How Lighthouse Buick GMC Achieved a Cost Per Lead of Under $11 in Six Months with Fullpath

Dealerships today compete in an overcrowded digital marketplace where manual ad management can’t keep up with the speed of consumer intent. Relying on broad targeting or outdated manual tweaks means wasted budget and missed “make or break” moments in the buyer journey. As AI-driven personalization becomes the norm, staying competitive means moving away from guesswork and toward a smarter, more automated approach.

Fullpath’s Digital Advertising solution runs hyper-targeted campaigns across multiple channels in real-time. In leveraging your first-party data together with AI and machine learning, Fullpath ensures every marketing dollar works to build brand awareness and engage high-intent buyers, turning a risky ad spend into a reliable growth engine.

Lighthouse Buick GMC partnered with Fullpath to drive qualified traffic through ads that adapt instantly to changing inventory and shopper behavior. “As an existing Fullpath customer for our CDP and MAP, partnering with them for GM in-program Service Digital Advertising was the logical next step,” explained Elijah Surratt, Director of Marketing at Lighthouse Buick GMC. From June to November 2025, the dealership achieved a Cost Per Lead (CPL) of just $10.55, outperforming Fullpath’s OEM benchmark of $32.98 by 68%.

Moving Beyond Manual 

Fullpath’s Digital Advertising uses machine learning and AI to monitor ads around the clock and automatically reallocate dealership ad budgets across platforms to support performing campaigns. That means if a specific campaign on Google is driving high-quality traffic, budgets will automatically be shifted away from lesser performing campaigns on say, Meta, to capitalize on that momentum.

By letting machine learning manage bids and cross-channel allocations, Lighthouse Buick GMC achieved an overall $3.43 Cost Per Click (CPC). Their Search CPC was even more impressive at $1.69, coming in 38% lower than the industry benchmark of $2.71. Fullpath’s AI continuously learns from dealership data which means Lighthouse Buick GMC saw an increase in monthly clicks throughout the six-month period as the campaigns became more effective over time.

On-Point Optimizations

Traffic volume only matters if it converts. By leveraging Fullpath’s data-driven targeting, Lighthouse Buick GMC ensured their ads reached the most relevant audiences possible. From June to November of 2025, the dealership successfully converted an incredible 28% of all shoppers who clicked on their ads.

The performance on social media was particularly strong, with a 50.6% total conversion rate on social ads alone. These high-conversion figures directly fueled the dealership’s low $10.55 CPL, proving that when ads are powered by real-time shopper data, they don’t just reach more people, they reach the right people.

“As a digital advertising partner, Fullpath has delivered results that are measurable and easy to trust,” shared Surratt. “Fullpath has proven to be more than just a vendor, but a true partner in supporting the growth of our business.”