Automotive Marketing Plan Template for Dealerships
Most dealership marketing plans live in someone’s head or in a stack of vendor invoices. This automotive marketing plan template puts it on one page. Copy the six sections below into a document and fill in each blank with your own numbers.
Section 1: The sales goal and the math behind it
Start with units, not with channels. Write down your monthly new and used retail target, then work backward to the activity needed to hit it. Use your own CRM history for each rate.
- Target units: ____ new, ____ used
- Closing rate on shown appointments: ____
- Shown appointments needed: target units divided by closing rate
- Show rate: ____
- Set appointments needed: shown appointments divided by show rate
- Leads needed: set appointments divided by your appointment set rate
Subtract the units you expect from repeat, referral and walk-in traffic. What remains is the gap that paid marketing has to fill.
Section 2: Who you are trying to reach
List three to five audiences in plain words. For each one, note where they live, what they drive now and what offer fits them. Examples of rows in this section:
- Current customers with a vehicle four or more years old
- Lease customers within six months of maturity
- Service customers who did not buy from you
- In-market shoppers within your primary market area
- Spanish-speaking households in your market
Keeping this list short forces every ad and email to speak to someone specific.
Section 3: Budget by channel
Build a small table with one row per channel and four columns: monthly spend, expected leads, expected set appointments and the person responsible. Typical rows include search advertising, social advertising, sales events, email and text to your own database, third-party listings, video, and traditional media if you use it.
Add one more row labeled test and set aside a small share of the budget for it. That gives you room to try something new each month without raiding a channel that is working.
Section 4: The monthly calendar
Lay the month out week by week. For each week, write the offer, the featured inventory and the channels carrying the message. A simple pattern looks like this:
- Week one: launch the monthly offer across search, social and email.
- Week two: push aged units and trade-in demand.
- Week three: run a focused sales event with a set appointment target.
- Week four: follow up with unsold traffic and close the month.
Note manufacturer incentive dates and compliance review deadlines on the same calendar so creative is approved before it is needed.
Section 5: Lead handling standards
A plan that stops at the lead is half a plan. Write down the standard for what happens next: who answers, on which channels, during which hours, and how fast. Include nights and weekends. Then add your follow-up schedule for leads that do not reply and for appointments that do not show.
If your team cannot cover every hour, name the partner who does. Willowood Ventures pairs its Facebook Sales Events with a live, US-based, bilingual BDC that answers by Messenger, text and email 24/7/365.
Section 6: The weekly scorecard
Finish with a one-page scorecard reviewed in the same meeting each week. For every channel, record spend, leads, set appointments, shown appointments, sold units and gross. Add two calculated columns: cost per shown appointment and cost per sold unit. Mark each row keep, fix or cut. A plan only works if someone is required to act on what the scorecard says.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a dealership marketing plan be?
One to two pages. If it takes longer than five minutes to read, managers will not use it in the weekly meeting.
How often should the plan be updated?
Review the scorecard weekly, adjust the calendar monthly and rebuild the goals and budget each quarter or whenever inventory changes sharply.
Can a dealer group use one template for every store?
Yes. Use the same sections and scorecard for every rooftop so results can be compared, and let each store fill in its own audiences, offers and numbers.
See what an event would look like for your store
Willowood Ventures runs Facebook Sales Events for 600+ dealer partners and manages $4 million per month in social advertising. Dealers see approximately 800% average ROI, and 90% of them rebook. Book a demo and we will walk through your market, your inventory and your set appointment target.
