Dealership Marketing Manager: The Role, a Monthly Calendar and the Numbers to Report

A dealership marketing manager plans, buys and checks a dealership's advertising, from paid search and listing sites to reviews and manufacturer co-op claims, then reports what that spend produced in appointments and sold units. This guide separates the role from the internet sales manager and the agency, and gives a monthly calendar and a one-page report.

At a glance

• Dealership job postings describe the marketing manager as the owner of the monthly marketing plan and budget, media buying, vendors, co-op claims, the website's offers, social media and online reviews.
• The marketing manager brings shoppers in and proves which sources work; the internet sales manager answers the leads; an agency carries out work the dealership directs and does not own the dealership's results.
• NADA Data 2025 shows search engine marketing, third-party listing sites and website optimization each taking about a fifth of franchised new-car dealers' advertising budgets.
• FTC staff guidance published in September 2026 says the actual price, including mandatory dealer fees, must be the most prominent amount in vehicle ads, which makes an ad check part of the marketing manager's monthly routine.
• A useful monthly report follows each lead source from spend to leads, appointments, shows and sold units, so the dealership judges sources by cost per sold unit rather than cost per lead.

What a dealership marketing manager is responsible for

A dealership marketing manager is responsible for the dealership's advertising plan, budget and results across digital, traditional and in-store channels. Two Go Auto postings for a dealership marketing manager in Los Angeles, read for this guide in October 2026 (posted October 31, 2025 and posted November 10, 2025), list nearly the same duties. Grouped, the duties fall into six areas:

• Plan and budget. The postings ask the manager to "own monthly marketing plans and budgets" tied to sales and service goals.
• Media and vendors. Planning and buying media across search, social, video, radio and outdoor, and managing vendors and partners, including negotiating rates and holding them accountable for performance.
• Manufacturer programs. Submitting and tracking co-op advertising claims and handling manufacturer (OEM) programs, incentives and compliance requirements.
• Website, social and creative. Keeping dealership websites accurate on inventory, offers and messaging, running social content and paid social, and producing local creative such as in-store displays and seasonal promotions.
• Reputation. Overseeing online reviews and making sure the dealership responds and resolves issues promptly.
• Reporting. Monitoring campaign dashboards, connecting marketing results to sales and reporting wins and gaps to dealership leaders.

An opinion column in CBT News by Glenn Pasch (2021) adds a duty the postings only imply: working with the BDC and sales team to find out which lead sources produce appointments. That link between marketing and the sales floor is the part of the job most often left undone, and it is what the monthly report later in this guide is built around.

The Go Auto postings cover several dealerships at once. At a single-point store, the same duties usually sit with one person, and some of the media buying and creative work goes to an agency or vendor.

Marketing manager vs internet sales manager vs agency

The marketing manager, the internet sales manager and the agency split the work on either side of the lead: the marketing manager and the agency produce leads, and the internet sales manager turns them into appointments and sales. Problems start when nobody owns the handoff, so it helps to write down who owns what. The same five criteria apply to each:

Dealership marketing manager

• Main job: decide where the marketing budget goes and prove what it produced.
• Owns: the monthly plan and budget, vendor and agency relationships, co-op claims, website offers, reviews and the monthly marketing report.
• Measured on: leads, appointments and sold units by source, and cost per sold unit.
• Does not own: answering and working individual leads.
• Typical reporting line: the general manager or dealer principal (the Go Auto postings do not name one; they say the role works with sales, service and leadership teams).

Internet sales manager

• Main job: turn online leads into appointments and sales.
• Owns: lead response, follow-up and the internet team's appointment and sales numbers. The internet sales manager guide covers the role in detail.
• Measured on: response time, appointments set and shown, and closing ratio on internet leads.
• Does not own: the advertising budget or the choice of lead sources, though at smaller stores the internet sales manager often handles both.
• Typical reporting line: the general sales manager or general manager.

Marketing agency or vendor

• Main job: carry out campaigns the dealership approves, such as paid search, paid social, website work or creative.
• Owns: campaign setup and delivery inside the agreed scope.
• Measured on: usually its own platform metrics, such as clicks, leads and cost per lead, unless the dealership asks for sold-unit reporting.
• Does not own: the dealership's CRM records or sales outcomes, so it cannot see which of its leads bought unless the dealership shares that data.
• Typical reporting line: the dealership marketing manager, or the general manager when there is no marketing manager.

