BRIGHTFUTUREAHEADCome to theNADA Convention and Expo!!!This is THE Automotive Industry Event of the Year!!!!Discover why we say there isa Bright Future Ahead!• More Friday Events including 2 full afternoon workshopssessions and a NADA Welcome Reception co-hosted byJ.D. Power and Associates• Dynamic Speaker line-up including former Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice and hero pilot Capt. Chesley Sullenberger• New Specialty Workshops including Google, J.D. Power andAssociates and our exciting new Social <strong>Media</strong> Series• Early 3:30 pm closing on Sunday so you can take advantageof one of the Superbowl Parties!Register now at www.nadaconventionandexpo.org
Moving from Clicks and Leads toMARKETING Influence on the InternetBy Chip Perry, President and CEO, AutOtrader.com.To find success in Internet marketing, automobile manufacturersand dealers must transition away from leads and clicksas success measures and learn to understand the Internet asan influencing medium on shoppers.Click-through rates have plummeted since the advent of onlineadvertising, dropping from 30% in 1994 to just .2% in 2008.Considering those numbers, we in the auto industry must rethinkhow we measure on-line brand metrics and advertising influenceamong the 99.8% of viewers who do not click on an ad, whetherit is in the form of a display or an online classified listing.For lower-involvement, lower-cost purchases like books orCD, the click-and-buy model has thrived and revolutionized theeconomy. But for larger items like automobiles or homes, wherethe transactions are much more complex and time consuming, theInternet has not had a strong track record as a transaction service.However, for these larger transactions, the Internet has thrived asan information source, also revolutionizing the economy, but notin the way forecasters predicted in the early years of the Internet.The impact of advertising upon online shoppers goes furtherthan simply clicks and leads, but we tend to measure things –like clicks and leads – that are easy to measure. Shoppers areheavily influenced by online research beyond what clicks ande-mail leads would indicate.The implications of this dynamic in on-line advertising are:• An over exuberant focus on clicks and leads is stifling theability for marketers to influence consumers and drive brandpreference;• Much of the influencing power of the internet is being undermeasured and underutilized;• Marketing organizations need new resources, skills and toolsto fully leverage the power of the internet.According to studies, shoppers exposed to on-line advertisementshave raised awareness of a product and have an increasedpositive opinion of the brand they saw advertised, which leadsto a higher likelihood of purchase. Looking specifically atautomotive advertisements, brand awareness increased 15%for ads placed on non-automotive sites and 25% for ads placedon general automotive sites.These results are critical for auto manufacturers and dealerswho remain focused on click rates and email leads for measuringthe success of an online campaign. Per another recent study,the number of people emailing during the shopping process hasnot grown over the past few years, despite an increase in thenumber of car shoppers using the Internet. Today, about 75%to 80% of car shoppers go online during their shopping process,but the use of email leads has stayed stable – and low – for years.In 2004, only 20% of those online shoppers sent an email leadas a part of their shopping process. In 2008, that number hadonly grown to 22%.This reality differs sharply from dealers’ perception of thesituation. In a 2008 study, dealers said they believed that 17%of their showroom traffic first establishes contact via email andthat an additional 41% call before coming in to the store. Butin surveying consumers, the reality found is that typically only2% of shoppers on dealers’ lots initially contact the showroomvia email first. In addition, it was determined that only 17%of shoppers on the lot called before arriving at the dealer. Thevast majority—81%—simply walked in.Without an effective way to track these walk-in customersand then correlate them back to the Internet, dealers fail tocorrectly identify the sources of their traffic on the lot andmay be making marketing decisions with flawed data. Muchof the power of the Internet is underutilized and a campaign oradvertisement that didn’t result in a lot of clicks may actuallyhave been very effective when measured by different criteria– namely how that on-line ad influenced awareness, purchaseintent or walk-in traffic. n2010 FALL ⎢15
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