PureCars
PURECARS INDUSTRY SURVEY SHOWS JUST HOW MUCH DEALER BUSINESS MODELS HAVE CHANGED SINCE THE PANDEMIC
Digital Retailing, digital advertising & how customers budget their payments are just a few ways dealers have had to adapt over the last year
ATLANTA – (July 27, 2021) – PureCars, a leading provider of digital marketing technology and services for automotive dealers, today announced results of a recent dealer survey that sheds light on how their business has changed since the onset of the pandemic. From the tools they use to entice customers, how customers now transact, to the type of advertising they are leveraging, the pandemic has changed the dealership business model.
PureCars commissioned an online survey during June and collected responses from nearly 200 dealers throughout the U.S. Following are key takeaways from dealers on a variety of topics:
How Dealers Entice Online Transactions for Consumers:
There are distinct differences in what dealers offered pre-pandemic compared with today to entice their customers to leverage online or digital retailing.
- Today, the majority of dealers say they are now offering services such as Online finance (87%); Contactless delivery (87%); Online service scheduling/pick-up (85%).
- Prior to the pandemic, most dealers said they were focused on offering services such as: Build your vehicle online (91%); Virtual walk around (83%); Lease/payment calculator (82%).
Volume of Digital Retail Transactions Pre-Pandemic Versus Today:
There is a noticeable trend of how many transactions took place partially and fully in the pre-pandemic era compared to today.
- Today, 56% of dealers say they’re completing partial deals online for slightly more than half their customers. Prior to the pandemic, the majority of dealers (60%) said they were completing only some of their deals online for less than half their customers.
- Today, the majority of dealers (59%) say they are completing fully digital retail transactions online for more than half of their customers. Prior to the pandemic, the majority of dealers (59%) said they weren’t processing fully digital retail transactions, or in very few instances.
The Pandemic Altered How Dealers Advertise Their Vehicles
There are different forms of advertising dealers leverage today in order to promote their dealerships or offers.
- Today, 98% of dealers say they are now leveraging some form of streaming television (Hulu Live, YouTube TV).
- Prior to the pandemic, 95% of dealers were leveraging traditional media (TV, radio, newspaper), as well as Search (94%), social (94%) and online video (93%).
New Trends in How Customers Budget for Vehicles
Dealers reported an increase in customers budgeting based on monthly payment.
- Dealers today say their customers are budgeting based on monthly payment up to more than half the time, whereas prior to the pandemic, they were budgeting based on monthly payment less than half the time.
- Dealers also report that today 86% of customers end up purchasing with a monthly payment plan; this figure is up from pre-pandemic times making shop by payment more critical than ever.
“We knew the pandemic would alter many of the ways in which dealers conduct their business; much of this was evident in the early days of the pandemic when dealers had to adapt quickly to meet the new demands of their customers by focusing on the experience and putting the customer first,” said Jeremy Anspach, CEO of PureCars. “Fast forward to more than a year later and we’re able to see just how much change has happened, and is still happening, to accommodate the customer online and offline; those who make it the easiest for the shopper are gaining market share. It is clear that there are several ways in which the dealership business model has been forever changed; shop by payment at the inception of the buying process is just one of the many positive changes to the overall experience.”
About PureCars
PureCars is dedicated to helping dealers and the automotive industry thrive with its advanced martech, fintech, advertising insights and portfolio management platform. Only PureCars has PURE™ Intelligence, giving dealers and automotive marketers a competitive edge with information that is PURE: Proven, Understandable, Relevant and Essential. PureCars’ industry-leading tech leverages data and insights to make smarter media buys that result in lower ad costs per unit sold and per repair order. Since its founding in 2007, PureCars has achieved great success by combining martech with digital merchandising and market analytics tools to provide dealers and partners with best-in-class solutions that increase efficiency and profitability. PureCars is a certified digital provider for 15 OEMs in the U.S. and 1 in Canada, compliant with 40+ brands and serves 65 of the top 100 dealer groups in North America.
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Media Contact:
John Sternal
Merit Mile
954-592-1201
PureCars
PureCars Acquires Fintech SaaS Provider TruPayments
The addition of financial integrations and online retailing capabilities will provide dealerships with expanded options to attract and convert shoppers more quickly and efficiently, while providing a more seamless, personalized shopping experience to their customers.
