Cars.com Advertising Policies

Cars.com endeavors to create a safe and fair advertising environment for its dealer customers (“Advertisers”) and Cars.com website users (“Consumers”). As between Advertiser and Cars.com, Advertiser has all the information required for an Advertiser listing and as such, Advertiser remains responsible for all information contained within the such Advertiser listings (“Advertiser Listings”). To this end, all Advertisers are required to comply with the Policies outlined below when listing vehicles on Cars.com and related sites (“Advertising Policy”). 

Listings Should Be Truthful and Accurate​

  • All discounts, rebates, incentives, down payments, special promotions, etc., that factor into the display price must be disclosed prominently in the Advertiser’s notes 
  • All Advertiser Listings must be accurate and truthful in accordance with this Advertising Policy and all applicable local, state, and federal laws.
  • All vehicles advertised must be currently available for purchase by consumers directly from the Advertiser at the dealership address identified in the Advertiser Listing. Advertisers with multiple dealership locations are responsible for ensuring that Advertiser Listings only reflect the inventory at each specific location that is advertising with Cars.com.
  • It is the responsibility of each Advertiser to review their Advertiser Listing and to confirm their accuracy and to remove all sold or otherwise unavailable inventory from the listing feed as soon as each vehicle is sold or becomes unavailable.
  • Cars.com reserves the right to immediately remove an Advertiser Listing if Cars.com determines or is notified, at its discretion, that an Advertiser Listing violates this Advertising Policy and/or any applicable local, state, and federal laws. Furthermore, Advertiser remains liable for all fees, costs, fines, and monetary consequences for the inaccurate, false, and/or misleading listing
  • Advertisers understand that Advertiser Listing are intended only for non-recreational, non-commercial vehicles which are mass produced and intended for sale only the United States, Canada, and the United States territories.

Listings Should Be Focused On The Vehicle and Dealership​

  • All Advertiser Listings must be free from prohibited content including but is not limited to: links or calls to action to visit other sites, HTML or other code; illegal, inappropriate, or offensive content; contact information or alternate phone numbers (as a subscribing Advertiser, you are provided with a unique toll free number which routes all of your phone inquiries from Cars.com listings to your business phone).​
  • All Advertiser Listings containing images and/or video must use that media only to depict the vehicle being sold, for general dealership branding, or for informational purposes and may not use them to promote special offers, prices other than the price offered in the listing itself, or to model potential payments or financing. ​Furthermore, vehicle advertising images and/or videos should never contain individuals, unless Advertisers received consent from such individuals for their name, image, and likeness usage. 
  • Consumer information gathered from leads, reporting, and otherwise (“User Data”) should only be used to facilitate the consumer request or provide customer service regarding the vehicle listing. Advertisers are not to sell, lease, license, sublicense, or otherwise distribute or transfer User Data to third parties (other than to third parties such as lead management providers who provide services related to the permitted uses on behalf of the Advertiser) or use User Data in any other unauthorized manner, including, without limitation, for unsolicited mass distribution of information or email, telephone, “spam”, “junk mail”, or direct marketing campaigns.

Cars.com reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to monitor compliance with the Policies and to enforce the Advertising Policy, but assumes no obligation to do so. Cars.com reserves the right to waive any or all of the above Advertising Policy for purposes of product quality assurance, new business model testing, and/or strategic market development. Cars.com reserves the right to modify this Advertising Policyor to remove Advertising Listings in whole or in part at any time without written consent or prior notice.

Miscellaneous

Order Form Details. From time to time, Cars.com and Advertiser may execute Order Forms that will specify: (i) the types and amounts of marketing services, (ii) the price for such services, (iii) the maximum amount of money to be spent pursuant to the Order Form, and (iv) the start and end dates of the campaign. Other items that may be included are, but are not limited to, reporting requirements, identity of and contact information for any advertisement servers used a third party, such as publishers, advertisers, and ad networks to manage online advertisements on behalf of the Client, campaign-specific details concerning usage of data collected, and any special Ad delivery scheduling and/or Ad placement requirements. Any effective date or other campaign start date included on the Order Form indicates estimate of initial start of campaign; actual effective date will be campaign go-live date which may vary.

Availability; Acceptance. Cars.com will make reasonable efforts to notify Client within 5 business days of receipt of an Order Form signed by Client if the specified inventory is not available. Acceptance of the Order Form and these Additional Terms will be deemed the earlier of (i) written (which may include paper, fax, or e-mail communication) approval of the Order Form by Cars.com and Client, or (ii) the display of the first Ad impression by Cars.com.

Compliance with Order Form. Advertiser will comply with this Advertising Policy, including all Ad placement restrictions. Except with regard to CPA, CPL, or CPC campaigns (for which predictability, forecasting, and conversions for such campaigns may vary), Cars.com will create a reasonably balanced delivery schedule. Notwithstanding, Cars.com will have sole discretion for purchases of ad inventory, will choose all third-party vendors/publishers, contract directly with such third parties, and will control timing of all advertising placements. Platforms may include third-party vendors/publishers, as well as, platforms owned by Cars.com.

Last Updated: December 2023