Run it on your own numbers.
The fields open on an illustrative case: a store at $3,000 combined gross, an 8% close rate on web leads, 25 non-branded organic leads a month, against the published $1,165 per rooftop rate. Replace each one with the store's own figure.
Return on the search line
5.2×
Gross returned for every dollar of search spend, before the lag and before anything that resolves without a click.
Above break-even. The line returns $6,000 a month against $1,165 of cost, so it clears by $4,835. Break-even sits at 0.39 units a month and the store is producing 2.00.
- Break-even, units per month
- 0.39
- Break-even, leads per month
- 4.9
- Units per month now
- 2.00
- Sales gross attributable
- $6,000
- Service gross attributable
- $0
- Total attributable gross
- $6,000
- Net of the search line
- $4,835
- Return on spend
- +415%
- Cost per unit acquired
- $583
Against the NADA average: the typical franchised dealership spends $9,527 a month on the SEO and website line, which is 8.2× your figure and would need 3.18 units a month to break even at the gross entered above.
The arithmetic, written out.
Nothing above is modelled, projected or weighted. Five lines of arithmetic produce every figure on the page, and they are printed here so the result can be checked by hand and argued with.
Units a month is non-branded organic leads multiplied by the close rate. Twenty-five leads at 8% is two units.
Attributable gross is units multiplied by combined gross per unit, plus repair orders multiplied by gross per repair order when the optional fields are used. Two units at $3,000 is $6,000.
Net is attributable gross minus the monthly cost of the search line. $6,000 less $1,165 is $4,835.
Return is net divided by cost, and the headline multiple is attributable gross divided by cost. $4,835 over $1,165 is 415%, and $6,000 over $1,165 is 5.2 times.
Break-even is the monthly cost divided by gross per unit. $1,165 over $3,000 is 0.39 units a month, which at an 8% close rate needs about 4.9 non-branded leads to reach.
That last line is the one worth sitting with. At a published rate and a realistic gross, the spend covers itself at well under a single vehicle a month, which makes the retainer decision at this price a question about whether the work will happen rather than a question about return. The full argument, including the payback curve and the conditions where the case does not hold, is on the automotive SEO ROI page.
- Combined gross per unit
- The DMS. Twelve-month average, front and back together.
- Close rate on web leads
- The CRM. Delivered units divided by submitted leads.
- Non-branded organic leads
- Search Console for the split, the CRM for the lead count.
- Cost of the search line
- The retainer invoice, plus the platform contract's SEO allocation in writing.
A store that cannot produce all four has found a bigger problem than the one it was evaluating.
What this calculator deliberately does not do.
Three omissions, and all three push the real figure higher rather than lower. The result is a floor rather than a forecast, which is the only version of this tool worth publishing.
- It does not model the lag. Earned search produces nothing measurable for weeks, then produces at a rate that keeps rising after the spend flattens. A program in month two entered into this calculator will look like a failure, because at that point it is measuring the lag. Indexation and non-branded impression share move first, position on commercial classes follows, and units land after that.
- It does not count visibility that resolves without a click. An AI answer that names the store produces a buyer who then types the name into a browser, which analytics records as a direct or branded visit. A map pack result produces a call rather than a session. Neither appears in the lead count this calculator asks for, and both were earned by the same spend. How that gets measured instead →
- It does not count assisted conversions. Vehicle purchases run across many sessions and several weeks. Research read in week one and a lead submitted in week five through a paid ad will credit the ad entirely under a last-click model, and the organic work that put the store in the consideration set gets nothing here. Where buying actually begins →
There is one direction the figure can overstate, and it is worth naming. If the leads entered include branded organic, every number on the page inflates, because branded traffic would have converted without the program. That single correction matters more than the three omissions combined, which is why the field asks for non-branded specifically.
The input most stores cannot fill in is their own non-branded lead count.
Get that number from a baseline auditQuestions about the calculator.
How does this SEO ROI calculator work?
It runs one piece of arithmetic and nothing else. Non-branded organic leads times close rate gives units. Units times combined gross gives attributable gross. Attributable gross minus the cost of the search line gives net, and net over cost gives the return. Break-even is cost divided by gross per unit. Nothing is projected or multiplied by a vendor assumption, and every input is a number the dealership already holds.
What should I enter for the cost of the search line?
The full cost rather than only a retainer. That means any SEO retainer plus whatever the website or platform contract already allocates to SEO, content and optimisation. Most dealerships have never seen that allocation on its own because it is bundled, so it is worth asking the platform vendor to state it in writing. Putting a new retainer in the denominator while leaving existing spend out compares two different things.
Why does it ask for non-branded organic leads specifically?
Because branded organic would have arrived anyway. A buyer typing the dealership's name has already chosen the store, and that traffic converts at rates no non-branded query approaches. Including it is the most common way a vendor report overstates a return. Search Console splits the two cleanly, and the split is usually more unbalanced than dealers expect.
What is a realistic close rate on web leads?
Use the store's own figure rather than a benchmark, because it varies enormously with lead source, response time and how the queue is worked. The calculator opens at 8% as an illustrative starting point rather than an industry standard. Most dealerships know this number from the CRM and most dislike it. A store that cannot produce it has found a bigger problem than the one it was evaluating.
Should repair orders be included?
Yes, and leaving them out understates the return. Service demand is the most local and most recurring demand a store has, and a search program frequently pays there first because the queries are specific and the competition is independent shops. The optional fields cover it. Leaving them at zero produces a sales-only figure, which is deliberately conservative. Service and parts SEO →
What does the calculator not account for?
Three things, all of which push the real return higher. It does not model the lag, so an immature program looks worse than it is. It does not count visibility resolving without a click, meaning AI answers and map pack calls. And it does not count assisted conversions, where research weeks earlier gets no credit under last-click. It is a floor rather than a forecast.
How much does the average dealership already spend on SEO?
$114,318 a year, per NADA Data 2025, which is 19.5% of the average franchised store's advertising budget and the third-largest line in it. That is roughly $9,527 a month. The calculator shows what that spend would need to return in units at the gross entered, and it is usually the more uncomfortable of the two calculations on this page.
Is this calculator free, and where do the numbers go?
Free, no email address, and nothing is transmitted. The arithmetic runs in the browser and the figures entered stay on the device. VulcanAX publishes its own rate openly at $1,165 per rooftop per month at Core, which is what the cost field defaults to so the arithmetic can be checked against a real number. Full pricing →
Most stores stall on the third field.
Non-branded organic leads is the input dealerships cannot produce, because standard reporting blends branded and non-branded into one line. The baseline audit reports that split, along with which of your pages are indexed and where an engine names a competitor instead.