ProntX, to explain how they would measure cost per sold car for you.
How quickly will we see more enquiries?
Paid search and social campaigns can produce enquiries within days of launch, though costs usually settle over the first couple of months. Aftersales email often shows results in the first month because the audience already knows you. SEO is slower, typically three to six months for model pages. We sequence channels so faster ones carry the early months.
Can you work with our existing website provider?
Yes. Many dealers stay on a platform supplied with their stock system. We add tracking, improve landing pages within what the platform allows and brief your provider on changes we cannot make. If the platform blocks important tracking or SEO fixes, we will tell you plainly and explain the options.
Do you handle marketing for garages as well as dealers?
Yes. Independent garages and MOT centres usually need a simpler mix: Google Maps, a few service pages, local workshop ads and reminder emails. Budgets are smaller and the plan reflects that. Garages often see the fastest return because their customers search locally and need the work done soon.
What reporting will we get?
A monthly report and call showing enquiries, appointments and sales or bookings by channel, cost per result, response times, and what we plan to change next month. You also get live access to the dashboards. All accounts sit in your business name, so the data stays with you if you ever leave.
Is our ad spend included in the fee?
No. Ad spend is paid directly to Google, Meta or TikTok from your own card or invoice account. Our fee covers strategy, set-up and management. Keeping the two separate means you can see exactly what the platforms charged and there is no hidden mark-up on media.
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