Top 15 Car Brands Boost Ad Budgets by 54%, to 15.2 Billion Rubles
The top 15 car brands spent 15.2 billion rubles on advertising in 2025 — 54% more. Changan spent 21% of budgets with 5% of sales, while geo services became the leading source of leads.
Artem Pasechnik
The combined advertising spending of Russia's 15 largest car brands grew 54% in 2025, reaching 15.2 billion rubles. That's according to a study by eLama, prepared together with RecPlace and Name Digital (Radio Plus).
The most generous advertiser was Changan: 3.2 billion rubles, or 21% of all top-15 spending. Its share of sales, meanwhile, was 5%. Lada showed the opposite picture — 24.9% of sales on 11% of budgets. Haval received 10% of ad spending with a 13.1% market share.
Spending per car sold ranged from roughly 5 thousand rubles to 591.2 thousand — a difference of more than 118 times. Budget, evidently, doesn't buy everything.
"A budget buys brand awareness. It doesn't buy sales. A 21% share of voice with a 5% market share is the best proof of that. What you need to evaluate is the sales model as a whole: contract value, margin, and volume," noted Ivan Solomin, managing director of marketing at Navio.
Where Did the Money Go?
The internet took almost three quarters of budgets — 72%. The rest was distributed as follows:
- radio — 13%;
- television — 9%;
- outdoor advertising — 5%;
- press — 1%.
Within digital, video clips delivered 20.3% of impressions but consumed 57.5% of the budget: the average cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for video was 76.4 rubles versus 14.4 rubles for static formats. Programmatic placements (automated ad buying) went 91% to websites and 9% to mobile apps.
Digital audio advertising is gaining weight: in the first half of 2026, the "Auto" category's share of Digital Audio reached 6.1%, up 31% year over year. In 2022 it was 2.2% — nearly a 2.8-fold increase over four years.
"Audio helps convey a model's character through recognizable car sounds, while a companion banner fixes the price and terms of the offer. Geotargeting supports local dealer promotions, and UTM tags, call tracking, and CRM integration link placements to calls and leads," explained Anastasia Merkushkina, CEO of Name Digital (Radio Plus).
What Generates Leads?
Contrary to the budget structure, geo services led in unique inquiries in the auto category: 30.7% of calls and leads in Moscow and the surrounding region, and 32.3% in the regions. Next come paid traffic (22.3% and 25.1%), classifieds (17.3% and 13.5%), and organic search (12.5% and 12.7%). Data from Calltouch.
The regions behave differently. In March 2026, overall traffic-to-lead conversion was 0.59% in the capital region versus 0.54% elsewhere. For branded queries, the gap is more dramatic: 3.67% versus 1.02%.
"The gap between Moscow and the regions is largely a gap in habits. In a small town there may be no dealer, so people drive to a regional center for a car and settle everything on the spot without leaving a lead on a website," explained Ivan Solomin.
Geo Services vs Search Demand
For auto service centers, the picture is even more telling. By July 2026, the search demand index had barely changed — 102% of the year-ago level. But the number of service listing opens in geo services grew to 464% of the baseline, and leads to 365%.
Of interactions, 44% were route building, 31% calls, 17% website visits, 4% online booking, 3% messengers. Users spend an average of 52 seconds on a listing, with a listing-to-lead conversion of 5.5%. On a budget of about 30 thousand rubles a month, a service gets 82 leads at 370 rubles each.
"The person has already decided they need an oil change or tire service, opened the map, and is comparing listings: prices, reviews, photos, and available time slots. Route building accounts for 44% of all actions — that's no longer interest, it's a decision to come in," summarized Vladimir Kramarov, founder of RecPlace and president of the Russian Association of Geomarketers.
Max vs Telegram
In Telegram Ads, per auto advertiser in July 2026, there was an average of 72.7 thousand impressions with spending of €114 (about 10.1 thousand rubles). In automotive Telegram channels from January to July, the median CPM was 1.6 thousand rubles, post reach 2.7 thousand users, and engagement rate (ER) 7.4%.
On Max, the CPM is comparable — 1.5 thousand rubles — but median reach is 8,034, and ER is 78.6%. Reach is nearly three times higher, engagement more than ten times higher. You shouldn't, however, conclude from this that efficiency is tenfold.
"Max is already worth testing for reach-driven tasks, building trust, and attracting new audiences into the funnel. At the same time, a high ER doesn't mean the platform is ten times more effective than Telegram. Such a conclusion can only be drawn from conversion statistics and customer acquisition cost," cautioned Nikita Kravchenko, evangelist at eLama.
What does all this change for car marketers? The bet has to be placed not on reach but on end-to-end analytics: leads, conversions, and cost per customer. Channels reflect different stages of the buyer's journey and are not directly comparable. The study is based on data from eLama, Telega.in, RecPlace, Name Digital, ERIR, Mediascope, and Calltouch.
Source: AdIndex
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