ATLANTA – (July 12, 2021) – PureCars®, a leading martech and advertising intelligence provider for automotive retailers and marketers, today announced its acquisition of shopping personalization (DXP) and fintech platform, truPayments®, further solidifying its commitment to helping dealers thrive by expanding its martech and services suite to include personalized payment shopping. PureCars’ best-in-class tech optimizes media buys to achieve lower ad costs per unit sold and per RO, resulting in increased profitability for dealerships. truPayments’ tech converts shoppers earlier in the buying process, further reducing advertising costs for dealerships, while providing an improved buying experience for their customers. PureCars is backed by Diversis Capital Partners and Stage 1 Ventures.
truPayments, LLC is a financial technology company with deep roots in eCommerce and the Automotive Industry, providing digital retailing solutions to automotive, powersports and RV dealerships, as well as lending institutions. With solutions that include shop-by-payment and trade-in tools, truPayments empowers shoppers with personalized, relevant payment information to create more frictionless online buying experiences. Lender data integrations ensure every quoted payment is accurate, whether the customer purchases online or in store. By providing consumers with a more practical shopping experience, truPayments generates more qualified leads for dealerships.
The acquisition of truPayments will add even more payment data to PureCars’ already massive data warehouse, enabling dealers to serve payment-relevant ads to shoppers, and convert those shoppers to buyers, earlier in their buying journey, further reducing dealer ad costs per unit sold. Dealers will be able to more quickly and efficiently match in-market shoppers with their inventory at exactly the right payment.
Furthermore, while the industry grapples with inventory shortages, pairing vehicle acquisition campaigns with an accurate trade tool that quickly shows consumers the equity in their trade will give dealers a more profitable, less competitive vehicle acquisition option to auctions, which can eat into margins with transport and other associated fees.
“Automotive shoppers today expect more from dealerships at every stage in the buying cycle,” said Jeremy Anspach, CEO of PureCars. “In order to give dealerships a leg up on new disruptive competitors that bypass the dealership, but offer much more limited services, dealerships need innovators like PureCars to help them deliver smoother, more intuitive experiences to shoppers as their expectations continue to rapidly evolve. The unification of PureCars’ martech and truPayments’ fintech represents an organic evolution for both companies that will result in even greater cost efficiencies for our dealers and partners, as well as superior shopping experiences for the customers they serve.”
“The opportunity to directly integrate martech with shopping personalization and digital retailing is groundbreaking.” said Tarry Shebesta, CEO at truPayments. “The synthesis of the underlying data and technology sets the stage for us to have a significant positive impact on the car buying process for consumers, as well as the advertising and retailing experience for dealerships.”
About PureCars & truPayments
PureCars is dedicated to helping dealers and the automotive industry thrive with its advanced martech, advertising insights and portfolio management platform. Only PureCars has PURE™ Intelligence, giving dealers and automotive marketers a competitive edge with information that is PURE: Proven, Understandable, Relevant and Essential. PureCars’ industry-leading tech leverages data and insights to make smarter media buys that result in lower ad costs per unit sold and per repair order. Since its founding in 2007, PureCars has achieved great success by combining martech with digital merchandising and market analytics tools to provide dealers and partners with best-in-class solutions that increase efficiency and profitability.
PureCars’s acquisition of truPayments, a leading financial tech provider that makes it easier for consumers to obtain near penny perfect payment information earlier in the shopping process, further solidifies its commitment to helping dealerships boost engagement, earn more gross per unit sold and increase ROI.
PureCars is a certified digital provider for 15 OEMs in the U.S. and 1 in Canada, compliant with 40+ brands and serves 65 of the top 100 dealer groups in North America.
Learn more at www.purecars.com
About Diversis Capital
Founded in 2013, Diversis is a software and technology focused private equity fund that invests in lower middle-market companies, targeting situations where it can add unique value in helping a company reach the next level. With a collaborative approach to investing, its Operating Partners and Strategic Advisors work alongside management teams to help build successful organizations positioned for long-term growth.
Media Contact: Chris Tofalli | Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC | 914-834-4334 | www.diversis.com
About Stage 1 Ventures, LLC
Stage 1 Ventures, LLC was founded in 2005 and has invested over $200M in 22 late-stage growth companies. Stage 1 does a combination of primary and secondary investing as well as seed investing. Stage 1 looks for high growth companies that are led by passionate entrepreneurs in ag-tech, cloud, mobile, auto, consumer and enterprise software spaces.
