• by Karl Greenberg , August 10, 2011

A lot of people who come to Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com), a new car and used car shopping and research site, are do-it-yourselfers (DIY), per the company's own data. Thus, kbb.com is expanding its on-site advertising to aftermarket auto parts and services companies in the oil and gasoline, tire, repair, service, parts and accessories categories.  

Typically, advertising on auto sites is centered on OEM efforts targeting competitive vehicles, although within the maintenance sections of sites like edmunds.com there is, indeed, advertising for aftermarket companies like Armor All, and insurance from Liberty Mutual. However, Kelley Blue Book says putting these kinds of ads on the site's main vehicle marketplace pages is a new tactic in the realm of digital third-party research and inventory aggregators.

The company's own research says 40% of the site's shoppers consider themselves DIYers when it comes to taking care of their vehicles, according to Damon Bennett, VP business development and partnerships, who tells Marketing Daily that kbb.com has run some one-off aftermarket advertising in the past with companies like Pep Boys, Michelin, and Armor All.

But Bennett says that when it was clear that nearly half of the visitors to the site do some vehicle maintenance themselves, "we started to further explore this opportunity." He says that some aftermarket brands have signed on, "But at this point we are identifying the right categories more than specific brands."

To get the ball rolling, kbb.com's OEM Partner Sales and Strategy team has hired former Cox Enterprises sales exec Michele Everett to manage advertising sales for the site with a focus on aftermarket automotive industry opportunities.

Third-party auto sites drive revenue with lead generation, and Bennett says kbb.com might explore that direction not just with cars, but with aftermarket parts and services, "But right now it's pure advertising." While he doesn't name brands that have signed on, he says that, given the fact that about 60% of kbb.com shopping activity is in the pre-owned vehicles, the right products might be, say, Quaker State's synthetic motor oil products for vehicles that have over 70,000 miles on the odometer.

According to Bennett, the on-site visitor survey was a five-day query reaching some 708 respondents, which asked them questions like "how strongly do you agree or disagree that you properly maintain your car," "Who handles maintenance on your vehicle," and "What's most important to you: cost or quality, or time or convenience?"

"We broke it down even further," says Bennett. "We asked that when specific things happen to your vehicle, who would administer service for you. We found that DIYers handle smaller things, but leave larger problems like tire replacement, timing belts and shocks to [professionals.] The product categories we advertise are reflected in that as well."