900,000 Dealer Leads: Only 2 of 12 Paid Lead Sources Beat 4.5%

AutoRaptor just released close rates on 900,037 dealership leads, and only 2 of the 12 providers it tracked beat the 4.5% average. Repeat and referral customers closed at more than 34%. My read: if you sell golf carts or side-by-sides, that gap is where your month lives.

AutoRaptor Just Put Real Close Rates on 900,037 Dealer Leads

AutoRaptor put out its Lead Source Report Cards on October 27. The company calls it a public benchmark, ranked by real close rates. The sample covers 900,037 leads from 316 independent dealerships, spread across 12 major lead sources.

Only 2 of the 12 providers beat that 4.5% average. Leads across the sample closed at 4.5% overall.

Then there's the other number. Repeat buyers and referral customers closed at more than 34%.

The data came from 316 independent dealerships, all of which agreed to let their CRM activity be used for research in anonymized form. Leads arrived from July 2025 through June 2026. A lead counts as sold only if the deal closes inside 90 days.

The report also holds 23 head-to-head matchups. Two of them: Autotrader against CarGurus, and Cars.com against Autotrader. Each matchup draws only from stores that carry both providers, so one sales team works both sets of leads.

Jami Ribeiro, who leads customer success at AutoRaptor, said dealers ask her team that question every week. Her honest answer, she said, has always been that it depends. Now, she said, dealers can look at close rates drawn from more than 900,000 real leads and see which sources actually sell cars and which ones mostly fill an inbox. Her biggest takeaway: nothing a dealer pays for comes close to a shopper who already knows the store. The full rankings and matchups are free at autoraptor.com/lead-sources.

AutoRaptor describes itself as an all-in-one platform for independent dealerships, pulling CRM, AI, desking and digital retail into one place.

Why This Report Exists Now

Dealers pay thousands every month for leads from outside vendors, yet most judge those vendors by how many leads show up or by the cost of each lead. This report measures something else: how many of those leads turn into sold vehicles.

My read: that's the whole point of the release. Sold units, not lead volume.

One caveat matters: the figures are a benchmark for the lead sources only. They say nothing about AutoRaptor's own performance or about any single store's results. So this is a scoreboard for the providers, not a promise about your store.

So what does that gap mean for your store?

What This Means If You Sell Golf Carts or Side-by-Sides

My read: close rate by source is the number worth putting on one page. Cost per lead and ad spend are easy to see; which bucket of leads turns into keys handed over is the harder question.

Picture a golf cart dealer with a month of internet leads. At the 4.5% average in this study, only a small slice of those turn into sales. Now picture the same dealer's repeat and referral list — the guy who bought a cart three years ago, the neighbor he plays with every Saturday. At the 34%-plus rate in the report, that same list behaves completely differently.

Same showroom. Same salespeople. Very different month.

Now picture a powersports dealer heading into spring. Paid leads are coming in hot, the team is buried, and follow-up on last season's unsold leads quietly dies. My read: those unsold leads are the closest thing you have to a referral — they already raised their hand once.

And here's the detail I keep coming back to. The report's 23 head-to-head matchups only use stores that carry both providers, so one crew handles both sources. My read: that's a clean test — same sales team, two different sources. My read: the provider is part of the story, and the follow-up is the rest of it.

How I'd Use This Report This Week

Here is what I would actually do, in order.

1. Pull 90 days of leads by source. Open your CRM and export every lead from the last 90 days with the source attached. Use 90 days because that's how this study counts a sale — a lead counts as sold only if the deal closes inside 90 days. Takes an hour.

1. Sort by close rate, not volume. You are looking for the percentage that became a sold unit. Volume is vanity. Close rate is cash.

1. Count repeat and referral separately. My read: many systems bury these in a generic bucket. Pull them out and give them their own line. The report puts them above 34%, and you want to know your own number.

1. Check the head-to-heads for the providers you pay. If Autotrader against CarGurus or Cars.com against Autotrader is one of the matchups, and you write checks to either provider, read that comparison before your next renewal.

1. Do the math on a small lift. Work out what a small lift in close rate is worth to you. Write that number on a whiteboard where your team can see it. That's the whole game.

1. Fix the speed-to-answer problem. My read: that gap is less about lead quality and more about whether somebody actually answered the person. Time your first response on a handful of leads this week.

1. Give your reps something to say. My read: most follow-up dies because nobody knows what to write on day four. Here are three prompts you can paste into whatever tool you use:

Golf cart dealer: Write a short text follow-up sequence for a lead who asked about a four-seat cart and hasn't replied in a few days. Keep each text short. End with one clear question. No pressure, no discount talk.

Powersports dealer: Write a short phone script for calling a lead who asked about a used side-by-side last week. Open by asking how they plan to use it, not about price. Add a few objection responses at the end.

Either one: Write a short email to customers who bought from us a couple of years ago, asking if they're ready to upgrade or know someone who is. Friendly, plain, and short.