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Media Contact:
John Sternal
Merit Mile
954-592-1201
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PureCars
New Book Reveals "Blind Spots" Preventing Auto Dealers From Customer Success
“Blind Spots” is a fact-based guidebook for automotive retailers, providing proven, easily executable solutions that help them reduce their ad costs per sale and repair order (RO), increase market share, boost their profitability and gain a powerful advantage over their competition.
ATLANTA – (June 29, 2021) – For many years, auto dealers have operated under the same playbook but have been expecting different results that are necessary to adapt to a changing market. In most cases, they simply can’t see today’s innovative marketing strategies that help connect them to today’s car shopper. These are exactly the solutions PureCars CEO, Jeremy Anspach addresses in his new book, “Blind Spots: A Guide To Eliminating Today’s Automotive Digital Media Waste”.
Available at Amazon.com, “Blind Spots” is a fact-based guidebook for automotive retailers, providing proven, easily executable solutions that help them reduce their ad costs per sale and repair order (RO), increase market share, boost their profitability and gain a powerful advantage over their competition.
Reducing advertising waste is a key element to boosting dealership profitability. It is estimated that the automotive industry will spend approximately $13.4 billion(1) on digital advertising, and nearly 40% of that expenditure will be ineffective(2) due to the wrong strategy, bad data, or both. “Blind Spots” shows how today’s advanced advertising data and technology can help dealers follow and capture demand by identifying which vehicles they should be aggressively marketing, which target markets they should be marketing to, and which media channels will be most effective in reaching those markets -- all with the goal of optimizing to the lowest cost per sale and RO.
According to Rhett Ricart, 2020 NADA Chairman and CEO of Ricart Automotive, who writes in the foreword, “This book should be required reading at every dealership. It should be read by every general manager, marketing person professional, director of digital operations, and on and on down the line. The landscape has changed forever, and we have to change with it. Let this book serve as your guidebook to navigating that change.”
In “Blind Spots”, Anspach takes the reader through an important journey that thousands of automotive professionals are navigating through – the true digital revolution currently taking place within the automotive industry. Born and raised in Detroit, MI, Anspach touches on his early childhood dreams of working in automotive, his grandmother who worked on the assembly line at Ford, and his earliest tech startups that springboarded his career into digital merchandising and advertising for automotive. Along the way, Anspach developed a keen understanding, through experience and innovation, of the complexities and nuances of the internet’s influence on the automotive industry.
“Today’s automotive industry is continuously focused on the premise that margin compression is increasing,” said Anspach. “I’m reminded of this in every conversation I have, and it’s a significant reason why I decided to write this book -- to give dealers a game plan for how to eliminate the waste while also focusing on selling more cars, parts and service.”
The book takes a deep dive into all the different types of blind spots today’s professionals are still struggling with, the difference between data and information, as well as effective cost per sale strategies. The book also helps readers pursue the right audience for vehicle sales, optimize the customer experience, and discusses ways to sell inventory quickly and profitably through value-based intelligence. Along the way, Anspach provides real life ground-level perspectives from trusted automotive professionals who have benefitted from many of these digital strategies.
As Anspach eloquently relays in his new book: “It’s time for dealerships to open their eyes to marketing blind spots – and embrace innovative twenty-first-century strategies before it’s too late. The rise of digital marketing has forever changed how dealers interact with consumers – and understanding how to use these new cyber-selling tactics is critical for dealers who want to combat shrinking margins and new industry disruptors.”
Proceeds from the book sale profits will go to charity. To purchase a copy of the book visit Amazon.com.
About PureCars
PureCars is dedicated to helping dealers and the automotive industry thrive with its advanced martech, advertising insights and portfolio management platform. Only PureCars has PURE™ Intelligence, giving dealers and automotive marketers a competitive edge with information that is PURE: Proven, Understandable, Relevant and Essential. PureCars’ industry-leading tech leverages data and insights to make smarter media buys that result in lower ad costs per unit sold and per repair order. Since its founding in 2007, PureCars has achieved great success by combining martech with digital merchandising and market analytics tools to provide dealers and partners with best-in-class solutions that increase efficiency and profitability. PureCars is a certified digital provider for 15 OEMs in the U.S. and 1 in Canada, compliant with 40+ brands and serves 65 of the top 100 dealer groups in North America.