Hire a marketing manager, use an agency, or both

Most dealerships choose between an in-house marketing manager, an agency, or a marketing manager who directs one or more agencies, and the right choice depends on budget size, the number of rooftops and who will hold vendors to sold-unit results. Articles on this question come mostly from agencies and consultants, so read them with that in mind. THAT Agency (2017) lists in-house strengths as knowing the inventory and sales process and controlling messaging directly, and weaknesses as one or two people lacking depth across every channel. AutoSweet, which sells a fractional chief marketing officer service, adds that agencies often use standard approaches and that account contacts may handle many clients.

A practical way to decide:

• One rooftop, small budget: an agency for execution, with the general manager or internet sales manager owning the monthly report. The risk is that nobody has time to check vendor claims against the CRM.
• Several rooftops or a large budget: an in-house marketing manager who directs agencies. The Go Auto postings describe this model.
• Any size: keep ownership of ad accounts, analytics properties, review profiles and lead data with the dealership, whoever runs them, so the dealership keeps its history if it changes agency.

The CBT News column warns against combining marketing with BDC or IT duties, because daily sales pressure tends to push marketing planning aside. That is the author's opinion rather than research, but the risk is easy to check: if the monthly report has not been produced for two months, the role is not getting the time it needs.

What to look for when hiring a dealership marketing manager

The Go Auto postings ask for five or more years of marketing experience in retail, automotive or multi-location businesses, working knowledge of Google Ads, GA4 (Google Analytics 4) and Meta, experience negotiating with vendors and media, CRM and customer-journey marketing across email, SMS and automation, and "comfort interpreting metrics and explaining them to non-marketers." An AutoRaptor hiring article (2015) adds copywriting ability, comfort working in the CRM, and willingness to train sales and admin staff on new campaigns. One practical interview test: give a candidate a month of anonymized spend, lead and sales data by source and ask which source they would cut and what they would check first.

Where franchised dealers' advertising budgets go

Franchised new-car dealers put most of their advertising budget into digital channels, according to NADA's 2025 Annual Financial Profile of America's Franchised New-Car Dealerships. NADA reports total dealership advertising of $9.96 billion in 2025, and splits it by medium:

• Search engine marketing: 21.1%
• Third-party listing sites: 20.0%
• Website search engine optimization: 19.5%
• Social media advertising: 14.2%
• TV: 10.5%
• Radio: 6.9%
• Direct mail: 5.6%
• Newspaper: 2.1%

The NADA split is useful context for a budget conversation, but it is an average across franchised new-car dealers, not a target. It does not include RV, marine, powersports or independent used-car dealers, whose mix of listing sites, shows and events is different, and it says nothing about which channel produced sales at any one store. For how to turn spend into a per-source cost, see the guide to cost per sold unit and cost per lead.

A monthly calendar for a dealership marketing manager

A dealership marketing manager's month works best in four steps: close and report last month, plan next month with the sales and service managers, build and check the ads, then launch and monitor. The calendar below is a suggested routine, built from the duties in the job postings above; adjust the weeks to your manufacturer's co-op deadlines and month-end sales push.

Week 1: close last month

• Pull actual spend by source from invoices and ad platforms, not from budgets.
• Match leads in the CRM to sold units in the sales log, by source.
• Submit co-op claims with copies of the ads, invoices and proof of placement. Dealer Spike's co-op guide notes that programs often have strict claim deadlines (it cites a 60-day example from one manufacturer) and that ads that break brand guidelines can be denied.
• Send the one-page report to the general manager and discuss it in person.

Week 2: plan next month

• Meet the sales manager, used-car manager and service manager: which units are aging, which models are arriving, which service specials are planned.
• Set next month's budget by source, moving money toward sources with the lowest cost per sold unit, not the lowest cost per lead.
• Brief agencies and vendors in writing, and submit creative for co-op pre-approval where the manufacturer offers it.

Week 3: build and check

• Approve creative and offers, then run every ad through the pre-launch check in the next section.
• Confirm that website specials, listing-site prices and ad prices match.
• Test each new form, landing page and tracking number by submitting a lead and checking that it reaches the CRM with the right source.

Week 4: launch and monitor

• Check spend pacing and lead volume by source each week.
• Read and reply to new reviews; respond to negative ones promptly and route the issue to the right manager. The review request text templates help keep new reviews coming.
• Mystery-shop one lead from each paid source to see how fast and how well it is answered. The lead response time benchmarks give a standard to compare against.

