Cars.com advertising spend, FY2025

Cars.com (CARS) reported $109M of advertising expense for the fiscal year ended Dec 31, 2025. That is 15.1% of revenue of $723M. Up 3.6% from FY2024.

Ad spend, FY2025
$109M
year ended Dec 31, 2025
Change vs prior year
+3.6%
vs FY2024
Share of revenue
15.1%
of $723M revenue
Rank by ad spend
#316
of 336 companies

Key facts

  • Ad spend is 1.1x its FY2015 level ($96M), slower than revenue (1.2x).
  • The highest year on file is FY2018 at $116M; FY2025 is 6% below it.
  • Largest increase +29.9% in FY2021; largest cut -30.6% in FY2020.
  • Ad spend is 15.1% of revenue, up from 14.7% in FY2020.
  • Cars.com spends more on advertising than 6% of the 336 US-listed companies tracked. Its ad-to-revenue ratio is 2.9x the median of 5.2%.

Ad spend by fiscal year

$0 $50M $100M $150M FY2015 (ended 2015-12-31): $96M 2015 FY2016 (ended 2016-12-31): $97.1M FY2017 (ended 2017-12-31): $105M 2017 FY2018 (ended 2018-12-31): $116M FY2019 (ended 2019-12-31): $116M 2019 FY2020 (ended 2020-12-31): $80.4M FY2021 (ended 2021-12-31): $104M 2021 FY2022 (ended 2022-12-31): $107M FY2023 (ended 2023-12-31): $108M 2023 FY2024 (ended 2024-12-31): $105M FY2025 (ended 2025-12-31): $109M 2025 $109M

Ad spend as % of revenue

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% FY2015 (ended 2015-12-31): 16.1% 2015 FY2016 (ended 2016-12-31): 15.3% FY2017 (ended 2017-12-31): 16.7% 2017 FY2018 (ended 2018-12-31): 17.5% FY2019 (ended 2019-12-31): 19.1% 2019 FY2020 (ended 2020-12-31): 14.7% FY2021 (ended 2021-12-31): 16.7% 2021 FY2022 (ended 2022-12-31): 16.4% FY2023 (ended 2023-12-31): 15.6% 2023 FY2024 (ended 2024-12-31): 14.6% FY2025 (ended 2025-12-31): 15.1% 2025 15.1%

History

Download CSV
Fiscal year Period end Ad spend YoY Revenue Ad / revenue Tag Filing
FY2025 Dec 31, 2025 $109M +3.6% $723M 15.1% AdvertisingExpense 10-K Feb 26, 2026
FY2024 Dec 31, 2024 $105M -2.3% $719M 14.6% AdvertisingExpense 10-K Feb 26, 2026
FY2023 Dec 31, 2023 $108M +0.7% $689M 15.6% AdvertisingExpense 10-K Feb 26, 2026
FY2022 Dec 31, 2022 $107M +2.6% $654M 16.4% AdvertisingExpense 10-K Feb 27, 2025
FY2021 Dec 31, 2021 $104M +29.9% $624M 16.7% AdvertisingExpense 10-K Feb 22, 2024
FY2020 Dec 31, 2020 $80.4M -30.6% $548M 14.7% AdvertisingExpense 10-K Feb 23, 2023
FY2019 Dec 31, 2019 $116M 0.0% $607M 19.1% AdvertisingExpense 10-K Feb 25, 2021
FY2018 Dec 31, 2018 $116M +10.7% $662M 17.5% AdvertisingExpense 10-K Feb 25, 2022
FY2017 Dec 31, 2017 $105M +7.7% $626M 16.7% AdvertisingExpense 10-K Feb 26, 2020
FY2016 Dec 31, 2016 $97.1M +1.1% $633M 15.3% AdvertisingExpense 10-K Feb 28, 2019
FY2015 Dec 31, 2015 $96M n/a $597M 16.1% AdvertisingExpense 10-K Mar 6, 2018

What the figure is

Advertising costs as disclosed in the annual report (XBRL tag AdvertisingExpense).

Compared with similar spenders

The 6 companies closest to Cars.com in latest-year ad spend.

Rank Company Ad spend Ad / revenue YoY Fiscal year
314 BridgeBio Pharma $110M 21.9% +412.1% FY2025
315 Energizer $110M 3.7% +6.8% FY2025
316 Cars.com $109M 15.1% +3.6% FY2025
317 Versant Media Group $109M 1.6% +32.9% FY2025
318 D.R. Horton $108M 0.3% +49.7% FY2025
319 Corpay $108M 2.4% +43.6% FY2025
320 Tractor Supply $108M 0.7% +13.1% FY2025

Full ranking of 336 companies · Biggest increases #198

Questions

How much does Cars.com spend on advertising?

Cars.com spent $109M on advertising in fiscal 2025, the year ended Dec 31, 2025, according to its 10-K filed Feb 26, 2026.

What percentage of revenue does Cars.com spend on advertising?

15.1% of revenue in fiscal 2025 ($109M of $723M). The median across the 336 companies tracked is 5.2%.

Is Cars.com spending more on advertising?

Yes. Ad spend rose 3.6% in fiscal 2025 from fiscal 2024.

How does Cars.com rank by advertising spend?

#316 of 336 US-listed companies with $100M or more in ad spend, ranked on each company's latest fiscal year.

What does Cars.com's advertising figure include?

Advertising costs as disclosed in the annual report (XBRL tag AdvertisingExpense).

Source

Filing
10-K for FY2025, filed Feb 26, 2026
Accession number
0001193125-26-076546
Company
Cars.com Inc., CIK 1683606, SIC 7374 (Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation)
Data
SEC EDGAR XBRL company facts, retrieved Nov 4, 2026. Methodology.
Cite
Cars.com advertising spend, FY2015-FY2025. Aleksei Trudov, io.trudov.com, from SEC EDGAR XBRL company facts (latest: 10-K filed Feb 26, 2026), retrieved Nov 4, 2026. https://io.trudov.com/company/cars-com/advertising-spend/
Download
CSV, all years · CSV, all 336 companies