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Media Contact:
John Sternal
Merit Mile
954-592-1201
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PURECARS’ LAUREN DONALSON RECOGNIZED IN AUTOSUCCESS WOMEN AT THE WHEEL PROGRAM
Inaugural Awards Honored 19 Women From Across The Automotive Industry
ATLANTA – (June 22, 2021) – PureCars, a leading provider of digital marketing technology and services for automotive dealers, today announced Lauren Donalson was recognized in the inaugural “Women at the Wheel” awards by AutoSuccess magazine. The class of 19 award winners appears in a special section of the magazine’s June 2021 issue as well as online at AutoSuccessOnline.com and in social media promotions.
“Our Women at the Wheel program was created to highlight today’s top female professionals who are leading the charge across the automotive industry,” said AutoSuccess Publisher Susan Givens. “We opened nominations just a few months ago, and we received many incredible submissions. The glowing reviews from the nominators (both male and female) made it difficult to choose amongst them.”
The Women at the Wheel award recognizes women in the automotive industry who are game changers in their field — sparking change and driving results.
“It’s rewarding to be acknowledged and recognized in the automotive industry as a Women at the Wheel honoree,” said Lauren Donalson, Senior Director of Accounts at PureCars. “I am tremendously proud to have guided PureCars’ Digital Strategy team and 2,000+ dealer/agency partners through initial pandemic challenges and to be recognized by such an incredible company within our industry.”
About Lauren Donalson
Lauren has been in the Automotive industry for over 15 years and is now sharing her expertise as the Senior Director of Accounts - National at PureCars. Lauren's extensive in-dealership experience throughout the sales, finance?and?insurance, accounting, and service?and?parts departments paired with her automotive marketing knowledge allows her to consult from an inside-out perspective, prioritizing what matters to each dealer/agency most.
About AutoSuccess and Babcox Media
AutoSuccess?addresses the specific needs of new car and light truck dealerships by providing ideas, tips and solutions on topics impacting dealers, general managers and department managers.?AutoSuccess?is dedicated to helping automotive professionals improve their teams’ effectiveness and their dealerships’ profitability.
Founded in 1920, Babcox Media (Babcox.com) is the leading business-to-business content provider for the transportation industry. The company’s portfolio includes highly respected and influential brands within the auto care, tire, performance, collision, commercial trucking, auto dealer, powersports and enthusiast markets.
About PureCars
PureCars is an automotive MarTech company that’s in the business of transforming the way dealers, dealer groups, Tier 2 and Tier 3 providers make decisions that impact their bottom line -- from advertising to operations. Everyone claims to have data, but only PureCars has PURE™ Intelligence, giving dealers a competitive edge. By providing superior information and execution, we give our customers precisely what they need to operate more efficiently, lower their cost per unit sold and win in their market. PureCars has been serving the automotive industry exclusively since 2007. We are a certified digital provider for 15 OEMs in the U.S. and 1 in Canada, compliant with 40+ brands and serve 65 of the top 100 dealer groups in North America.
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Media Contact:
John Sternal
Merit Mile
954-592-1201
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PureCars
PURECARS ANNOUNCES THE ALL NEW PRO DEALER PLATFORM
Pro Dealer Represents a Disruptive New Approach to Automotive Martech that is Built to Deliver More Profit Margin and Lower Waste on Every Transaction
ATLANTA – (June 2, 2021) – PureCars, a leading provider of digital marketing technology and services for automotive dealers, today announced it has launched its new Pro Dealer MarTech platform with industry-leading features, analytics and reporting. Visit www.purecars.com/pro to schedule a demo.
Powered by PURE™ Intelligence, Pro Dealer represents an industry-leading approach to digital advertising that offers greater flexibility and value with superior information, enabling clients (and their Digital Strategists) to connect advertising signals to operational outcomes and make better marketing decisions that drive lower ad costs per sale -- and drive more predictable increases in profitability.
The new Pro Dealer platform centers around a uniquely customizable reporting and insights component, PURE™ Insights, an industry leading measurement resource designed by dealers, for dealers. Pro Dealer with PURE Insights provides dealers with a variety of value-driven tools they need for one low, flat fee. Automotive retailers with experience using some of the key features of Pro Dealer for the past year have seen significant results, especially since the pandemic.
