In-market Auto Sites—No Longer Just an Upfront Buy
In-market auto sites have automotive marketers’ best interests in mind. They are built as a platform to connect automotive shoppers with automotive marketers. Period.
There’s no ‘deep web’ with in-market sites. There isn’t a vast wasteland of remnant inventory on blog pages or pages with horoscopes or lottery or unsavory content that could pollute your brand. Auto sites eliminate all waste from online media for auto marketers.
I think that a large section of OEMs and their agencies are in agreement with these statements. But I would argue that there is a segment out there that is not. When working with some of the OEM agencies out there, the importance of in-market auto sites to their media plans doesn’t always resonate. And that’s downright puzzling to me, considering how targeted, relevant and catered to automotive marketers these sites have become.
Yet some OEMs and their agencies don’t make third-party auto sites a high priority. They instead view them as a painful necessity and focus their energy and budgets on tools like social media, generic ad networks, and portal opportunities.
Let’s face it. In-market is not always sexy. It’s referred to as ‘blocking and tackling’—could it be more unappealing to a media planner? Third-party auto sites are comparable to offensive linemen in football—they do all the dirty work that leads to success, but get none of the glory.
But in-market sites are also evolving beyond the standard make/model retention, conquest, and category targeting. Let’s just say we can do the fun stuff too, but more effectively targeted and customized to automotive marketers than other properties.
Interesting creative executions that help improve those all-important metrics are something that OEMs can take advantage of. Behavioral Targeting improves media efficiency and in-market reach—it also gives marketers the opportunity to execute the rarely available ‘conquesting.’ Professional video development and in-market video targeting provide niche opportunities for OEMs to attractively feature a key vehicle, as well as sponsor professionally produced automotive reviews and guides.
And what’s next? Mobile is already a growing interest area and media vehicle. And let’s not forget about the importance of the influencer or enthusiast audience. They buy a lot of cars and, more importantly, they advise many people on what cars to buy.
Don’t use a challenging economy as an excuse to stop experimenting with your marketing spend. If you haven’t explored behavioral targeting you’re missing a major opportunity to communicate with auto shoppers across thousands of web sites. Video should be a staple in every auto advertiser’s online media plan—sight, sound and motion still delivers the most emotional consumer connection. And if the influencer audience is not a priority to you then you’re ignoring your biggest advocates and the opportunity for viral (aka “free") marketing. These emerging techniques should no longer be considered experimentation, but standard practice.
Sexy or not so, in-market auto sites are diversifying and innovating their offerings. They deliver the best mechanism for automotive marketers to wisely spend their ad dollars...especially in an economic climate that calls for smart marketing.
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