Pre-launch checks for dealership ads

Every dealership ad should pass a short pricing, co-op and tracking check before it runs, because a wrong price, a rejected co-op claim or an untagged link costs money after launch. This checklist summarizes public guidance and is not legal advice; state advertising rules and manufacturer agreements add their own requirements, so confirm details with the dealership's counsel or compliance provider.

Pricing (FTC staff guidance, September 2026)

The FTC's Automobile Industry Pricing Transparency FAQs, published September 15, 2026, set out how FTC staff expect vehicle prices to be advertised. The FAQs are staff views, not a binding rule. Points to check:

• The advertised price is "the actual price any consumer can walk in and pay," excluding only government charges such as taxes.
• Mandatory dealer fees, such as document fees, are included in the advertised price.
• Where any amount a consumer may pay is shown, the actual price is the most prominent amount; MSRP and discounts may appear but must not stand out more.
• Conditional discounts, such as financing or first-responder discounts, are not built into the headline price, and their terms are clear.
• Used-vehicle photos show the actual vehicle, and in-transit or off-site vehicles are labeled as not on the lot.
• Third parties such as listing sites and agencies receive accurate prices; the FAQs say "everyone who has control over the advertising is responsible."

Co-op and brand rules

• The ad follows the manufacturer's current co-op and brand guidelines, including approved logos and disclaimers.
• Pre-approval has been requested where the program offers it, and the claim deadline is on the calendar.

Tracking and consent

• Every link carries UTM tags. Google Analytics help says to always use utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, and notes that values are case sensitive, so agree on lowercase names.
• Each paid source has its own tracking phone number where practical; the dealership call tracking guide explains the setup.
• Text campaigns use opted-in contacts on a registered number, as covered in the 10DLC registration guide, and email follows the rules in the email marketing guide.

The one-page monthly marketing report

A dealership's one-page monthly marketing report should follow every lead source from spend to sold units, because a source that looks cheap per lead can be expensive per sale. The layout below is a suggested template. Build one block per source (paid search, each listing site, paid social, the dealership website, phone calls, events or shows), with the same eight lines:

1. Spend (actual, from invoices)
2. Unique leads (duplicates removed)
3. Cost per lead (spend divided by unique leads)
4. Appointments set
5. Appointments shown
6. Sold units credited to the source (state the rule used, such as first or last touch)
7. Cost per sold unit (spend divided by sold units)
8. Change for next month (keep, cut, raise or test, with one reason)

Below the source blocks, add four store-wide lines: new reviews and average rating for the month, the share of reviews replied to, co-op claims submitted and still pending, and one sentence on anything the sales or service team should know, such as a price change on a promoted model. Appointment-set and shown counts come from the CRM, so they are only as good as the CRM data; the guide to appointment show rate explains how to count them consistently.

If you want an outside view of where leads slip between the marketing report and the sales floor, the Revenue Leak Audit reviews lead response and follow-up at no cost.

Worked example: reading one month's marketing report

A worked example shows why the report goes to cost per sold unit. The figures below are invented for illustration and describe a hypothetical single-rooftop store, not a real dealership or an industry benchmark.

Paid search

• Spend $6,000; 120 unique leads; cost per lead $50.
• 30 appointments set; 21 shown; 9 sold.
• Cost per sold unit: about $667.

Third-party listing site

• Spend $5,000; 150 unique leads; cost per lead about $33.
• 27 appointments set; 18 shown; 6 sold.
• Cost per sold unit: about $833.

Paid social

• Spend $3,000; 100 unique leads; cost per lead $30.
• 12 appointments set; 6 shown; 2 sold.
• Cost per sold unit: $1,500.

Paid social has the lowest cost per lead and the highest cost per sold unit, so a report that stopped at cost per lead would point the budget the wrong way. Before cutting paid social, the marketing manager should check two things in the CRM. First, only 12 of 100 paid-social leads booked an appointment, against 30 of 120 for paid search, so check how fast paid-social leads were answered and by whom. Second, only half of paid-social appointments showed, so check whether those appointments were confirmed. If response and confirmation were weak, the problem may be follow-up rather than the channel, and the fix belongs to the internet sales manager. If they were fine, moving some paid-social budget toward paid search is a reasonable test for next month.

