The Dealership Who Is Throwing Away Money

This year is a great year to check in on your media plan. Understand further if the budget you are allocating to your cable TV buys are really worth it.

Let me tell you a recent story…especially since it is 2025 and we are still seeing legacy media strategies that take more from the dealer.

Dealer A had $300,000 in media spend over the previous six months. They spent those dollars across 7+ cable tv providers under one agency.

Why is that a problem? Because when you evaluate the invoicing and you look at the overall measurement (Which was no where to be found) it doesn’t take long to see that there were thousands of unaccounted dollars missing…

It still shocks me that most owners and leaders will look at themselves and try to validate the traditional strategy through relationships, nice steak dinners, or whatever floats their boat.

This has to end… so….

What does a better media plan look like?

1. Consolidated budgets with clear outcomes. If it is brand awareness the budget allocation needs to be focused on a few main channels. The spray and pray approach does not work.

2. Ensuring media fee transparency…have you asked your vendor what their fees are?

3. Measuring success. - at minimum total impressions, clicks, conversions, and CPM costs.

The biggest take away here is that digital media buying provides much more measurement and success vs traditional placements.

Better audiences and measurement drives stronger personalization and media effectiveness over the long term.