• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, March 20, 2014

Finally, a report in which Millennials aren’t the center of attention!

Okay -- so it’s a report about auto advertising, which puts Millennials at a steep disadvantage, but I’m celebrating anyway.

RadiumOne, a demand-side platform (DSP), has found that people ages 45-54 are two and a half times more likely to click on shared auto content than any other type of content. That age group ranges from late Baby Boomers to early Gen Xers.

One would expect homeowners to share auto content more than renters, but RadiumOne says they share an impressive 69% more. The report also found that moms are 24% more likely to request dealer inquiries than dads.

So a good target audience for auto marketers is home-owning moms ages 45-54, also known as the polar opposite of Millennials?

Maybe. And that might be news to advertisers.

RadiumOne reckons the report could be surprising to automotive marketers, writing in its release that “many spend money on social networks to reach and engage younger demographics, assuming that 45-54-year-olds are not using social media as much.”

With so much attention focused on Millennials and their obsessive media consumption habits, especially through social media, it’s easy to see how marketers could get caught up in the brouhaha.

This is of note because as of Q2 2013, per eMarketer and Casale Media, the auto industry was the second-largest market segment to be using programmatic advertising, behind only retail.

Plus, if auto advertisers are missing the mark with their programmatic ads, they are paying for it. Other data from Casale Media -- which dates to Q4 of 2012 -- said auto ads had the highest winning bid price among all market segments. That means marketers paid more to show auto ads than any other type on real-time bidding (RTB) exchanges.

Granted, that data is dated, and more recent data suggests Travel ads are now the most expensive in the programmatic marketplace. However, automotive ads are still among the most expensive, particularly during the holiday season.

"Automotive" photo from Shutterstock.