AUTO INDUSTRY In Australia - Connexity
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AUTO INDUSTRY In Australia Industry trends and innovative strategies for targeting auto audiences
Introduction In 2017 the Australian Auto industry has experienced similar sales numbers to previous years, but July saw a sizeable uptick. In the past, high fuel prices pushed consumers towards smaller and more fuel-efficient cars, but more recently SUVs have shown a surge in sales as well. How can auto manufacturers take advantage of car buying trends and get ahead of the purchase cycle? Cracking the code of the digital journey remains one of the foremost challenges for auto makers. Many marketers still struggle to identify customers early enough in the car buying process, when people begin their research online. This report will help auto brands and marketers connect the dots from interest to intent. Using real data from auto websites, we will explore how consumers begin their comparison journey on review websites, and what content they consume there. Then we will move further down the funnel to analyse the audiences of competing car models, and how marketers can reach true purchase intenders. 1
Table of
Contents
1
Interest: Comparison
& Review Sites
See what content people consume
on car review sites — and find out
which manufacturers rely on them
most.
2
Evaluation: Car Model
Benchmarking &
Audience Overlap
Learn how launches affect traffic
benchmarking, and which car
models have the most audience
overlap.
3
Intent: Profiling Purchase
Intenders vs. Browsers
Find out what makes car purchase intend-
ers unique, and where to reach shoppers
with purchase intent.
2
1
Comparison
and Review
Sites
3
The Importance of Comparison & Review Sites
Breaking down the top ranked websites in the Automotive category reveals just how
important comparison and review sites truly are. Whereas Carsales, Carsguide, Car Advice and
Drive rank well within the top five, the highest-ranked manufacturer website (Toyota) sits all
the way in 24th.
Top Websites in the Automotive Industry
4 weeks ending 2nd Sep 2017
Total Visit
Website Rank
Visits Shares
Carsales.com.au 12,286,500 11.21% 1
Super Cheap Auto 4,017,030 3.66% 2
carsguide.com.au 3,924,500 3.58% 3
Car Advice 3,391,800 3.09% 4
Drive 2,116,720 1.93% 5
VicRoads 2,035,100 1.86% 6
bikesales.com.au 1,560,040 1.42% 7
Pickles Auctions 1,476,300 1.35% 8
Caravan Camping Sales 1,178,530 1.08% 9
speedcafe.com.au 1,142,620 1.04% 10
Toyota Australia 759,049 0.69% 24
4
Comparison Site Reliance
Based on the weight that consumers give comparison sites, its important that manufacturers
regularly benchmark their performance and reliance on sites like Carsales, the #1 auto website
in Australia.
The chart below breaks down the top brand websites that receive traffic from Carsales.
Although Toyota has the highest total traffic occurrences from Carsales (unsurprising
considering they are the largest manufacturer), Volkswagon Australia has the largest
occurrence share from Carsales. This means that a significant percentage of Volkswagon’s
overall traffic (7.06%) comes from Carsales, as does BMW’s (6.46%) – they are highly channel
reliant on Carsales compared to other manufacturers, and may consider doubling down on a
partnership with the site to increase this flow of traffic.
Traffic Occurences from Carsales
4 weeks ending 2nd Sep 2017
Traffic Occurences Occurence Share
40,000 8%
7.06%
6.46%
30,000 6%
4.82%
20,000 45%
10,000 2%
0 0%
Toyota Australia BMW Australia Volkwagen Australia
Traffic Occurrences - Number of traffic occurrences driven from Carsales to the manufacturer.
Occurrence Share – Percentage of traffic from CarSales as a share of all traffic to the manufacturer (channel reliance)
Top Toyota claimed the largest amount of Traffic Occurences, whereas Volkswagen
Takeaway possessed the largest Occurrence Share.
5
Key Pages on Comparison & Review Sites
Measuring high-performing content on comparison sites can help manufacturers identify
specific pages to target, or provide ideas for content creation and search optimisation. The
example below shows the top pages viewed on Carsales.com, the most popular classifieds site
in Australia.
