In this week’s Pepper Gang training, we went through the latest study Google did for automotive marketing. While we talk about the importance of customer’s buying journey a lot, we seldom take a close look at an individual customer’s actions. This time, Google’s research gives us a detailed overview of how a shopper makes an auto purchase/lease decision, and how digital marketing strategy gets involved into the journey. Let’s take a look at it.
The 5 Moments of Shopping a Car
There are many micro-moments influencing a decision being made. For car purchase, here are the 5 most important phases.
Who’s the Target Audience
In the research, we’ll put all our focus on one auto shopper – Stacy. Who’s she? She’s a 32 yr-old mom with 2 children and 1 on the way. She’s currently driving an SUV and looking for a larger car, such as a minivan, that can fit with a family of 5, including 3 young kids.
Conclusion Goes First – What’s the Result?
The study tracks all Stacy’s search behaviors for 3 months – from research to making a decision. And here’s the summary of all the digital interaction involving with her auto shopping.
71% of these 900+ digital touchpints occurred on mobile devices. Every touchpoint means an opportunity for auto brands or car dealerships to present themselves and win over the competition.
Which-Car-Is-Best Moments
6 out of 10 shoppers enter the market without knowing which car to buy. In this early-stage research phase, Stacy asked more general questions like ‘best minivan’ and ‘best car for families with car seats and dog’ to start seeking out what she might want.
The gang’s tip: In the stage, organic content is very important. A brand should showcase the best part of a car by using awards, reviews and third party ratings.
Is-It-Right-For-Me Moments
This moment is basically the continuance of the initial research. Stacy went deeper into a more practical consideration, searching for detailed features about a certain auto brand and car model. She cared about things like seating capacity, the number of airbags, etc.
Can-I-Afford-It Moments
Now it’s time the price jumping into the journey. In this stage, Stacy was trying to narrow down the options by price. Additionally, she checked the differences between car lease and car purchase, as well as the trade-in value of her current car.
Where-Should-I-Buy-It Moments
Then we are close to the final decision. Stacy had known what she wanted and she’d like to know WHERE she could get the car with the highest value. This is an important phase for dealerships to show up and interact with customers. According to Google, search query ‘car dealership near me’ doubles in the past year. When customers explore the nearby dealership, they are considering (1) local inventory, (2) deals, and (3) specials.
The Gang’s tip: local SEO and paid search marketing play the most significant role in this phase. No matter how much effort you make to help customers in their consideration, if you can’t have a strong digital presence here, you are basically sending the money away to your competitors.
Am-I-Getting-A-Deal Moments
At this phase, Stacy already knew what she wanted. She was doing the final preparation on the money factors for negotiating with the dealership. A lot of time, customers even do in-store research to find deals, price comparison, and more.
What should auto brands and dealerships ask themselves?
After understanding the full journey of Stacy’s auto purchase, what can we learn from this? Google suggests you ask a few questions to figure out if your marketing strategy is to the point.
