Mobile Audiences for Automotive: Mastering the Art of Targeting Auto Intenders

Thanks to the changes in consumer behaviour and rapid smartphone penetration in recent years, the purchase funnel of auto intenders is more complex than it has ever been before. According to Google, a single consumers car buying journey has 900+ digital interactions. That being said, dealership visit continues to be a critical component of this journey. 85% of customers still use dealer touchpoints to make their purchase decision.
This naturally means that auto marketers need to start leveraging online and offline footprints in order to get a 360-degree insight into consumers and consequently, hyper-personalize their targeting and messaging.

Mobile audiences tell stories that online and offline data points in silos

Todays consumers exist in two parallel worlds. Beyond webrooming and showrooming or complex buying journeys, it also means using mobile insights to truly understand customers. Where consumers go, where they travel and how, where they live, work, and spend tells stories about who they really are. As do their online footprints what they read, search, share, and like on the internet. By bringing these two data points together, auto marketers have a fresh opportunity to understand which potential cars or categories a consumer would be most interested in.

In addition, car ownership in the Asia Pacific region is a deeply personal matter. Unlike the west where a car serves only utilitarian purposes for the most part, in Asia car ownership continues to be an extension of aspirations and lifestyles of its consumers. When auto marketers align the brand and aspirational value of what they offer to relevant, 360-degree custom segments gleaned using mobile audiences, they are able to personalize their marketing strategies for higher outcomes.

Mobile audiences for improved re-targeting

Retargeting efforts are by and large based on online footprints such as ads clicked, search keywords etc. However, this does not take into account the importance of dealership visits in the car buying journey.
Mobile audiences can help bridge this insight gap and enable brands to retarget potential consumers throughout their multi-moment O2O customer journeys. This adds value to not only ongoing campaigns but also to brand conquest techniques.

Mobile audiences at work in automotive advertising

A German automotive brand was launching its latest SUV. The last few years have seen the launch of a range of SUVs across budgets in the market and the category had become somewhat saturated. The brand needed to differentiate itself to select audience segments in order to cut through the clutter.
With mobile audiences, the brand curated a custom segment that –

  • Frequented luxury retail brands
  • Lived and worked in affluent neighborhoods
  • Did frequent road trips and air travel
  • Engaged with relevant content online automotive, business and investment, luxury retail among others
  • Had visited car showrooms in the last 3 months
  • Had compared similar category of car reviews, pricing, and specs online using various resources

By bringing together online and offline components into their custom mobile audience, the brand was able to achieve a Visit Lift Index of 13%.

Conclusion

Amidst an increasingly saturated yet cluttered automotive landscape, car brands around the Asia Pacific region are looking to level up their targeting strategies to reduce ad wastage and enhance ROI outcomes. In such times, mobile audiences can truly raise the game for the automotive sector. Are you ready to make the most of it?