Carsales: Top Pages Viewed
31 days ending 31st August
Total Page
Page Share
Views
all-cars/search 7.59% 5,724,345
Home/HomeSearch/Search 0.72% 541,407
search
car-valuations/completed
0.53%
0.52%
402,526
388,944
The car valuation tool
on Carsales is highly
best-regift-ever 0.37% 282,083
important.
car-valuations 0.29% 219,853
new-cars 0.29% 217,928
cars 0.25% 191,991
sell-my-car 0.25% 185,529
new-cars/suv 0.21% 157,827
Luxury car brands are
car/mercedesbenz 0.20% 151,544 more popular than other
car types, potentially
editorial/results 0.17% 131,709 indicating a high share of
luxury car buyers.
editorial 0.17% 125,749
car/bmw 0.16% 123,815
car/private 0.15% 110,585
best-regift-ever/register 0.14% 107,883
car/toyota 0.14% 103,351
The “best regift ever”
car/ford 0.14% 101,904 competition (with the
chance to win a trip to
car/nissan/gtr 0.13% 101,181
the USA) showed a lot of
success. An auto brand
car/ferrari 0.13% 99,839
might consider sponsoring
the next Carsales
sweepstakes to increase
awareness.
6
Key Pages on Comparison & Review Sites … continued
Next we look at the top pages on Car Advice, a prominent news and review site, to better
understand how and what people are researching in their comparison journey.
Car Advice: Top Pages Viewed
31 days ending 31st August
Total Page Car Advice
Page Share consistently gets
Views
strong visitation
car-news 6.04% 690,037 to their news, reviews
and comparison sections,
suggesting that up-to-date
top-5 2.91% 331,885
industry info, car launches
and model comparisons
car-reviews 2.54% 289,565 play a key role in the
research process. These
574131/2018-kia-stinger-pricing- 0.64% 73,009 would be ideal pages to
revealed place advertisements and
target car buyers in the
car-comparisons 0.48% 54,915 comparison phase.
577261/2018-holden-zb-commodore- 0.47% 53,606
review
The popularity
top-5/small-cars 0.40% 45,304 of small cars and
medium-sized
car-news/page/2 0.35% 39,905 SUVs (as reported by
VFACTS) is reflected
570918/2018-range-rover-velar-review 0.34% 38,711 internally on Car Advice.
top-5/medium-suvs 0.33% 37,669
519089/2017-holden-trax-ltz-review 0.32% 36,578
564193/small-car-megatest-ford- 0.31% 35,078
focus-v-holden-astra-v-honda-civic-v…
The Kia Stinger page
577777/dear-haters-why-holden- 0.31% 34,968 generated a lot of traffic
believes-this-is-a-real-commodore on Car Advice during its
Australian release. This
showrooms 0.29% 33,368 success underscores
how important it is for
manufacturers to target
hyundai/i30 0.29% 33,085
car news and review sites
around a new model
559261/2018-kia-stinger-review 0.28% 32,075 launch, which we will
discuss further in the next
578600/2018-kia-stinger-australian- 0.28% 31,648 chapter.
specs-and-features-revealed
510405/2017-new-cars-calendar-the- 0.27% 31,080
new-models-coming-to-australia…
7
2
Model Comparison
& Audience Overlap
8
Benchmarking: Riding the Wave of Traffic
How can manufacturers turn the launch of a competitor model into an advantage? The chart
below shows how the publicity around a car launch can create a “halo” effect for similar
models. The new Volkswagen Golf experienced a month-long burst in traffic to their product
page after their July launch. Industry leader Toyota Corolla mirrored this traffic growth,
perhaps due to renewed excitement around small cars in general, or a concerted effort by
Toyota to capitalise on this enthusiasm.
During the buzz of a model release, consumers tend to research what makes the new vehicle
special—including how it compares to other models in its class. This effect is something that
auto marketers should benchmark closely and take advantage of during competitor model
launches.
