01 — THREE FINDINGS, EACH WITH ITS RECEIPT
62%
$17,308 OF $27,814
Sixty-two percent of audited spend produced no defensible link to profit. Over the quarter 62 tracked vehicles sold; of 646 verified leads, 19 sales were defensibly attributable, returning $10,506. Under the most conservative statistical reading, the range is 45–62%.
41%
646 VERIFIED OF 1,102 REPORTED
Forty-one percent of platform-reported leads could not be confirmed against the dealership’s own air-gapped records. Asked how its figure was derived, the media vendor cited a "proprietary" algorithm. The paper names no platform: the critique targets the systemically wasteful ad spend, not a vendor.
$51/lead
EACH RETURNED ROUGHLY $16
Premium, boosted placement consumed 69% of audited spend and quadrupled leads. The reported engagement lift was true. It was also not worth it. The dealership cut most boosted listings immediately — the audit paying for itself in a single budget decision.
Review Research in Podcast Form
No excuse to not connect ad spend to Profit & Loss amid economic volatility.
The ad age "50% of marketing works, we just don't know which 50%" has no place amid economic volatility in a highly credited automotive industry. We hope this research helps demystify how to do it defensibly.
Andrew Reutsky
Lead Author, Business Student at Harvard with Minor in Digital Media, and Former Art Director for GM at Leo Burnett, a world-class ad agency
About Andrew
“Retail advertising in a category as complex as automotive isn't unmeasurable so much as under-measured in connection to the bottom line.”
Business student at Harvard; four years producing national retail advertising for Volvo and General Motors — thousands of the very banners this paper audits — before resigning in August 2024. Learn More ↗
TEST YOUR OWN DIGITAL AD SPEND
What the audit’s range would mean for your quarter.
The study found between 45 and 62 percent of one dealership’s audited quarterly digital ad spend carried no defensible link to profit. Enter your own quarterly figure to project that range in dollars.
02 — BANNER-VIN-PROFIT METHOD
No new software.
No vendor’s permission.
A dedicated phone extension, a dedicated inbox, a link tag, and a spreadsheet. Every lead was air-gapped before the campaign ran, traced from online interaction to showroom customer, and weighed against the front-end gross of the vehicle it helped sell — traced through the Vehicle Identification Number.
Phase 1
Air-gap every lead, independently and proactively.
A dedicated phone extension, a dedicated inbox, a UTM tag — so no vendor-supplied report is the only record of what happened.
Phase 2
Link online interactions with showroom customers.
Every lead, however it arrived, became a source-tagged CRM record — closing the gap between a click and a person on the lot.
Phase 3
Weigh ad spend against the profit it produced.
Each listing’s prorated cost against the front-end gross of the VIN it sold — the only comparison that matters to a dealership’s P&L.
03 — REPLICATION OFFER
Q4 2026 NOW CLOSED
Q4 2026 Banner-VIN-Profit Audit
$76,100
ESTIMATED
VALUE*
AT
$0
To the
dealership
13
Weeks of live ad spend traced
In exchange for Anonymized data contributed to the replication study
*The estimate considers set-up, testing, maintenance, analysis and leave-behind value and does not include efficiency gains that come from knowing which ads bring profitable customers — and which do not.
One dealership,
one quarterly audit, free.
To extend the evidence base, one North American dealership now receives installation and a complete Banner-VIN-Profit audit on live advertising through Q4 2026 — in exchange for anonymized data contributed to the replication study.
Q4 2026 Banner-VIN-Profit Audit
$76,100
ESTIMATED
VALUE*
AT
$0
To the
dealership
13
Weeks of live ad spend traced
In exchange for Anonymized data contributed to the replication study
*The estimate considers set-up, testing, maintenance, analysis and leave-behind value and does not include efficiency gains that come from knowing which ads bring profitable customers — and which do not.
Q4 2026 draw now closed
Apply for 2027What to expect after your application
04 — CONTACT
Tailor the benefits of this research to your team's needs.
The method in this paper was built to be run, not cited. Bring your own numbers and we will find whether your advertising traces to profitability—and what to do about it if it doesn't.
CHOOSE A ROUTE
A — BANNER-VIN-PROFIT AUDIT APPLICATION
Fill out the form below—the submission is immediate. We are interviewing on a rolling basis and will notify everyone by December 11, 2026, with the results.
If your dealership is not selected, you will receive a one-hour research review session tailored to your needs, free of charge. You are free to exit the consideration pool at any time.
What to expect after your application
B — TEAM WORKSHOP
Please provide your onboarding information and Andrew will contact you to confirm and discuss the details.
What to expect from the workshop
Your submission has been received! Andrew, lead author, will get in touch within 24 hours.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
C — PRIVATE RESEARCH REVIEW
Pick a slot from Andrew’s live calendar. Booking request is immediate, confirmation upon review.
What to expect from the call
AVAILABLE ON A FIRST-COME BASIS UNTIL DECEMBER 11, 2026. OPEN FULL PAGE↗
D — BY PHONE
For any questions, feel free to call Andrew between 8 AM and 8 PM any day (ET). United States and Canada Toll-Free.