"Last year, we had our best year in the 97-year history of the organization, and we're going to do that again this year,” said Andrew Riffee, CTMO of Dimmitt Automotive Group. “We've experienced overnight results. We've had nine consecutive months of record lead volumes from a phone and internet perspective. PureCars’ partnership has been instrumental in helping us navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, restructuring our digital marketing strategies, and delivering unprecedented levels of success."
Lou DiMattia, Director of Operations at Mercedes-Benz of Cherry Hill praised PURE Insights saying “I love the customization of it...because my hot buttons may change over time...what you guys have come up with is pretty impressive.”
The Pro Dealer platform provides search, display/retargeting, social, and video for new and pre-owned vehicles. It also offers search for fixed ops (FO), and free lead-gen tools for dealers. The information within PURE Insights will be P.U.R.E.: Proven, Understandable, Relevant, and Essential, and will include benchmarking, business intelligence, market analytics, opportunities, performance and more.
Partner benefits will also include access to PureCars TV (CTV/OTT), as well as Alpha and Beta access to cutting edge advancements in media channels. Google, Facebook, YouTube and others are making constant improvements to their experiences and ad offerings (Vehicle Listing Ads in Google Search, Discovery Ads in Google Display, Facebook’s on site VDP experience, just to name a few). Pro Dealer users will win the first mover advantage in their market with premier access to new media channels via PURE Insights.
“Pro Dealer represents our boldest, most sophisticated innovation to date -- designed by dealers, for dealers -- to help them accelerate more transactions at the lowest ad cost per sale,” said Jeremy Anspach, CEO of PureCars. “We’re committed to helping dealers thrive with greater visibility into competitive performance on advertising spend, conversion rates, market share and so much more, providing them with their biggest competitive edge yet.”
Visit www.purecars.com/pro to schedule a demo of Pro Dealer.
About PureCars
PureCars is an automotive MarTech company that’s in the business of transforming the way dealers, dealer groups, Tier 2 and Tier 3 providers make decisions that impact their bottom line -- from advertising to operations. Everyone claims to have data, but only PureCars has PURE™ Intelligence, giving dealers a competitive edge. By providing superior information and execution, we give our customers precisely what they need to operate more efficiently, lower their cost per unit sold and win in their market. PureCars has been serving the automotive industry exclusively since 2007. We are a certified digital provider for 15 OEMs in the U.S. and 1 in Canada, compliant with 40+ brands and serve 65 of the top 100 dealer groups in North America.
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Media Contact:
John Sternal
Merit Mile
954-592-1201
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PURECARS SURVEY SHOWS CONSUMERS LEVERAGING DIGITAL RETAILING ONE YEAR INTO THE PANDEMIC
Survey Also Reveals How Changing Advertising Trends Are Reshaping Which Channels And Tactics Are Driving More Customers Into Showrooms
ATLANTA – (May 17, 2021) – PureCars, a leading provider of digital marketing technology and services for automotive dealers, today announced results of its latest industry survey that shows which digital retailing tools automotive shoppers are using the most today, approximately one year into the pandemic.
PureCars commissioned an online survey that was presented to more than 2,000 automotive shoppers across the U.S. during March to get a better sense of how and where they are leveraging new digital retailing technologies and solutions.
Digital Retailing Tools Most Frequently Used
· Trade-in Estimate: 71%
· Virtual Test Drive: 64%
· Contactless Delivery Options: 61%
· Build Your Vehicle: 57%
· Lease/Payment Calculator: 52%
· Finance App: 46%
Price & Payment Trends During Shopping
· 48% of car shoppers say they still budget by total vehicle price; while 42% budget by monthly payment.
· 46% of car shoppers say they included the value of their trade-in when budgeting for their next vehicle.
· 31% of consumers said the dealer offered a slightly different payment onsite as advertised.
Advertising Trends
· 58% of consumers said the dealer had either a slightly different vehicle onsite as advertised, or a completely different vehicle.
· Most people (76%) visited their local dealer after viewing an advertisement via an online video (YouTube); followed by streaming TV (72%); social media (71%); and search via Google (70%).
· Only 32% of people reported visiting a local dealer after seeing or hearing an advertisement on traditional media (broadcast/cable TV, radio or newspaper).
