Welcomemat publishes Q3 2026 car wash marketing benchmark report
The quarterly IMPACT Report compiles organic and paid marketing data from thousands of wash locations to show operators how acquisition channels are shifting.
By The Car Wash News Staff
3 min read
Welcomemat has released its Q3 2026 IMPACT Report, the newest installment in a quarterly series that tracks how car wash marketing performance is changing across the industry. The report pulls data from thousands of car wash locations nationwide and examines both organic and paid channels, including reputation metrics, top-performing keywords, and advertising clickthrough rates, according to reporting from Professional Carwashing & Detailing.
The recurring report is designed to give operators a data-driven view of where customer acquisition is moving rather than where they assume it is headed. Past editions have focused on local search, advertising performance, and customer acquisition trends, and the Q3 edition updates those figures across organic and paid marketing.
What the report covers
The Q3 analysis spans the mix of channels most car washes rely on to attract and retain members, from online reputation scores to the keywords driving search visibility and the clickthrough rates on paid ads. Welcomemat president Brian Mattingly said the quarterly data reveals "real shifts in how organic and paid channels are performing for operators."
Company leaders framed the report as a way to surface marketing data that operators often set aside while juggling other priorities. Vice president Jonathan Kierman noted that operators manage seasonality, staffing, reputation, and ad spend at once, which makes it easy for marketing metrics to fall down the priority list. He said the report aims to deliver that information in a usable format so operators do not have to compile it themselves.
Companion webinar
After the release, Welcomemat partnered with Professional Carwashing & Detailing on a webinar breaking down the findings. The session, titled "What Top Car Washes are Doing Differently in 2026: Insights from the Q3 IMPACT Report," is available on demand. It features Mattingly, Kierman, and Meagan Kusek, content editor manager with Professional Carwashing & Detailing.
Why it matters for operators
For owners and marketing leads, industry-wide benchmark data provides context that a single location cannot generate on its own. Knowing how clickthrough rates, reputation scores, and keyword performance are trending across thousands of sites helps operators judge whether their own numbers are keeping pace or falling behind. That comparison can inform where to shift advertising dollars and how much weight to put on organic search versus paid campaigns.
The report also underscores a practical reality many operators face: marketing data tends to get deprioritized when staffing and day-to-day operations demand attention. Periodically reviewing acquisition metrics, whether from a quarterly report like this one or internal dashboards, can reveal whether spend is still producing memberships or whether channels have shifted underfoot. Operators evaluating these benchmarks should weigh them against their own local market conditions, since regional competition and seasonality can make aggregate figures diverge from what a given site experiences.
