Do you want to make your automotive advertising campaign as smooth as the rides you’re selling? While the digital world has certainly done a lot to help car sales, it doesn’t mean that success comes any more easily these days. Your competition has access to the same resources that you have, so it’s important to do things right. Learn more about the nuances of automotive advertising and how it affects your approach to strategy creation. By the end of the article, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge needed to create a successful campaign that takes into account everything unique about promoting in this industry.
What is Automotive Advertising?
Automotive advertising is the advertising of vehicles as well as automotive services. Unlike buying a pair of sneakers, there are more details to consider when implementing automotive advertising. It requires a tailored approach because cars are:
- High-consideration products: Cars are some of the most expensive things people buy.
- Known for long purchase cycles: Even with the best automotive advertising, most people aren’t going to buy a car next month if they just bought a new one.
- Considered luxury items: Product reliability isn’t the only consideration for automotive advertising. People also see cars as a status symbol.
Therefore, the priorities for this type of advertising will be a lot different than the advertising of your average sneaker.
Types of Target Audiences
With automotive advertising, there are already pre-existing audience segments to help you get started.
- First-time buyers: They tend to gather a lot of information and compare because this is likely their first big purchase.
- Repeat customers: Repeat customers don’t need a lot of convincing, assuming that they had a great experience with your dealership.
- Luxury seekers: Automotive advertising for luxury seekers tends to focus on the lifestyle instead of the car itself.
- Eco-conscious drivers: They focus on things like miles per gallon and eco features.
For your automotive advertising campaign, you should further segment your audience based on your knowledge of them as well as the data you have.
What Are the Goals of Advertising in the Automotive Industry?
Ultimately, you want to create a steady sales pipeline through an automotive advertising campaign. However, just focusing on churning leads and quickly turning them into conversions may not work as well as you hope. As we have mentioned, successful automotive advertising should take into account the higher level of consideration that goes into making a purchase. That’s why, even though you want them to buy a car eventually, long-term sustainability should have automotive ads focus on these three goals.
Improve Brand Awareness
According to Zebra, 64% of Americans have owned their current car for five years or less. So, automotive advertising largely focused on generating sales may work well in the beginning, but eventually, you’ll see a decline in purchases. Even the most powerful automotive ad won’t work if your chosen audience cannot finance the purchase. You want you and your brand to be the first thing that people think of when they decide that they want to buy a car. Therefore, your automotive advertising strategy should take into consideration brand recall. Many people who see your ads won’t be ready to buy right away, but when they are, you’ll be ready.
Create Long-Term Loyalty
Just to be clear, automotive advertising alone will not create loyal customers. A customer’s experience and buying considerations will ultimately determine whether they return. However, an automotive advertising strategy that complements a superior experience ingrained in them how smoothly the transaction went. This way, when they’re ready for an upgrade, they’ll remember to go to your dealership instead of comparing various options.
Develop Advocates
Great automotive advertising can also help make advocates out of customers. These are people who are actively recommending you to others. Referred clients are the easiest to convert because of the power of social proof. Through consistent quality automotive advertising, you’re more likely to develop advocates. People are more likely to recommend something that aligns with what they want to be associated with. If the vehicle advertising examples are high quality, they’ll feel more confident staking their name and reputation.
Key Strategies for Automotive Advertising
If you want to achieve success in this arena, start with strategies that are already known to be effective. By doing so, your automotive advertisement has the highest chance of attaining the results that you want to achieve. These strategies are universally applicable whether you’re selling luxury or budget cars. With automotive advertising, many of the best practices that apply to other industries are also relevant. However, what does this look like specifically in automotive advertisements? We’ll touch on the details in our discussion of proven strategies.
Omnichannel Marketing
As your potential clients won’t browse cars online in the same way they would a pair of shoes, automotive advertising ideas should include online and offline touchpoints. So, what might this look like?
- Billboard ads encouraging pre-sale signups on the website
- Digital ads automotive driving showroom visits
- A brochure with a QR code where you can learn about the latest car models
What’s important here is the seamless integration of both online and offline methods, so automotive advertising feels consistent everywhere. This also ensures that you’re capturing as many potential leads as possible.
Personalization
Automotive advertising can also be personalized, thus increasing the chance that the message will resonate with the viewer. You should take into account the following with your automobile advertisement.
- User preferences: For example, ads about luxury sports cars may not sit well with young middle-class parents.
- Location: Automotive advertising should take into account how accessible the showroom is as well as how practical the car’s features are. For example, who would buy an electric vehicle when there’s only one charging station locally?
- Behavior: The latest automotive digital marketing trends consider user behavior to determine which ads are displayed.
Content Marketing
Even if everyone has a car, it doesn’t mean that everyone knows about them. So, automotive advertising should also address this gap using knowledge and building trust. You can do this by leveraging:
- Blogs: Blogs are important in automotive advertising because they provide readers with insights into the car that might be right for them. Plus, they help build authority.
