• by Tanya Gazdik , July 14, 2017

Despite the typical deluge of promotional marketing connected to the Fourth of July holiday, online car shopping activity was down, according to Dealer.com.

The Cox Automotive brand responsible for operating more than 60% of dealership websites nationwide, found that the average visits per dealer website clocked in at 188 for July 4th versus 235.68 per dealer website for the three prior Tuesdays in 2017.

The average quality visits (those with the intent to purchase) rolled in at 112.5 per dealer website on July 4 vs. 143.4 per dealer website for the three prior Tuesdays in 2017. However, overall views per dealership are still trending higher year-over-year—running 4% higher than June 2016.

“This is following a trend we have been seeing throughout 2017 for car shopping in general,” James Grace, Cox Automotive senior director of analytics products, tells Marketing Daily. “After a record 2016, we were expecting a drop in car-buying this year so that is playing a factor.”

When it comes to digital advertising to car shoppers, there also was a massive explosion in average cost per clicks for digital spend. Auto marketers/advertisers faced an average of $3.44 CPC on July 4th, skyrocketing the average of $3.14 for the three prior Tuesdays in 2017. 

Search advertising cost per click rates in June marked the fifth consecutive month-over-month increase, up 1% at $3.35. OEMs and dealerships have increased bidding on paid search, thus driving up the cost per click. Furthermore, Google eliminated the paid search ads on the right-hand rail of the search results page, also driving up further bidding increases in recent months.

“Dealers should really focus on the quality of their digital marketing investments, and measure which of their investments is producing the highest quality traffic,” Grace says. “This will help them invest where they are seeing results, and identify savings opportunities. With advertising costs continuing to increase, it’s increasingly important for dealers to be able to measure what is working, and make sure they are spending their marketing dollars wisely.”

SUVs continue to fair well in the vehicle popularity contest. The segment is still receiving the lion's share of views at 36% for June, up from 35% in May 2017. Over the same time period, sedan demand continues to slide further in online popularity to 24% from 25%, and trucks are reporting no movement.