The Marketing Money Your Manufacturer Already Owes You

Generac, Kohler, Cummins and Briggs all set aside money every year to help dealers advertise. Most dealers know it exists. Far fewer actually spend it. The money sits in a program account until December, and then it is gone.

This is not a loophole or a hack. It is a line item your manufacturer already budgeted for you. Here is what it is, why it goes unclaimed, and how to stop leaving it on the table.

Co-op and MDF, in plain English

Co-op means cooperative advertising funds: the manufacturer pays back part of what you spend on approved advertising, usually as a percentage of what you bought from them. You spend first, prove what you ran, and get reimbursed.

MDF means market development funds: money the manufacturer sets aside for a specific push, like a spring promotion or a new territory, that you usually have to ask for and get approved before you spend.

The difference matters. Co-op is earned by your purchases and claimed after the fact. MDF is granted for a plan and approved before the fact. Every brand runs its own version and the rules change year to year, so the only accurate source is your own dealer agreement and your brand's dealer portal.

Why the money goes unclaimed

It is almost never because a dealer does not want free advertising money. It is because of paperwork and timing.

• Pre-approval. Many programs require the ad, the landing page or the campaign plan to be approved before it runs. Run it first and the claim is dead.
• Brand compliance. Logos, taglines, model names and photography usually have to follow the brand guide. A homemade Facebook ad with a stretched logo gets rejected.
• Proof of performance. You have to show what actually ran: screenshots, invoices, spend reports, sometimes a copy of the live page. If nobody saved it, there is nothing to claim.
• Claim deadlines. Some programs want claims within 30 or 60 days of the spend, not at year end.
• Expiry. Most accrued funds expire at the end of the program year. Unused is unpaid.
• Nobody owns it. In most dealerships co-op is the fifth priority of a person whose first four priorities are scheduling installs.

What claiming it does to your real cost

Say your marketing costs a fixed amount each month and part of that spend is eligible under your program. If a share of it comes back as a reimbursement, your effective cost per install drops by that same share, and nothing about the campaign changed. Same ads, same leads, less money out of your account.

That is the whole argument. It is not a growth tactic, it is a discount you already qualify for. Run your own numbers on the ROI calculator at beefygeneratormarketing.com/roi-calculator with and without a reimbursement and you will see how quickly it changes what you can afford to run.

How to actually get it

This is a process problem, not a marketing problem. Treat it like one.

• Pull your current dealer agreement and find the advertising section. Not what your rep said in 2023. The current document.
• Log into the dealer portal and find your accrued balance and the program year end date. Write both on the wall.
• Ask your rep two questions: what is eligible, and what does pre-approval require. Get the answer in writing.
• Submit for pre-approval before anything runs. Ads, landing pages, direct mail, all of it.
• Keep an evidence folder from day one: screenshots of live ads, monthly spend invoices, the live page URL, performance reports.
• Put one person's name on the claim deadline in a calendar, with a reminder 45 days before the program year ends.

What an agency should be doing for you here

If you work with a marketing company, the compliance and paperwork side is their job, not yours. They built the ads and the pages, so they have the screenshots, the invoices and the spend reports already. Handing you a folder that matches your brand's claim format takes them an hour.

Ours is set up to work that way, and we wrote the details out on the co-op and MDF page at beefygeneratormarketing.com/co-op-marketing-funds. What we do not do is promise a reimbursement. No agency controls whether your manufacturer approves a claim, and anyone who guarantees that number is guessing with your money.

One caution

Do not let the funds decide your strategy. Co-op programs often favor brand-heavy advertising, because the manufacturer wants their name in front of homeowners. That is fine, but it is their goal, not necessarily yours. The advertising that books in-home assessments this month may only be partly eligible. Build the plan that sells units first, then claim whatever qualifies. Free money on the wrong campaign is still the wrong campaign.

If you sell one brand, the details on the Generac dealer page at beefygeneratormarketing.com/who-we-serve/generac-dealers and the other brand pages give you a sense of how we handle this per manufacturer.

Where to start this week

Find your accrued balance and your program year end date. That is it. Fifteen minutes. Most dealers who do this find a number they did not know was there, and a deadline closer than they expected.

If you want a second set of eyes on it, send us your dealer agreement and we will tell you what your marketing spend could qualify for. That conversation is a free strategy session, and there is nothing to buy at the end of it.