Is your marketing agency actually earning their retainer?
We score the work, the spend, and the results — independently. One-time audits or ongoing oversight that keeps your agency honest and your ad dollars accountable.
- $2.4M+
- Wasted spend recovered
- 127
- Dealer audits delivered
- 31%
- Avg. cost-per-lead drop
Underperforming
Agency is overspending on branded search and under-reporting cost per VDP.
- Media efficiency54
- Reporting accuracy41
- Creative quality78
- Strategy & cadence70
Most dealerships are flying blind on the second-largest expense after payroll.
Marketing agencies grade their own homework. We don't.
Reports you can't verify
Inflated impressions, vanity metrics, and dashboards that hide what was actually spent on your behalf.
Branded search padding
Agencies billing for clicks on your own dealership name — leads that would've come in organically.
Set-and-forget campaigns
Stale creative, no negative keywords, no testing. You're paying a retainer for autopilot.
No accountability
When sales dip, the agency blames the market. There's never an independent voice in the room.
The audit fee is a rounding error on what your agency is wasting.
For a dealership spending $40k–$120k a month on digital, even a 10% efficiency gain returns the cost of an audit in two to four weeks. Most engagements find far more than that — branded-search padding, duplicate audiences, zombie campaigns, and inflated management fees that quietly compound month after month.
- Recover wasted ad spend within the first 30 days
- Renegotiate retainers and management fees with hard data
- Cut duplicate vendors and overlapping tools
- Reallocate budget to channels that actually move metal
- Monthly ad spend
- $60,000
- Wasted spend identified (avg. 18%)
- $10,800 / mo
- Annualized recovery
- $129,600
- One-time audit fee
- $2,500
~7 days
The audit pays for itself in the first week. Everything after is margin recovered straight to your bottom line.
Your agency rep matters more than the agency on the door.
Across automotive — and most service industries — there is enormous variability in how individual reps and account teams actually perform. Two dealerships on the same agency, the same package, and the same market can see completely different results based on who is assigned to the account. It's one of the most overlooked factors in your entire marketing plan when you outsource.
Rep-level performance varies wildly
The same agency can deliver A-grade work on one rooftop and D-grade work on another — usually down to which strategist, media buyer, and account manager are assigned. You're not really buying an agency. You're buying a specific team.
Provider tiering is real (and quiet)
Big agencies route their best talent to their biggest or noisiest accounts. If you're not actively monitored, you can quietly drift into the B-team queue — same invoice, very different output.
Independent scoring catches the drift
Our monthly scorecard tracks rep responsiveness, strategic input, and execution quality alongside the numbers — so you know whether to escalate, reassign, or move on before a bad quarter becomes a bad year.
If you use outside agencies, who is on your account is one of the most important variables in your entire marketing plan. Most dealers never measure it.
Get your rep evaluatedOne-time scorecards or ongoing protection — your call.
Every engagement is independent. We don't sell media, build websites, or take kickbacks from vendors. Ever.
Agency Audit
Starting at $2,500
A deep 21-day forensic review of your agency's spend, work product, and results. Walk away with a full scorecard and a renegotiation playbook.
- Full media spend reconciliation
- Campaign & creative QA
- Independent performance scorecard
- Renegotiation recommendations
Continuous Oversight
From $1,200 / month
We sit on your side of the table every month. Monthly scorecards, agency check-ins, and a hotline for anything that smells off.
- Monthly scorecard & briefing
- Quarterly deep audit
- Direct line for spot reviews
- Vendor RFP support
Agency Vetting
Starting at $1,500
Switching agencies? We vet finalists, score their pitches against real benchmarks, and structure a contract that protects you.
- RFP design & evaluation
- Reference & case-study checks
- Contract & SLA review
- Onboarding scorecard setup
Six pillars. One independent score.
Every engagement produces a 0–100 Agency Grade across six weighted pillars. No opinions — just evidence, benchmarks, and a clear next step.
Grade scale
F (0–39) · D · C · B · A · A+ (95–100)
Media Efficiency
Wasted spend, branded-search padding, audience overlap, frequency caps.
Reporting Accuracy
Attribution model honesty, source-of-truth alignment, hidden fees.
Performance vs. Benchmark
CPL, VDP views, lead-to-show — benchmarked against peer dealers.
Creative & Strategy
Test cadence, creative quality, seasonal planning, inventory alignment.
Process & Communication
Cadence, transparency, response times, proactive recommendations.
Contract Health
SLA compliance, ownership of assets, exit terms, hidden auto-renewals.
From handshake to scorecard in 21 days.
- 01
Discovery call
30 minutes to understand your dealership, agency setup, and concerns. No pitch.
- 02
Data access
Read-only access to ad accounts, CRM, and reports. We sign mutual NDAs first.
- 03
Audit & score
We reconcile spend, QA campaigns, benchmark performance, and build your scorecard.
- 04
Findings & playbook
A 60-minute readout with your team — and a written renegotiation playbook.
Built for dealerships. Available to anyone tired of being managed by their agency.
Our partners have spent decades inside automotive — we know the vendors, the playbooks, and the dashboards inside-out. We also serve home services, healthcare, and franchise brands that spend $10k+/month on marketing.
Auto Dealerships
Single rooftop to 40+ groups
Home Services
HVAC, roofing, plumbing
Healthcare
Multi-location practices
Franchise Brands
Co-op & local marketing
Pays for itself, or we'll tell you straight.
The average audit uncovers 4–6x its fee in wasted or misallocated spend. If we can't find meaningful improvement opportunities, we'll say so on the discovery call — before you pay a dollar.
Typical ROI on a one-time audit
From kickoff to scorecard
Vendor-neutral. No kickbacks.
Dealers who stopped guessing.
Their audit found $38k a month being burned on branded search clicks. Renegotiated our retainer two weeks later.
I finally have someone in my corner who actually understands what my agency is — or isn't — doing.
We use them on retainer now. The monthly scorecard alone is worth it. Our agency has stepped up dramatically.
Questions we hear a lot.
Will my agency know you're auditing them?+
That's your call. Most clients tell their agency upfront — it usually triggers an immediate quality bump. Some prefer a silent audit first.
Do you sell media or build websites?+
Never. We don't take referral fees, kickbacks, or rev-share from any vendor. Our only revenue is from you, which is what keeps us honest.
What if our agency is actually doing great work?+
Then you'll have a written, independent confirmation of it — which is valuable on its own. About 1 in 5 audits comes back with a B+ or higher.
Do you only work with car dealers?+
Automotive is our specialty, but we serve any business spending $10k+/month on marketing with an external agency.
How long does an audit take?+
21 days from kickoff to delivered scorecard. Ongoing oversight is a continuous monthly cadence.
Find out what your agency doesn't want you to know.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call. No pitch, no pressure — just a candid conversation about what's actually happening with your marketing spend.