TV helps sell cars and people are ready to buy

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A good website is an essential tool for a car dealer these days, but if you want to get consumers to go there, television advertising is also a big driver of business according to a new study – a good thing to know right now when many are planning to buy.


The study comes from Ad-ology Research, which says that 36% of US consumers will be in the market for a new car during the next 12 months, which represents a 64% increase over the level of car-shoppers measured in May 2011.

“Stability in the U.S. economy is allowing many owners of older vehicles to shop for a replacement,” says C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research. “More than one-third of those who intend to purchase a new car or truck in the next 12 months will be replacing a vehicle that is 10 years old or older.”

Ad-ology put together a list of key facts driving car sales:

* Automaker and dealer websites are as influential as the dealer’s own salespeople before the test drive.

* A dealership’s service department ranks as the fourth most-important factor when consumers choose a dealership (behind willingness to negotiate, reputation, and selection of vehicles available).

* One in four new vehicle shoppers in the U.S. have attended an auto show in the past 12 months.

* Automotive advertising has surprisingly more influence than potential buyers’ friends or parents.

* 53% of potential new vehicle buyers say that television advertising has caused them to call, click, search, or visit the advertiser; 46.9% say television commercials have caused them to take action within the past 30 days.

RBR-TVBR observation: A website is useless if nobody knows to go there – otherwise, it is simply lost in the vast ocean of information that is the internet. Dealers should get those ads out there, making sure to provide an easy-to-remember web address. And, according to this study, if you have a great service department, that’s also information worth advertising.