Marketing firm publishes Q3 benchmark report on car wash advertising trends
Welcomemat's quarterly IMPACT Report tracks organic and paid marketing performance across thousands of wash locations, paired with an on-demand webinar.
By The Car Wash News Staff
3 min read
A digital marketing firm serving the car wash industry has released its latest quarterly benchmarking report, offering operators a look at how advertising and local search performance shifted over the third quarter of 2026. According to reporting from Car Wash Business Center, Welcomemat's Q3 2026 IMPACT Report compiles data from thousands of car wash locations nationwide.
The report covers both organic and paid marketing channels, including reputation metrics, top-performing keywords, and advertising clickthrough rates. It is the newest installment in an ongoing quarterly series that has previously examined trends in local search, advertising spend, and customer acquisition.
What the report covers
The IMPACT Report series is designed to give operators and other industry professionals a data-driven view of where marketing performance is moving across the category rather than relying on assumptions. The Q3 edition extends earlier analysis with updated figures on how organic and paid channels are performing.
Welcomemat President Brian Mattingly said the quarterly data shows real shifts in channel performance for operators. Vice President Jonathan Kierman framed the report as a way to surface marketing data for operators who are already juggling seasonality, staffing, reputation, and advertising budgets. He noted that marketing data is easy to deprioritize when operators are managing many demands at once.
To accompany the release, the company partnered with Professional Carwashing & Detailing to host a webinar unpacking the findings. The session, titled around what top car washes are doing differently in 2026, is available on demand and features Mattingly, Kierman, and PC&D Content Editor Manager Meagan Kusek. Operators can request a copy of the report and access the webinar through the company's website at no cost.
Why it matters for operators
Industry benchmarking reports give operators a reference point for judging their own numbers. Without external data, it is difficult to know whether a location's clickthrough rates, review volume, or search visibility are strong, average, or lagging behind competitors in the same market. A quarterly cadence also helps operators separate seasonal swings from longer structural changes in how customers find and choose a wash.
That said, reports produced by a marketing vendor reflect data drawn from that vendor's own client base, so the figures describe locations using one platform rather than the entire industry. Operators should treat the numbers as directional guidance and compare them against their own point-of-sale and advertising data before making budget decisions.
The practical value is in the categories the report tracks. Reputation metrics, keyword performance, and paid ad clickthrough rates are all levers operators control directly. Reviewing how those metrics are trending across the category can help a general manager or marketing lead decide where to shift spend heading into the slower winter months, and whether organic search investments are keeping pace with paid campaigns. For operators who do not have time to analyze their own data in depth, a free summary report and webinar offer a low-cost starting point for that conversation.
