Promptur vs paid ads: which one does a car dealership need?
Paid ads put your inventory and offers in front of buyers quickly, and they stop when the budget stops. Promptur helps your salespeople post short answers to buyer questions during downtime, so buyers can find your people as well as your cars, and a store can run both.
At a glance
| Paid ads | Promptur | |
|---|---|---|
| What buyers see | Your cars, prices and offers | Your salespeople answering buyer questions |
| Who makes it | Your agency, marketing team or platform tools | Your salespeople, from the Promptur recording app |
| Where it shows up | Ad placements | Wherever each sales consultant shares it, such as their own social profiles |
| Speed to reach buyers | Fast: live as soon as a campaign runs | Slower: builds as your team posts |
| Targeting | Set by the campaign: area and audience | Organic: reaches each sales consultant’s followers and anyone who searches or finds the post |
| What it costs | Your media budget: your monthly ad spend plus management fees, if any | US$149 per salesperson per month plus applicable taxes |
| What happens when you stop paying | Ads stop showing | Videos already posted stay on your sales consultants’ and product advisors’ profiles unless deleted |
| What it asks of your team | Little from the sales floor | About two minutes per video, during downtime |
| Best for | Promotions, new inventory, reaching new buyers at scale | Trust before the visit, getting sales consultants and product advisors known, answering common questions |
What paid ads are for
- Reaching buyers who’ve never heard of you, fast.
- Pushing a specific offer, model or event on a deadline.
- Targeting by area and audience.
What paid ads don’t do
- Show buyers who they’ll deal with.
- Keep working after the budget ends.
- Use the time your team already has between customers.
What Promptur does
Promptur is a video content platform for sales teams. Each salesperson gets a question on screen, written for their store, then records and shares a short answer from the Promptur recording app.
- Sales consultants and product advisors share their answers where buyers look.
- Managers get a weekly usage report showing each salesperson’s activity: who recorded, how often and which questions.
- If you’ve got time to coast, you’ve got time to post.
What Promptur doesn’t do
- It doesn’t buy reach or place ads.
- It doesn’t make buyers see a post they aren’t looking for. Reach depends on your sales consultants’ and product advisors’ networks and on what buyers search.
- There’s no promise it will cut your ad budget. What your store does with its budget is your call, once you see what your team produces.
What the same reach would cost as ads: a modelled estimate
Modelled estimate, not a client result. Promptur’s ROI model puts one employee’s consistent posting at about US$7,200 a year in equivalent ad spend, per employee: what the same reach would cost if you bought it as ads. It takes a deliberately low views-per-video assumption and prices the views at a US$5 CPM (the cost of 1,000 ad impressions), about the TikTok and YouTube average in Gupta Media’s 2025 figures:
- 1 video = 200 views (assumed minimum)
- 5 videos a day × 4 platforms × 30 days × 12 months (every day, including weekends) = 1,440,000 views a year
- 1,440,000 views ÷ 1,000 × US$5 CPM = US$7,200 a year in equivalent ad spend, per employee
For comparison, Promptur’s own 60-day posting test got 289,342 measured views across 366+ pieces (under 800 views per piece on average), with a modelled media value of US$1,736 at a US$6 CPM (the simple average of Gupta Media’s 2025 averages for Meta, TikTok and YouTube). The views are measured; the dollar values are modelled. The US$7,200 is not a measured result from any client. Organic views aren’t guaranteed, an organic view isn’t the same as a paid impression, CPMs vary, and the model doesn’t subtract the cost of Promptur or of employees’ time. ROI model figures are in US dollars, the currency of the CPM source; Promptur’s prices on this page are in Canadian dollars. Every assumption, the formula and the CPM source: ROI model.
How they fit together
Ads bring buyers to your store’s name. Your salespeople’s videos give those buyers a face and a voice when they look you up. To see your team’s downtime and the licence cost next to your ad spend, use the calculator: What’s your sales floor’s downtime worth?
FAQ
Can Promptur replace our paid ads?
That’s not a claim Promptur makes. Paid ads buy reach fast; salesperson videos build a team buyers can find. You can decide the mix after you see what your team posts.
Is salesperson video cheaper than ads?
It depends on your numbers. Promptur’s ROI model estimates about US$7,200 a year in equivalent ad spend per employee, a modelled estimate, not a client result. To see your own team’s downtime and the licence cost next to your ad spend, use the /roi calculator. Neither is a promise about your ad budget.
Is the US$7,200 a real result?
No. It’s a modelled estimate, not a client result. It multiplies assumed inputs (200 views per video, 5 videos a day, 4 platforms, every day including weekends) by a US$5 CPM, about the TikTok and YouTube average (Gupta Media, 2025). The full formula and sources are on the ROI model page.
Where do buyers see salesperson videos?
Wherever salespeople share them, such as their own social profiles.
Start with one store.
Promptur is US$149 per salesperson per month plus applicable taxes. Book a 15-minute call with Stew to see how it would work at your store.