Car Dealer Business Hurt in Battleground States
“There is a higher demand for advertising in an election year, in particular, the states that can go both red and blue,” says Dealer.com’s James Grace.
Car dealers in certain states may wish the Nov. 8 election would end already.
That’s because a Dealer.com analysis indicates digital car-shopping is off in so-called battleground states, those in which no single candidate or party has overwhelming support as voters prepare to go to the polls Tuesday.
Identified through vehicle-detail-page views from Dealer.com’s dealership client network, shopping behavior was down in September 9% year-over-year in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Dealer.com says a major factor hurting car-shopping behavior in these states is the rise of digital advertising costs. Battleground states have averaged 7% higher paid-search costs than non-battleground states since January. There’s a bigger hike in advertising costs (11%) in those states than in non-battleground states (7%).
“There is a higher demand for advertising in an election year, in particular, the states that can go both red and blue,” says James Grace, Dealer.com’s director- Analytics Product Management. “Dealers that cannot account for additional advertising spends suffer, which can lead to a decline in online traffic, and ultimately a hit to their bottom lines.”
Visitors to car dealership websites across the Dealer.com platform are 6% lower in battleground states compared with non-battleground states.
Dealer.com operates websites for 60% of the approximately 17,500 dealers in the U.S.
To combat higher ad spends and demands leading up to the election, dealers should consider producing election-specific content and specials, Dealer.com says.
Post-election, dealers have something to look forward to. There will be more opportunities for them to produce ads during the holiday shopping season, Grace says.
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