Posts Tagged ‘ auto aftermarket industry ’

6 Reasons Why Manufacturers Should Advertise on Google or Bing With Paid Search Ads

May 7, 2013

If you’re an automotive specialty equipment manufacturer you might not have seriously considered online advertising before. Here are 6 important reasons to start a digital marketing campaign right now. Paid search, or pay per click (PPC) advertising, is a great way to reach consumers on the Internet when they’re making buying decisions. Today more than 4 out of 5 automotive consumers turn to search engines first when deciding what to buy. Reason #1: Take control of your brand. If you’re an aftermarket manufacturer, you probably ‘Googled’ your brand name before. Chances are you found dozens or hundreds of listings for...

What You Should Know About Google’s Quality Score (or, How to Save 50% on AdWords)

April 27, 2013

If you’re a Google AdWords advertiser selling car, truck, ATV or motorcycle parts and accessories, you may already know the importance of your Quality Score. You might not know how it affects your bid or how to improve it, so as an automotive aftermarket digital marketing agency we thought this would be helpful. (Why you should improve it and reduce bid costs is at the bottom of this article.) Quality Score factors Our diagram at the left shows the factors that determine your Google AdWords Quality Score for keywords. Your QS can run from 1 (bad) to 10 (good)....

Auto Parts Customer Behavior in Google Analytics (or, Where the Heck Do My Customers Come From??)

April 26, 2013

You can improve your search engine optimization (SEO) and Google AdWords paid search results by understanding how automotive parts and accessory customers originally find your website, and how they return to make a purchase. You can discover a lot of information hidden in the Multi-Channel Funnels reporting section of Google Analytics (menu shown at left) so as an automotive aftermarket digital marketing agency we thought we’d pass this along in our blog. As Google puts it, “…these days, the customer journey has grown more complex.” Amen. Customers can come to your site from many marketing channels: social media, email,...

Google Reveals Automotive Repair & Maintenance Shopping Secrets

April 25, 2013

Here are some interesting stats on consumers searching for vehicle maintenance and repair services, for both Do It Yourself (DIY) and Do It For Me (DIFM) vehicle owners. It’s the subject of a report released by the folks over at Google Think Insights and shows the importance of automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and paid search. As an automotive aftermarket digital marketing agency we enjoy data like this. DIFM consumers were responsible for 77% of the aftermarket’s sales volume in 2012 (excluding tires). That’s only down slightly from a decade ago, when it was 78%. It’s projected to get...

Increase Relevance (and Sales!) with Email Segmentation

January 23, 2013

We’re all bombarded with thousands of marketing messages throughout the day, and people run avoidance measures in an effort to escape many of these messages. One of the most popular platforms to reach consumers is through email marketing, yet countless marketing messages go ignored and unread. So how do you keep consumers interested and engaged in your emails? One word: segmentation. Email segmentation lets you cut through the clutter by staying relevant and providing material you know your audience is interested in. You send email with one type of content to a group of customers, based on their interest,...

November 2012: Monthly Vehicle Sales vs Consumer Confidence

December 14, 2012

After a somewhat slow October, the auto industry saw an increase in light vehicle sales for November 2012. October brought somewhat sluggish auto sales, yielding a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of 14.23M, November came in strong with 1.14 million units sold, raising the SAAR to 15.48M. Experts are observing that the sales are partly driven by the devastation left behind by Hurricane Sandy. Edmunds.com noted that about 30,000 sales of automobiles were lost or deferred in October due to the superstorm. Also, between 200,000 and 250,000 vehicles were damaged or destroyed by Sandy, which fuels a demand for...

September Slowdown for Auto Parts Retail Sales

November 14, 2012

Retail sales through auto parts stores were down again compared to one year ago. September sales were down 4% from September 2011, following a 1% decline in August. Auto parts retail sales for the first half of 2012 posted better than a 5% increase from 2011, aided in part by unseasonably warm weather in January and February; the second half of this year tells a different story, however. The third quarter ended with about a 1% decrease from the third quarter of 2011. Total October retail sales as reported by the government were down 0.3% from September, a sign...

Trend 2: Purchase Frequency by Vehicle Owned

October 28, 2012

Have you ever wondered how often enthusiasts tend to buy parts and accessories? We surveyed more than 2,500 enthusiasts to find out how often they make a purchase and arranged the information by what type of vehicle they bought for. We surveyed enthusiasts and asked the question, “How often do you buy parts or accessories for your vehicle?” We also asked what vehicle they purchased parts for in order to better understand any trends within certain segments. We found that, on average, 50% of all different types of vehicle owners buy once a month or more. Owners of street...

