Millennial Media [1]’s recently released Q2 S.M.A.R.T. Report takes a deep dive into the Auto industry, coming up with information on what makes the vertical special: eg. 70% of campaigns give the consumer the ability to search a site, compared to only 30% of total campaigns on Millennial Media’s platform.
[2]In fact, 70% of auto campaigns used a ‘Site Search’ feature. Car manufacturers often drove consumers to a landing page or mobile site, where they could search for info on numerous different car models.
Among other points we noted:
- Campaigns from car manufacturers made up 72% of total spend from the Automotive vertical, followed by Local Dealerships and Auto Repair/Services;
- Auto advertisers also used Store Locators and interactive features (i.e. swiping the creative to show different products/car models) more than twice as frequently as other advertisers;
- The top campaign goal for auto manufacturers was Brand Awareness, which was the primary goal for over 50% of campaigns. Increased foot traffic was the second leading goal, and was mainly used to drive consumers to dealerships;
- The top audience that engaged with automotive ads on Millennial Media’s platform was ‘In-Market Auto Buyers’. This was followed by Soccer Fans and Parents.