- Videos: Ads about cars should highlight the best features of the product and translate this into experiences that appeal to the target audience.
- Testimonials: For automotive industry marketing and advertising, highlighting the expertise and professionalism of the seller helps ensure the prospect that the buying experience is going to go smoothly.
Seasonal and Event-Driven Campaigns
Automotive advertising should incorporate major events like Black Friday as well as the holidays. By doing so, you can keep up with the expectations to participate in these traditions while using auto advertising to drive sales. Capitalizing on such key moments allows you to gain traction created by the season itself, thus potentially increasing the effectiveness of your automotive advertising efforts. But holiday or not, be sure to make a big splash about new model launches! Fans of the car brand are most likely looking forward to them. So, don’t disappoint!
Local Targeting
Automotive advertising should focus on the local clientele. While it’s not unheard of for prospects to travel to a good dealership, your clients are most likely going to be local. For your auto advertisement, good locational targeting ensures the biggest potential returns because you can reach more local prospects. This is especially important for automotive ads for service centers. After all, no one wants to travel a long way to take their car in for repairs and maintenance.
Social Media Marketing for Automotive Advertising
Social media marketing is crucial when advertising cars and related services, allowing you to access a highly diverse audience. So, no matter which of the key audiences your automotive advertising is directed at, you’ll be able to reach them. Every ad that you release on social media platforms also helps boost your reputation and brand awareness. And if you want to engage in automotive advertising on social sites like Facebook or Instagram, remember these things.
Go for the Visual Appeal
The great thing about car ad campaigns is that there are many aspects that you can focus on. While the specifics deserve credit if you want to sell, the car’s look is what captures attention. Automotive advertising on social media should include high-quality images and videos that will stand out and follow automotive video advertising trends. In addition, the visuals within your ad should take them on an adventure. A vehicle isn’t just something to take you from Point A to Point B. It’s a lifestyle.
Create Walkthroughs
Automotive advertising can also benefit from walkthroughs. It’s easy to be in love with a beautiful facade, but will that interest remain once you take a peek under the hood? Good automobile advertising can take the audience for a ride… literally! Creating a first-person perspective of what it’s like to take the driver’s seat or handle the car allows them to do a test drive without leaving the house. As part of the automotive advertising walkthrough, you can display the most important features. This way, users will be able to better connect the features with their future driving experience.
Introduce the Audience to the Sales Team
Automotive advertising can help you identify why the prospect should go to a particular dealership or salesperson. After all, a Ferrari is a Ferrari, but who is selling it can make a difference. This can be incorporated into car advertising ideas that are already in the works so that the expertise of the sales team can be put in the spotlight as well. Doing this also helps foster trust and human connections. This will make your audience more receptive to your automotive advertising efforts. However, don’t feel the need to make anyone in particular the face of the dealership (unless it’s the owner, of course!).
What Other Platforms Can You Use for Automotive Advertising?
It’s not just social media that can help get the job done. While using it can give you access to a more diverse audience, automotive advertising there can’t completely capture everyone. That’s why we suggest using other platforms to:
- Further diversify exposure and sources of prospects;
- Experiment with other automotive ad formats and possibilities;
- Follow prospects in more virtual places when browsing.
So, what other platforms are worth considering for automotive advertising? We answer this question in the following subsections. Mind you, this is not an exhaustive list. Don’t limit your options to just these.
Websites
Websites are great because everything that you put up can still be used even years down the road. Paid automotive advertising can be directed here as well, allowing it to be a part of a much bigger campaign. We’re huge fans of websites because:
- You can get new leads from organic search;
- They can serve as central information hubs for potential clients;
- You decide what kinds of content you want to use.
Websites can be effective at every stage of the funnel.
Email Marketing
Email marketing allows you to reach a target audience that already expects to hear from you. This can be effective for automotive advertising because:
- Trust has already been built;
- Your message is guaranteed to be received by people belonging to your target audience;
- You can send as many emails as you want, and the price remains the same.
Just make sure to clean your list of subscribers and remove those who haven’t opened your email in a while because a high unopened email rate can get your messages sent to spam.
Offline Advertising Methods
Traditional automotive advertising methods still have their place in modern campaigns. Depending on your budget and overall strategy, you can include any of the following offline strategies.
- Billboards: These are amazing if you’re going for high visibility.
- Flyers and brochures: These are something that the prospect can take home and consume at any time.
- Radio ads: These are great for brand recall or announcing exciting promos.
- Newspaper and magazine ads: These are trusted media, so you become trusted by association.
If you’re willing to advertise a lot in automotive advertising, you may consider event sponsorships as well. This lets you gain greater visibility as part of a community instead of just a business.
