Manufacturer Co-op Programs
Your manufacturers set aside money to help you advertise their products — typically 1–3% of everything you buy from them. Most dealers don't collect everything they've earned. Between rolling claim windows, channel-specific creative requirements, and the documentation each manufacturer demands, the funds quietly expire. Alex knows these programs from the inside, and manages the entire process so your co-op balance turns into recovered advertising dollars instead of forfeited margin.
What's Included
A full review of every manufacturer relationship you have — which brands offer co-op programs, what your current accrual balances are, which channels each program covers, and what deadlines are approaching. Most dealers are surprised by how much is sitting unused.
Co-op money only comes back if the campaigns qualify. We structure your ads — creative specs, content ratios, channel selection, and brand prominence — to meet each manufacturer's requirements before any spend is committed. No surprises at claim time.
Every manufacturer wants something different: paid invoices, campaign screenshots, performance reports sent to a specific contact, tear sheets, affidavits. We pull together the complete documentation package and submit each claim to the right person at each brand.
Co-op programs typically require claims within 90 days of the ad running, with a hard annual cutoff regardless of when the campaign ran. We track both deadlines across every manufacturer line so nothing expires while sitting in someone's to-do pile.
Typical co-op accrual rate on net manufacturer purchases — money already built into your cost structure.
Reimbursement rate on qualifying advertising spend across most manufacturer programs.
Typical rolling claim window — the most common reason valid co-op dollars go uncollected.
Terms vary by manufacturer. Figures representative of common hearth & patio brand programs.
"Co-op programs are one of the most underused tools in a dealer's business. The money is already earned — it just takes knowing the rules and staying on top of the paperwork to get it back."
— Alex Crutchfield, Crutchfield MarketingWhy It Matters
Co-op accruals are built into the cost structure of what you already buy. A dealer purchasing $300,000 annually from a single manufacturer at 2% accrual has $6,000 sitting in a fund they may not even know exists. Not claiming it doesn't lower anyone's costs — it just means the money disappears at the end of the program period.
Every manufacturer program is different. One requires the brand logo to fill at least 80% of the ad. Another requires PPC campaigns to link only to the manufacturer's website and email results to a specific co-op coordinator. Run the wrong kind of campaign — SEO instead of paid search, or social ads with a competitor's product in the background — and the claim gets denied entirely.
Working with hearth and patio dealers across the country means direct experience with how the major brands structure their co-op programs — what's eligible, who to send results to, what the creative specifications are, and where the hard deadlines fall. That institutional knowledge is what keeps valid claims from getting rejected.
Let's audit your manufacturer programs and build a plan to recover what you've earned.
Book a Free Consultation
