Commentary
Most Car Buyers Start on Internet
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, March 4, 2005
According to the Borrell Associates study, "The Boom Continues for Online Auto Ads," most of the consumers who bought a new or used car last year began their search on the Internet. A drill-down on auto destinations on the Internet shows:
Top Online Automotive Destinations Week ending Feb. 6, 2005 US, Home and Work | ||
| Unique Audience (000) | Active Reach (%) |
eBay Motors | 4,391 | 3.55 |
Kelley Blue Book | 1,356 | 1.1 |
MSN Autos | 1,092 | 0.88 |
AutoTrader.com | 1,013 | 0.82 |
Ford | 878 | 0.71 |
AOL Auto^ | 869 | 0.7 |
Autobytel^ | 694 | 0.56 |
Yahoo! Autos^ | 666 | 0.54 |
Edmunds.com | 620 | 0.5 |
AAA | 609 | 0.49 |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings NetView
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| Demographic Data for Automotive Category Month of January 2005 US, Home and Work | ||
Target | Unique Audience (000) | Audience Comp (%) |
Total | 40,751 | 100.00 |
Male | 24,840 | 60.96 |
Female | 15,911 | 39.04 |
| Age | ||
2 - 11 | 552 | 1.35 |
12 - 17 | 2,361 | 5.79 |
18 - 24 | 1,945 | 4.77 |
25 - 34 | 5,445 | 13.36 |
35 - 49 | 15,392 | 37.77 |
45+ | 21,036 | 51.62 |
55+ | 9,885 | 24.26 |
65+ | 2,786 | 6.84 |
| HH Income | ||
$ 0 - 24999 | 1,873 | 4.6 |
$ 25000 - 49999 | 8,870 | 21.77 |
$ 50000 - 74999 | 11,857 | 29.1 |
$ 75000 - 99999 | 7,505 | 18.42 |
$ 100000 - 149999 | 6,660 | 16.34 |
$ 150000+ | 3,308 | 8.12 |
No Response | 677 | 1.66 |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings NetView
Top 20 Advertisers | ||
Company | Impressions (000) | Share of all Impressions |
DaimlerChrysler Corporation | 89,430 | 25.5% |
General Motors Corporation | 61,608 | 17.6% |
Ford Motor Company | 40,496 | 11.5% |
Toyota Motor Corporation | 25,428 | 7.2% |
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. | 19,088 | 5.4% |
Volkswagen AG | 12,593 | 3.6% |
CarMax, Inc. | 12,381 | 3.5% |
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. | 9,479 | 2.7% |
Courtesy Automotive Dealer | 8,910 | 2.5% |
Hyundai Motor Company | 5,426 | 1.5% |
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation | 3,777 | 1.1% |
komo4cars.com | 2,717 | 0.8% |
ABC Nissan Superstore | 2,695 | 0.8% |
CarsDirect.com, Inc. | 2,049 | 0.6% |
Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG | 1,601 | 0.5% |
Mazda Motor Corporation | 1,440 | 0.4% |
Showcase Cars | 1,418 | 0.4% |
Isuzu Motors Limited | 1,412 | 0.4% |
Kawasaki | 1,407 | 0.4% |
Monocle Fractional Yachts | 1,223 | 0.3% |
Total | 350,997 | 100.0% |
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Top Ad Sizes | ||
Dimensions | Impressions (000) | Share of all Impressions |
Leader Board | 83,557 | 23.8% |
Button #1 | 81,809 | 23.3% |
Wide skyscraper | 44,945 | 12.8% |
Medium rectangle | 27,897 | 7.9% |
Full banner | 25,576 | 7.3% |
Rectangle | 17,813 | 5.1% |
Non-standard | 14,432 | 4.1% |
Button #2 | 11,705 | 3.3% |
Micro bar | 11,256 | 3.2% |
Half banner | 6,468 | 1.8% |
Skyscraper | 6,453 | 1.8% |
Vertical banner | 6,223 | 1.8% |
Large rectangle | 6,037 | 1.7% |
Square button | 4,465 | 1.3% |
Square | 1,614 | 0.5% |
Vertical rectangle | 775 | 0.2% |
Total | 351,025 | 100.0% |
Ad Delivery Types | ||
Ad Delivery | Impressions (000) | Share of all Impressions |
Inline | 338,457 | 96.4% |
Pop-Up | 6,994 | 2.0% |
Floating/Overlay | 3,197 | 0.9% |
Interstitial | 1,960 | 0.6% |
Pop-Under | 418 | 0.1% |
Total | 351,026 | 100.0% |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance
The Executive Summary of the Borrell Associates study reports that most of the estimated 61 million consumers who bought a new or used car last year began their search on the Internet.
The study projects that the Internet category will grow to nearly $2 billion by 2006, accounting for 6.4 percent of all dollars spent on auto sales advertising. The overall automotive category grew at a rate of about 2 percent in 2004, while the Internet portion grew 51.5 percent, to $1.2 billion.
Automotive dealers made the largest spending changes last year. They nearly doubled their spending on Internet products while slowing down their spending on newspapers, broadcast TV and radio. Dealer associations increased online spending 20.2 percent, making major cuts in auto magazines and radio. Manufacturers boosted online spending 38.8 percent, cutting back on auto magazines, broadcast TV and newspapers.
You can find the complete report here.
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.