Programmatic and Native Advertising in Automotive Marketing Campaigns
Programmatic advertising refers to the automation of the ad buying and selling process in the digital space. Using this in your automotive advertising campaigns entails the involvement of two platforms.
- Demand-side: This is used by the advertiser to take care of real-time bidding and audience targeting, among other functions.
- Supply-side: The supply-side platform helps the publisher manage ad inventory and serve the highest bidder.
Meanwhile, native advertising ensures that the ad placement takes into account the content of the publisher’s site or platform to create a seamless browsing experience. Both programmatic and native advertising are valuable to advertisers in the automotive industry.
Benefits of Programmatic Digital Advertising for the Automotive Industry
By using programmatic advertising for your campaign, you’ll be able to achieve the following benefits.
- Reach your target audience: Your promotion will only be seen by your defined target audience based on demographics, behavior, location and more.
- Optimize campaigns in real time: You’re free to adjust any element of the automotive advertising campaign based on incoming real-time data and insights.
- Integrate various digital platforms: This simplifies the campaign creation process while also ensuring that any automation is done based on the most complete data set possible.
All this helps in achieving automotive advertising budget efficiency. This means better returns per lead generated through the campaign.
The Role of Native Advertising in Building Trust and Engagement
Native advertising has been gaining traction across all industries because it presents a unique way of promoting a brand, product or service. Instead of standing out, you blend in. This helps build trust and engagement by presenting ad content relevant to the user’s browsing experience. For automotive advertising, native ads are very useful because they present themselves when the user is most likely to take action. Think about it: will you be likely to inquire about a car while looking for an online diagnosis of a cough that just won’t go away?
How MGID Helps Automotive Advertisers Reach Targeted Audiences
Using programmatic native advertising, MGID has successfully helped Toyota gain brand visibility and recognition for its Corolla Сross HEV model and develop solid leads for it.
This automotive advertising campaign was done in two phases: casting a wide net to boost visibility and targeting engaged audience segments.
We also developed many versions of the ad creatives to appeal to the varied target market. Ultimately, our automotive advertising efforts have generated 10.5 million impressions and 13,600 clicks with a CTR that raged between 0.15% and 0.55%. To make this campaign a success, we fished out engaged audiences and focused on them for the second phase.
Automotive Advertising Trends to Watch
There are time-tested strategies that will most likely still work even as advertising continues to evolve. However, for your automotive advertising efforts to remain relevant, it’s important to consider the trends within the industry. After all, today’s trends can be tomorrow’s norms. By paying attention right now, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge needed to implement them in your campaign. And if you’re doing your homework on automotive advertising, these are the biggest trends to watch out for.
The Rise of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Advertising Campaigns
There has been a growing acceptance of electric vehicles because the facilities for using them are improving rapidly. And with the growing number of people interested in such vehicles, it only makes sense to have automotive advertising to promote EVs as well. If you’re interested in being a part of this trend, here are a few suggestions that you may consider:
- Highlight any tax credits they may get;
- Compare the costs per mile between EV and the fuel-powered counterpart;
- Go for the eco angle.
The right automotive advertising strategy will depend on your target audience. But with anything involving buying a car, remember that it’s both a financial and lifestyle decision.
Personalization and AI in Automotive Advertising and Marketing
The automotive industry has also benefited from the higher level of personalization that artificial intelligence has made possible. Thanks to AI, you can make an ad even more relevant to the user through:
- Dynamic ads: This changes the automotive advertising content based on user behavior, demographics and browsing history.
- Predictive analytics: With predictive analytics, AI can predict which vehicles a user will most likely be interested in, thus helping show the most relevant offers.
- CRM integration: AI can help move a user further down the automotive advertising funnel by sending follow-ups, recommending vehicles and addressing other potential client buying considerations.
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) for Interactive Ads
AR and VR continue to revolutionize how the audience interacts with products and services. These technologies are beneficial to automotive advertising as well. Here are a few suggestions if you want to give it a try:
- Virtual showrooms that allow users to see the vehicles as if they were in a real dealership;
- Immersive experiences that take them to the manufacturing floor to see how expertly made the car is;
- Test drives that let them virtually drive the car and try out its many awesome features.
Whether automotive advertising is done online or offline, AR and VR can be great. They create a unique experience that helps you stand out from the competition.
Create the Best Automotive Online Advertising and Accelerate Your Income Potential
Now that we’ve covered strategies, platforms and tactics, you’re ready to zoom your way past your sales quotas! More than following automotive advertising trends, remember the basics. Understanding the goal of your campaign, as well as your targeted audience, can help you reach your KPIs. And if you want your automotive advertising content to reach an engaged audience and protect brand authority, native ads are the way to go. Sign up on MGID and gain full access to our top tools, our expert team and your dedicated manager. You still take the driver’s seat, but we’re all ready to help make your automotive advertising campaign your best yet.
