Reaching the Auto Buyer

The automotive industry is anticipated to see a slight uptick at the end of 2017.  Although October was slightly down, end-of-year incentives should provide a boost to November and December.

However, it’s not just about incentives.  Auto buying intenders are well educated prior to entering any dealerships.  The question is how do you reach them?  And when you do reach them, you need to understand their auto buying and auto servicing preferences as well as their radio listening habits.

Auto buyers no longer walk into dealerships to “kick the tires,” as all of that is now done online.  However, getting them to search for a particular dealership is another issue.  Not only can radio drive search but it also creates a lift in search.  According to the recently released study by the Radio Advertising Bureau, Radio Drives Search, radio generated an incremental 7% lift in Google search activity for a Tier 1 (national) auto advertiser.

This lift is possible because 86% of AM/FM radio listeners recently bought or leased a vehicle, according to 2017 GfK MRI data.  What did they buy or lease?  Based on this same data, 82% of adults 18+ who recently bought or leased a 2-or-4-door truck are AM/FM radio listeners.  81% of adults 18+ who recently bought or leased an SUV or 4-door sedan are also AM/FM radio listeners.

Additionally, those adults who recently bought or leased a vehicle are great targets for car service and repairs at various locations, specifically:

• 49% had their car serviced at a dealership
• 25% had their car serviced at a gas station/garage
• 19% had their car serviced at an auto repair chain

And while it’s obvious that these same consumers would listen to radio in their vehicle on a typical weekday (80%), they also spent 25% of their time listening to radio at home and 14% while at work.

Radio — it’s in-car; it increases a lift in search; and reaches 86% of those consumers who recently bought or leased a vehicle.  Radio is the perfect medium to drive sales for the auto industry.