At PureCars, evolution is part of the DNA. CEO Lauren Donalson recently reflected on her 10-year journey with the company, sharing how PureCars has grown from a small digital media agency to a full-service partner helping dealerships and manufacturers thrive in an increasingly complex automotive landscape.

“When I first started at PureCars, we were almost exclusively focused on paid search,” Lauren recalls. “We had a couple of website widgets to help with reconditioning and showcasing the value of used cars. Over time, we expanded our expertise, and today we’re the largest provider of tier-three advertising services for Google, Amazon, and Meta.”

The evolution didn’t stop at media execution. In recent years, PureCars has focused heavily on data management and audience curation, building tools that help dealerships not just reach customers, but truly understand and engage them.

“Our CDP is all about data hygiene, audience management, and curation,” Lauren explains. “And now, we’re overlaying AI on top of that data—both to execute media campaigns smarter and to power our AI conversations agent, which helps dealers facilitate leads and service appointments.”

Meeting Dealers Where They Are

Lauren highlights how the challenges dealerships face have evolved—from supply-demand imbalances and chip shortages to the current focus on both variable operations (selling cars) and fixed operations (service and retention).

“The question I hear most from dealers is: ‘Are my marketing dollars working?’” she says. “We’ve developed measurement and attribution tools that can tie ad spend back to actual sales. We can show that $50,000 of ad spend influenced 300 vehicle sales, giving dealers clarity and peace of mind in an increasingly complex media landscape.”

Simplifying the Dealer Experience

One of PureCars’ guiding principles is consolidation. Lauren notes that dealers today are overwhelmed by the number of platforms, vendors, and tools. PureCars unifies media execution, data management, AI-powered lead nurturing, and reporting into a single platform.

“We give dealers back time in their day and help them make smarter marketing decisions,” Lauren says. “Our happiest customers are those who have peace of mind knowing their marketing is optimized and leads are being nurtured efficiently.”

AI That Works for Dealers

Artificial intelligence is central to PureCars’ approach, particularly in improving lead quality and operational efficiency. “We hand off the leads that might not convert right away to our AI agent,” Lauren explains. “It nurtures those leads until they’re ready for a test drive or appointment, only passing on qualified opportunities to the sales team. This keeps the lead spigot open while improving quality and saving dealership personnel valuable time.”

AI also enables precision targeting across the customer journey. From reaching new buyers to retaining service customers, PureCars uses an identity graph that assigns unique IDs to customers in a dealership’s database. This allows personalized messaging and engagement across all screens and channels, improving KPIs from sales effectiveness to service retention.

End-to-End Strategy for Dealer Success

PureCars provides dealerships with a complete, end-to-end solution—helping them understand their customer universe, execute strategies across every screen, and nurture leads seamlessly through AI-powered automation. By unifying digital media, advanced data management, and intelligent AI insights, PureCars not only drives efficiency and improves return on ad spend but also creates meaningful, timely engagement with customers. In a complex and ever-changing automotive landscape, PureCars equips dealerships with the tools and strategies they need to thrive—today and into the future.

‍