At the end of last month Philip Zelinger, president of Ad Agency Online, an automotive advertising resource, instructed his affiliated automotive advertising agencies to shift their focus from conventional automotive advertising media to social networking based marketing channels. The reason?
"The internet already attracts 93% of today’s auto shoppers. The consumer's reliance on social networking sites to provide information sourced from "trusted friends" vs. an auto dealer or their automotive advertising agency has already been established," he explained on his blog radio talk show. "What is new is the ability for consumers to bypass an auto dealer’s website or online marketing message when purchasing a new or used vehicle in favor of a trusted third party social networking community where likeminded auto shoppers are able to share their shopping experience before, during and after their sale / purchase." (via Automotive Digital Marketing)
More Stats
Zelinger is the latest example of the auto industry's shift to online advertising - not only standard search and banner ads, but social media as well. The latest statistics capturing this trend come from new data from Nielsen. It reports that auto dealerships dropped their overall ad budgets 27%, but increased internet ad spends 45% in the first three quarters of 2009, compared to the same time period in 2008.
Nielsen is not the only firm to single out the auto industry as a growth industry for online advertisers: a report from Borrell Associates recently found that US auto manufacturers will increase their online local ad spending by 14% in 2010, while new- and used-car dealers will increase their ad spend online by 8.6% (via MarketingCharts).
Expanding Features
Online auto ad companies have been steadily growing their tool sets in response to the increasing demand. Autobytel, for example, expanded its New Car Leads Program to include inventory-based leads using Vast.com, an automotive search and advertising platform. The system enables dealers' inventory to be automatically listed across the Vast.com network, which includes automotive sites such as AOL Autos, Overstock Cars, and AutoMedia.
Because the VIN number is included in each inventory-based consumer lead transmitted to Autobytel dealers, the system will provide specific information about which individual vehicles consumers are considering. The program is pay-for-performance, and dealers will only pay for the leads that they get.
Email Marketing Apps
At the end of September, Autobytel also relaunched its Email Manager program, which features real-time "Dealer Alerts" sent as soon as a consumer clicks on any of the links in an email. Another company that is targeting this industry with email marketing solution is CityTwist, a geo-targeted email marketing company, which recently partnered with Aspen Marketing Services, to provide geo-targeted email advertising campaigns for its automotive clients. CityTwist allows businesses to advertise directly to subscribers within a specific geographic market through email while receiving real-time tracking on open and click-through rates.
