NADA DATA 2025: Digital Hits 75% of Ad Spend

The full-year 2025 NADA DATA report from the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) was released this week, and we've been digging into the numbers.

If you haven't downloaded your copy yet, or weren't even aware this resource existed, it's well worth grabbing directly from NADA's website. (The mid-year 2026 report typically follows later in the year, usually around November.)

One of our favorite sections every year is the Dealer Advertising Mix breakdown. The comparison below looks at 2020 versus 2025, and the shift is striking.

Traditional advertising continues its decline:

• TV advertising dropped from 15.4% of total ad budgets in 2020 to just 10.5% in 2025

• Radio, newspaper, and direct mail have seen similar drop-offs

Digital continues to dominate the mix:

• Internet advertising surged from 61% in 2020 to over 75% in 2025

• NADA now breaks the "internet" category into more granular channels, including websites, SEO, third-party listing sites (Cars.com, Autotrader, CarGurus, etc.), search engine marketing (Google Ads, Bing), and paid social media

The data makes it clear: digital marketing now dominates the advertising mix for U.S. franchised dealers.

But the more important question is this: are you allocating that 75% digital budget efficiently across these channels?

Or is a disproportionate share going toward Google Paid Search, or worse, toward non-VLA Performance Max spend?

Understanding which digital channels are actually driving sales, versus which ones are simply burning budget, matters more now than ever.