Volkswagon Golf vs. Toyota Corolla
Product Page Visits
Volkswagen Golf Toyota Corolla
Toyota Corolla 55%
40,000
rise in traffic
30,000
Launch of the Golf
Page Visits
20,000
Volkswagen
139% rise in traffic
10,000
0
17 Jun 17
24 Jun 17
1 Jul 17
8 July 17
15 Jul 17
22 Jul 17
29 Jul 17
5 AUG 17
12 Aug 17
19 Aug 17
26 Aug 17
2 Sep 17
Month
9Car Model Audience Overlap - Consideration Set
As consumers conduct car research, it pays to understand their consideration set. Which
model is your car being compared to? Knowing what segments you overlap with helps
manufacturers understand the competitive landscape, but also whose audience they can
conquest.
Overlap of Key Model Audiences
4 weeks ending 2nd Sep 2017
The i30 is the leader in this
category, therefore has a lot of
overlap (as in, a lot of people
visiting their product page
in addition to others in this
category).
% of Visitors Subaru Volkswagen
to who also Holden Astra Hyundai i30 Impreza Toyota Corolla Golf
Visited
Holden Astra - 13.86% 4.89% 8.91% 8.82%
Hyundai i30 7.67% - 6.75% 6.97% 8.05%
Subaru Impreza 6.93% 17.27% - 13.38% 12.33%
Toyota Corolla 9.01% 12.75% 9.56% - 5.24%
Volkswagen Golf 8.02% 13.23% 7.92% 4.71% -
Volkswagon Golf and the
Toyota Corolla show the least
amount of overlap with each
other, whereas the Impreza
and Corolla audiences show
stronger overlap
Based on visits to the model product page on the manufacturer website.
103
Profiling Purchase
Intenders vs.
Browsers
12Consumers Tentative to Test Drive
In this chapter, we’ll move further down the funnel and focus on audiences who hit the “Book
a Test Drive” or “Find a Dealer” sections of manufacturer’s website.
First, a look at the numbers: when comparing total visits to the “Book a Test Drive” vs. “Find a
Dealer” page, we see that far more people are interested in going to a dealership in order to
further their research process in-person, rather than go straight to booking a test drive online.
Based on this, manufacturers may want to feature their “Find a Dealer” call-to-action more
prominently on their site and ensure the process of locating a dealer is streamlined.
Visit Rate to Key Conversion Sections
7%
6%
5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
Book a test drive Find a dealer
13Top Websites for Browsers vs. Intenders
The chart below breaks down a selection of key websites visited by car browsers (people who
visited car product pages) and intenders (people who visited a “Book a Test Drive” or “Find a
Dealer” page). This helps identify the best places to target consumers who are at the end of
their car buying journey, particularly those who are intending to purchase.
Top Sites Visited – Intenders vs. Browsers
Site Intenders Browsers
Share Share
Browsers are more likely
Social Media to visit Facebook but
Intenders are more likely
www.facebook.com 4.08% 4.36% to be on YouTube, Reddit,
Twitter and Instagram,
www.youtube.com 2.80% 2.56%
meaning these are key
www.reddit.com 0.46% 0.38% channels for reaching high-
intent car buyers.
www.twitter.com 0.42% 0.37%
www.instagram.com 0.31% 0.28%
www.linkedin.com 0.24% 0.21%
Auto
www.carsales.com.au 0.84% 0.55% Car Advice is equally
carsguide.com.au 0.47% 0.21% likely to be visited
by intenders and
www.caradvice.com.au 0.25% 0.25% browsers, meaning it
is more important in
www.drive.com.au 0.12% 0.11% early research stages
www.carpoint.com.au 0.09% 0.02%
compared to classifieds
such as Carsales and
www.whichcar.com.au 0.08% 0.03% Carsguide, which are key
for Intenders.
