Welcome back! In the first half of this series, we covered the first three areas of the car buyer’s journey – based on Think with Google’s latest study. If you haven’t read part one, you should definitely do that first. This will make a whole lot more sense once you read that.

In part two of our Future of Car Buying series, we’re going to cover comparisons and video. Both of these are big factors for the car buying journey; let’s talk about why.

COMPARISONS

It’s well established that consumers turn to digital channels and mobile devices early and often when shopping for a new car. They search across channels, and often compare brands and dealerships, weighing their choice based on recommendations, reviews and side-by-side comparisons. So what do you need to do to make sure that your dealership comes out on top?

Well, to start, you want to make sure that your website ranks well for comparison search terms and keywords. This can be done by bidding on terms directly via paid search, or by optimizing organic results and your Google My Business listing. (One quick caveat for ppc: make sure that your landing page is relevant for that comparison search query. Otherwise, things will not go as planned.)

Once a user is on your site, you can then use a tool like Signal Activate, to deliver targeted ads with a specific offer on one of the brands or models that they are researching.

Another option is to create relevant video content on YouTube and social media. We’re going to dive more into video here shortly, but you may have noticed that it has been a pretty big theme throughout our series (aren’t you glad you read part one? We are too).

VIDEO

Video is a powerful platform for automotive because of the influential role it plays in the car buying journey. Over half of consumers report doing research on – and being influenced by – automotive content on YouTube. Another Google study found that over 60% of consumers would also consider buying a car without a test drive if they could view a 360 video. So, it stands to reason that video content is one of the best ways to engage with car buyers online.

In addition to serving pre-roll and bumper ads on video content, your dealership should also be producing content for YouTube. According to Pixabay, creator-produced videos receive 93% of monthly views for all U.S. auto content on YouTube. It doesn’t have to be award-worthy production value either. All you have to do is commit to producing useful content that answers customers’ questions.

We are big believers in video ads for building pipeline awareness and staying top of mind for in-market shoppers. However, you can make video even more influential by producing some simple, and effective walk-around or test drive videos with new and used vehicles in your inventory.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We can all agree with Google that the future of the car buying journey is going to be defined by digital. Make sure that your dealership is staying on top of the latest car buying trends so you can beat your competitors to market with new sales and marketing experiences.

As Ricky Bobby taught us, “if you’re not first, you’re last,” and that rings especially true as digital technology continues to transform the car buying journey.

Visit our blog to get more strategic tips and data-driven insights that help you dominate digital and grow market share.