Trend 3: Bringing the Web to Your Vehicle

October 27, 2012

A popular trend with car manufacturers over recent years has been the integration of the web into the modern vehicle. Recently, manufacturers have been adopting platforms that rely on the driver’s mobile phone for connectivity. This trend is now changing as more manufacturers focus on a more direct way to connect vehicles to the web. At a discussion about the web-connected vehicle at the SF MusicTech Summit event held in October 2012, GM’s Chief Infotainment Officer, Philip Abram predicted that in 5 years, “software will define the experience in the car.” The main obstacle that manufacturers are facing is...

Trend 4: Enthusiasts: Time Between Decision and Actual Purchase

October 26, 2012

Today, we are going to look at some of our own research to better understand how long it takes an enthusiast to actually purchase a product after they have made the decision to buy. As a part of our own syndicated Hedges & Company research, we sought to find out how long it took enthusiasts to make the actual purchase after deciding to buy. We surveyed more than 2,500 enthusiasts, and asked them what the average length of time was from when they decide to buy a part or accessory to when they actually buy. The data shows that,...

Trend 5: The Top 5 Most Sold Vehicles of 2012

October 25, 2012

The automotive industry has been on the path to recovery with vehicle sales up from last year’s numbers and holding strong. A variety of different makes and models of trucks are leading the pack in sales; here is a look at the stats of the top 5. The top 5 most sold vehicles as of September, 2012 are: 1). Ford F-Series – Ford’s popular truck series is the top selling vehicle so far with 463,733 units sold as of September 2012. At this time last year, Ford had sold 416,388 F-Series trucks, marking a rise of 11% in 2012....

Trend 6: Vehicles at the 2012 SEMA Show

October 24, 2012

The SEMA Show draws all kinds of different entities of the automotive sector, and with them they bring the best products, parts, facts and research they have. Perhaps the largest attractions at the show, however, are the custom vehicles. Here is a look at what some of the most talked about vehicles that will be at this year’s show. Ford plans to unveil at least 20 vehicles at the SEMA show. Of the vehicles to be shown, the showcase will feature various Focus and Fusion models built by various motorsports groups such as Bojix Design, Tanner Foust Racing, and...

Trend 7: 3 Things Aftermarket Retail Stores Need to Stay Ahead of the Curve

October 23, 2012

There’s a lot of competition in the automotive aftermarket—retail stores have to compete with online prices and specialty parts catalogs, and the seemingly endless selection that both provide. So what advantages do retail stores have that can keep them ahead of the competition? 1). Customer service: When customers enter an automotive parts store, they aren’t just looking for a part, many need help. Parts stores have an advantage over non-retail entities in the fact that their employees can actively provide help in a personal environment. Employees are able to explain benefits of certain products, ask open-ended questions about the...

Trend 8: Vehicle Segment Trends by Region

October 22, 2012

Jumpstart Automotive Group released a report on online car shopping trends by U.S. region showing the top vehicle segments as well as the top shopping consideration. The company analyzed behaviors of automotive website users in 2012 “to draw connections between specific U.S. territories and the most popularly researched vehicles and top car shopping considerations among consumers within those territories.” The study found that: People in the Northwest region of the U.S. tend to prefer hybrids and consider price as a priority. Consumers in the Southwest prefer compact cars and focus on the features of a car when considering a...

Trend 9: 3 Things You Didn’t Know About 2007-2013 Jeep Wrangler Owners

October 21, 2012

The countdown has brought us to only nine trends left, so here it is: Market Research Trend 9: 3 Things You Didn’t Know About 2007-2013 Jeep Wrangler Owners. The 2007-2013 Jeep Wrangler, designated the “JK,” received a facelift from its previous “TJ” version. The “JK” is a larger model in terms of both wheelbase and width, and is available in a new 4-door model as well as the traditional 2-door model. The “JK” is available in a convertible soft top as well as a 3-piece hardtop, and the doors are removable as with previous models. Here are a few...

Trend 10: Engine Block Buyers: Amount Spent Annually on Parts and Accessories

October 20, 2012

Have you ever wondered exactly how much the automotive enthusiast spends on parts & accessories throughout the year? We surveyed enthusiasts who had recently bought or shopped for engine blocks to find out how much money they spend on an annual basis. Enthusiasts were given the following choices in regards to how much money they spend annually on parts & accessories: less than $500 $500 to $1,000 $1,001 to $2,500 $2,501 to $5,000 $5,001 to $7,500 $7,501 to $10,000 $10,000 and up Enthusiasts revealed that the top two ranges in which their annual spending fell into were $1,001 to...

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