Dealers digital marketing strategies reflect the online journey taken by car buyers. These are dominated by well-established intermediary marketplaces, but the industry is continuing to evolve. Google Vehicle Ads (GVAs), recently launched in the United States, offer potential customers the option to browse a selection of vehicles locally directly through Google.
What are consumers going to prefer? Do they prefer a classified website, where they can find everything, they’re looking for, for example Booking.com, Auto Trader or Right Move? These are some of the leading online intermediary marketplaces. Or would they prefer a search engine that delivers directly what they’re seeking in less of a marketplace type environment?
The trick is to discover what your customers prefer. For marketers, the aim is to attract potential customers to their own website by choice, once there making it sticky. You might be familiar with Direct Line’s famous claim that says, “you won’t find us on any comparison sites.” There’s also a reason many hotels offer discounts to encourage guests to book directly rather than through an online travel agency
So, how do we determine what consumers prefer?
Find out what your customers are currently doing because every consumer is different. A customer’s decision to purchase will be influenced by a variety of factors, including business location, price, reviews, and brand.
The outcome will be influenced by which lead attribution model you use. Most of the time the default measure of lead attribution is the last touchpoint. This is generally what the customer says finally drove them to your brand. But of course, there is a myriad of other influences that led to this last touch.
With the first touch model, some marketers argue you will recognise the crucial point in which customers became aware of your brand and made the choice to engage.
A multitouch model allows you to see all the customer touchpoints that have an influence on a decision. This can be weighted either to the first and last touch, or using a time decay model, weighted towards the last touch, whilst accepting all other points had an influence.
What affect will GVAs have on the market?
So, with the apparent impending launch of GVAs in the UK, how will this impact the customer journey? Will consumers prefer to find a vehicle on Google and skip the classifieds, or will they continue to search their favourite intermediary marketplace and enjoy the additional benefits that this brings.
There’s no doubt of the power of Google search, but does it really offer everything that consumers are looking for when searching looking for a car? Ultimately, the extensive inventories and the reliability of the well-established brands, such as AutoTrader should prevail and may continue to win over consumer trust.
However, there is no doubt that the marketplace is continuing to evolve, and all members of the industry will need to monitor changes closely.
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