Automotive Insights: Online Car Buying

Last week, our in-house automotive media expert Rick McGuire offered some automotive insights and thoughts on the state of the industry. He reviewed how Covid-19 has impacted the buying and selling of cars (you can find that post here). One of the major trends that emerged in the last year is how many people are opting for online car buying. This is evident in a transcription search of broadcast and cable ads that aired between 1/1/20 and 1/31/21. Searching for the terms “buy online,” “shop online,” and “online shopping,” we identified more than 727,000 ad airings from tiers one and two that mention online car shopping. These types of ads were not on air before March of last year, but they skyrocketed when the first round of stay-at-home orders went into effect. Ads pushing for online car buying have since decreased in frequency, but online shopping is still a key phrase in automotive advertisements.  Another way that online shopping demand has manifested is the increased use of online car buying platforms, like Vroom or Carvana. We reviewed broadcast and cable ad airings for Carvana, Vroom.com, Carmax, Autotraders, and Cars.com, and found that the number of cumulative ad airings for these advertisers has steadily increased since March of last year. In total, ads from these advertisers have aired 457,000 times. Carvana is the top advertiser in this space, with 305,000 of their own ad airings. While traditional car manufacturers still corner the market on car advertising, these online buying platforms are only gaining in popularity as the pandemic continues and online shopping options continue to explode. 

Online Car Buying in the Super Bowl

Despite a lower share of ads than some of its counterparts, Vroom is making a name for itself this year in the Super Bowl. Vroom has released this ad, encouraging consumers to “never go to a dealership again” ahead of the game on Sunday:  [yotuwp type="videos" id="pUaNChwCuks" ]

We have tracked 6,000 broadcast and cable ads from Vroom in the last year, but the advertiser has also run more than 4,000 ads on digital platforms, too. Here’s a look at how Vroom’s broadcast, cable, and digital advertising has paced by month in the last year. Advertising peaked in June 2020, but this Super Bowl ad buy is certainly a sign of bigger plans. 

For more information on our ad tracking capabilities and automotive insights, please explore the rest of our website, follow us on Twitter @Ad_Impact, or email Rick McGuire at rmcguire@adimpact.com