Where Shiftix Cloud fits

Shiftix Cloud is a Customer Operations Platform for auto, RV, marine and powersports dealers, and its Marketing Monitor is built for the spend-to-outcome view this guide describes. Shiftix Cloud works alongside a dealer's DMS and ad platforms; it is not a DMS and does not replace them. According to the Shiftix Cloud marketing page, Marketing Monitor includes Facebook and Google campaign performance views, Facebook and Google lead sync, lead source attribution, and spend and cost-per-lead views, and it carries campaign and source details into the CRM opportunity where available. The page also states that it does not guarantee campaign, lead or revenue outcomes. The same area includes a Review Builder for review requests by text and email, which staff control.

In the Shiftix Cloud CRM, the lead source stays on the opportunity record with the customer and vehicle details, which is what lets a manager count appointments and sales by source. The integrations page lists Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Business Profile, Meta / Facebook and co-op advertising programs among its connection targets, and notes that named systems are examples of potential connections rather than a guarantee of a one-click connector, so confirm the specific connections a store needs.

Next steps

The right next step depends on what the dealership has today:

• No one owns marketing results: assign the one-page report to a named person this month, even if an agency runs the campaigns.
• An agency reports only clicks and cost per lead: share sold units by source with the agency each month and ask it to report against cost per sold unit.
• Ads have not been checked since September 2026: run the pricing checks above on the website, listing sites and current ads.
• Sources look cheap but sales are low: check response time and appointment confirmation before cutting the source.

For the people on the other side of the handoff, see the internet sales manager guide and the dealership general manager guide.

Marketing spend only pays off when the leads it creates are answered and followed up. The Revenue Leak Audit is complimentary, with no obligation and no software purchase required. It looks at lead response, follow-up, conversion, customer retention, accountability and workflow, and Shiftix walks through the findings with you.

Paid search and social are not the only places shoppers look for inventory. Searchshop, a vehicle marketplace run by the same team as Shiftix Cloud, is where buyers search dealer inventory, and its dealer listing packages put a dealership and its inventory in front of those shoppers.

Frequently asked questions

Can the general manager handle a dealership's marketing instead of a marketing manager?

A general manager can handle a dealership's marketing at a small store, but the work is easy to crowd out. The general manager already owns sales, service, staffing and profit, and the monthly marketing work of checking invoices, matching leads to sales and reviewing ads needs protected time every month. If a general manager keeps the role, an agency usually runs the campaigns and the general manager owns the one-page report.

What is the difference between a dealership marketing coordinator and a marketing manager?

A dealership marketing coordinator usually carries out marketing tasks, while a marketing manager owns the plan, budget and results. A Wizehire job description for an automotive marketing coordinator lists maintaining digital content and social accounts, writing marketing copy and preparing monthly analytics breakdowns in support of management. A marketing manager decides where the money goes, manages vendors and answers for what the spend produced.

Should a dealership marketing manager also run the BDC?

Combining the dealership marketing manager and BDC manager roles is possible but risky, because daily lead and phone work tends to push marketing planning aside. A CBT News column argues against the combination for that reason. If one person must do both, protect the first week of each month for closing the numbers and producing the marketing report.

Do RV, marine and powersports dealerships need a marketing manager?

RV, marine and powersports dealerships need someone who owns marketing results, though the person may not carry the marketing manager title. The job postings and NADA figures in this guide come from franchised car dealerships. Smaller RV, boat and powersports stores often give marketing to the general manager or an owner, and their budgets lean more on listing sites, shows and events, but the monthly calendar and one-page report apply whatever the title.

Sources

• Go Auto, Dealership Marketing Manager job posting, Los Angeles (October 31, 2025)
• Go Auto, Marketing Manager job posting, Los Angeles (November 10, 2025)
• CBT News, It is time to stop debating: hire a digital marketing manager for your dealership, Glenn Pasch (March 2021)
• THAT Agency, Dealership Digital Marketing: In-House or Agency? (February 2017)
• AutoSweet, Choosing a Dealership Marketing Solution: Agency, Internal, or Fractional CMO (undated)
• AutoRaptor, How to Hire an Automotive Marketing Manager (October 2015)
• Wizehire, Automotive Marketing Coordinator Job Description (updated April 2024)
• NADA Data 2025, Annual Financial Profile of America's Franchised New-Car Dealerships
• Federal Trade Commission, Automobile Industry Pricing Transparency FAQs (September 2026)
• Dealer Spike, Maximizing Your OEM Co-Op Funds (September 2024, updated June 2025)
• Google Analytics Help, URL builders: Collect campaign data with custom URLs
• Shiftix Cloud, Marketing Monitor
• Shiftix Cloud, CRM
• Shiftix Cloud, Integrations