Is This Car Shopper Costing You Money?

Media dollars aren’t getting dealers as far as they used to, and automotive marketers everywhere are stuck asking themselves: Why is there a sudden shift in lead volume? 🧐 👎

When we break-down past events, you’ll find that it’s not as sudden as you think! There are a handful of factors that have been catalysts for this decrease in auto shopper leads…

It all started with the explosion of digital media – which soon created a much more complicated, costly customer – the Automotive Nomadic Customer. 

But what is the origin of these Automotive Nomadic Customers? Why are these car shoppers so hard to reach? And how can auto marketers get ahead of them? 

The Digital Media Explosion

Less than 20 years ago, the mobile phone didn’t really exist! 

But in 2007, when the first truly groundbreaking mobile device was released (ever heard of the iPhone?! 😉), smartphones began paving the way to a monumental digital media  evolution.

And each year, with more and more digital opportunities added to the stack – the  digital landscape has become shockingly vast.  

Ever since, there has been a seismic shift in the depth of the digital landscape.

The digital media timeline below speaks for itself: 

Little did we know that as a result of these new, exciting developments in technology, auto marketers would be faced with two VERY costly challenges in the future.

2 Most Expensive Challenges For Auto Marketers Today

The two challenges are…

• Challenge #1: The online / data privacy landscape, which has impacted the ability for advertisers to track users as they move nomadically across digital media.
  
• Challenge #2: The ever-changing habits of today’s shoppers, which has sent advertisers on a wild goose chase, trying to blindly hunt down and reach this nomadic car shopper

Ask yourself: Have you noticed a change in lead volume for you or your clients over the past 2 years?

During the first webinar of our brand-new educational series, The Automotive Nomadic Customer Series, we asked our audience the above question, and 57% of auto marketers reported seeing a decrease in lead volume over the past 2 years!

Yet automotive marketers continue to invest more time and more money, arriving at the same destination…

In a 2021 survey from HubSpot: 44% of marketers predicted they would need to spend 5x more $$$ to hit the same goals in 2022 as they did in 2021.

But with BIG bucks at stake, do you really want to throw your ad dollars against the wall with the HOPE that they’ll stick?  

The Shift: Traditional Digital vs. New Digital

Back to the Traditional Digital era, or what some might call, the era of “Spray & Pray” advertising: decisions were simpler, advertising was easier, and most importantly…advertisers could reach a larger audience for less money! 

But that was before the shift to targeted digital advertising, which provided advertisers with an even better solution to reach the right audience, at the right time, for even CHEAPER!

…UNTIL the most unreachable car shopper, the Automotive Nomadic Customer,  surfaced.

And with the recent discovery of this mysterious customer, alongside endless options of “New” Digital, dealers are in a frenzy –  spending a ton more money in an effort to find this car shopper who is seemingly nowhere to be found.

In NADA’s Mid Market Report Analysis below, you can easily identify the large increase of ad spend being thrown at the internet in 2021, compared to 2016 (prior to the Automotive Nomadic Customer)!

Here’s the thing: going back to a “Spray & Pray” strategy in today’s NEW digital landscape, where there’s countless digital mediums, will simply not drive the same success it once did. 

Instead, auto marketers need to dig deeper into how the Nomadic Customer consumes digital media.

How Does The Nomadic Customer Consume Digital Media? 

On average, the automotive Nomadic Customer spends over 8 hours / day consuming digital media across social, search, games, OTT, messaging, news, etc.

Every year, the Nomadic car shopper is choosing to consume more and more “New” Digital media per day over “Traditional…” 

And they’re doing it all on mobile, which to no surprise, the #1 most used mobile apps are those categorized as social media / chat apps. 

How To Get Ahead Of The Most Unreachable Car Shopper

Understandably, the extensive number of “New” Digital mediums available for auto marketers to advertise on today can be overwhelming. 

But you have to start somewhere…and in this case, the best place to start is with this quiz to determine whether or not you’re maximizing your organic exposure!

After you take the quiz, we’ll make sure to send you 20 FREE organic guides to help you get a jumpstart on the most unreachable car shopper today!

Key Takeaways

Consumers are congregating on a ton of common mediums – and this provides a unique opportunity to reach them – if you’re paying close enough attention. 

Click here to watch our FULL webinar, “Why Is The Automotive Nomadic Customer Costing Dealerships BIG Bucks $$$” and learn more about out how auto marketers can reach these customers in hiding, without wasting ad media dollars along the way.