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.

Steve Finlay, Contributing Editor

November 3, 2016

1 Min Read
Dealer website traffic off in contested states Grace says
Dealer website traffic off in contested states, Grace says.

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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About the Author

Steve Finlay

Contributing Editor

Steve Finlay is a former longtime editor for WardsAuto. He writes about a range of topics including automotive dealers and issues that impact their business.

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