• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, March 7, 2012

Carmakers are among the top spenders in online video ad dollars, just as they are on TV. But what are online video consumers looking for in a vehicle?

Online video ad vendor Videology surveyed video viewers  to get a sense of whether auto ads are hitting the mark. Are carmakers talking about the features in their video ads that most interest their potential buyers?

Not surprisingly, price was the most important factor for most users, with safety scoring high too. But there’s bad news for green advocates — environmental impact was cited by the fewest respondents as a critical factor in buying a car.

Does this mean carmakers should hit hard on the price message and avoid trumping good mileage and earth friendliness? Not necessarily. But this study is another piece of data for carmakers to use in tailoring their online video messages.

A final tidbit — despite all the grousing about gas prices, fuel efficiency was cited by very few buyers as a reason to purchase a car.

Videology said the auto category ranked second in online video ad spending in the fourth quarter at 21%, behind consumer packaged goods at 31.5%.

Interestingly, not all vendors say auto is a dominant category in online video. YuMe’s most recent report  on ad spending continues to rank consumer packaged goods highest with 25% of the spending in the fourth quarter of 2011, followed by health and pharma at 23%, and telecom at 12%. YuMe said automakers accounted for 4% of spending.