News & Media
www.news.com.au 0.88% 1.37%
www.smh.com.au 0.68% 0.50%
www.nine.com.au 0.40% 0.39%
www.abc.net.au 0.36% 0.45%
au.yahoo.com 0.35% 0.17%
media.telstra.com.au 0.34% 0.28%
Syndney Morning Herald,
abc.net.au/news 0.32% 0.35% Yahoo and Telstra are
stronger news sites for
www.9news.com.au 0.25% 0.30%
intenders than browsers,
Finance therefore represent prime
pages for campaigns
www.strattonfinance.com.au 0.02% 0.01% targeting high-intent
buyers.
www.carloans.com.au 0.01% 0.00%
4 weeks ending 2nd Sep 2017 Selection of Key Websites
14Top Searches for Browsers vs. Intenders … continued
Understanding the nuances of how browsers vs. intenders search can help marketers optimise
their SEO keyword strategy and search campaigns aimed at attracting high-intent car buyers.
Top Car Searches Used by Intenders vs. Browsers
Site Intenders Browsers
Intenders are
highly likely to
be comparing car
Share Share loans and insurance
options. Manufacturers
compare car loans 0.07% 0.03%
could offer in-depth
car loan comparison 0.06% 0.01% insurance and loan
comparisons on their
best car loan rates 0.04% 0.03% website and optimise
content towards these
car loan calculator 0.23% 0.23% needs (perhaps create
car loans 0.19% 0.13% a guide to choosing the
right car loan for you).
car loan repayment calculator 0.12% 0.21%
car loan 0.06% 0.12%
car finance 0.14% 0.16%
car insurance
compare car insurance
0.72%
0.08%
0.46%
0.06%
Browsers are more likely
car insurance compare 0.07% 0.07% to seek “calculators”,
indicating these tools are
car insurance quote 0.06% 0.10% more important during
earlier stages.
car insurance comparison 0.04% 0.02%
12 weeks ending 2nd Sep 2017 Selection of Key Terms
15Audience Differences of Intenders vs. Browsers
Demographically, 25-34 is the most important age group for both car browsers and intenders.
However, car intenders are much more likely than browsers to be aged 35-44, meaning this is
a key age group to target.
Age Index
Intenders Index Browsers Index
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+
When it comes to Mosaic audience segments, the most affluent and urban groups are key
targets for both browsers and intenders (Groups A, B and C). However, intenders are more
likely to be from multicultural families (Group H), young professionals and students (Group I),
and older Australians from regional areas (Group K).
Mosaic Index
Intenders Index Browsers Index
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
Exclusive
Environs
Knowledgeable
Successs
Independence &
Careers
Affluent
Acreage
Distanced
Existence
New Homes &
Hopes
Middle
Australia
International
Infusion
Books & Boots
Provincial Living
Traditionally
Grey
Regional
Endeavours
Remotely Blue
16Top Takeaways
Benchmark and optimise performance on comparison sites:
The car buying journey begins on review and classifieds sites.
1. chart-growth Benchmarking your performance within these websites is
crucial. Track popular pages in order to keep a pulse on what
consumers care about, and consider advertising on review sites
based on where your model pages rank well.
Take advantage of competitive model launches: Capitalise
on the “halo effect” of a new car launch by promoting
2. car2 a similar model of the same class. Consider creating new
content based on popular search terms, increasing PR, or
partnering with car review sites in order ride the wave of
renewed interest in that class.
3. Distinguish the browsers from the buyers: Analyse the online
behaviour of people who have booked a test drive or sought a
3. cash-dollar local dealership — where they go, who they are, and what they
are searching for in the days before purchase. This enables you
identify and to target people with the highest purchase intent.
17Want to get these insights?
The following Intelligence Tools & Services were featured in this report:
Search Insights: What people are searching for and where they go to
find these answers, can be found in Hitwise’s platform services.
Audience Profiler: The Profiler report can be found on Hitwise’s
AudienceView platform, where a user can identify a target audience
and understand their online behaviours.
Article Tracker: This custom tool allows clients to discover the types
of content consumed on a publisher’s site, down to the exact articles
and pages.
Custom Sections: By looking deeper into a website and breaking out
specific pages and sections, clients can understand their customer’s
behaviour with further precision.www.hitwise.com
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