Vehicle Delivery/Online Purchase Trends
· Nearly the same number of respondents said they had their vehicle delivered to them directly (29%) as those who said they picked up their car at the dealership (30%).
· However, another 26% said they would have purchased their car or truck completely online had the dealership offered that option.
“These survey results illustrate where car shoppers have been focused in leveraging the growing cadre of digital retailing tools being implemented by retailers today,” said Jeremy Anspach, PureCars Founder and CEO. “Since we now understand the effects the pandemic has had on the car-buying process, it’s good to start analyzing where consumers are most interested, and the changing role digital advertising is playing in driving people to the showroom.”
About PureCars
PureCars is an automotive MarTech company that’s in the business of transforming the way dealers, dealer groups, Tier 2 and Tier 3 providers make decisions that impact their bottom line -- from advertising to operations. Everyone claims to have data, but only PureCars has PURE™ Intelligence, giving dealers a competitive edge. By providing superior information and execution, we give our customers precisely what they need to operate more efficiently, lower their cost per unit sold and win in their market. PureCars has been serving the automotive industry exclusively since 2007. We are a certified digital provider for 15 OEMs in the U.S. and 1 in Canada, compliant with 40+ brands and serve 65 of the top 100 dealer groups in North America.
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Media Contact:
John Sternal
Merit Mile
954-592-1201
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PURECARS BECOMES CERTIFIED AS A KIA CANADA DIGITAL ADVERTISING PARTNER
Partnership Becomes PureCars’ 17th OEM Certification; Business Intelligence Digital Advertising Tools Help Dealers Lower Cost Per Sale
ATLANTA – (April 20, 2021) – PureCars, a leading provider of digital marketing and advertising insights for automotive dealers, today announced it has become certified as a Kia Canada Digital Advertising Partner. PureCars has now achieved a total of 17 OEM certifications and its partnership with Kia marks its first in Canada.
PureCars brings its unique Pro Dealer Package to the new Kia Canada program, giving Canadian Kia dealers the flexibility to execute as many or as few digital advertising tactics as they wish, all in one flat-fee package. PureCars’ Business Intelligence platform, "PURE™ Insights", brings best-in-class visibility into how a dealer's advertising dollars are working for them with PureCars’ multi-touch, multi-channel attribution tool. With the agreement, Kia Canada dealers now have the option to work with a "flat fee" vendor on digital advertising campaigns.
“Our Business Intelligence-driven MarTech platform will significantly benefit Kia’s Canadian dealers,” said Jeremy Anspach, CEO of PureCars. “We’re excited about helping them drive greater efficiencies to eliminate wasted ad spend and achieve the lowest ad cost per unit sold.”
PureCars provides full funnel, VIN-level attribution and business intelligence with its Pro Dealer Package. Dealers participating in PureCars’ OEM programs enjoy a range of benefits, including competitively priced and proven solutions, alignment across Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 strategies, integration with OEM incentives, heavy ups and marketing initiatives, compliant templates and creative, funds reimbursement and more.
Canadian Kia dealers can learn more about the program at: https://www.purecars.com/oem-programs/kiaca/
Canadian Kia dealers can enroll in the program at https://www.kiadealerdigital.ca/DigitalAdvertising.
About PureCars
PureCars is in the business of transforming the way dealers and automotive marketers make decisions. Everyone claims to have data, but only PureCars has PURE™ Intelligence, giving dealers a competitive edge. By providing superior information and execution, we give dealers precisely what they need to operate more efficiently, lower their cost per sale and RO -- and win in their market. PureCars has been serving the automotive industry exclusively since 2007. We are a certified digital provider for 15+ OEMs, compliant with 40+ brands and serve 65 of the top 100 dealer groups in North America.
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Media Contact:
John Sternal
Merit Mile
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PURECARS AND ASBURY AUTOMOTIVE GROUP EXTEND RELATIONSHIP FOR DIGITAL ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS
Innovation & Collaboration Have Driven Down Advertising Costs While Enhancing the Retail Customer Shopping Experience
PureCars, a leading provider of digital marketing and advertising insights for automotive dealers, today announced it has extended its relationship to provide digital advertising services to Asbury Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: ABG), one of the largest automotive retail and service companies in the U.S.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic many automotive retailers began reevaluating how they advertise, which channels and on which platforms, and identifying the right partners to work with in identifying the best ways to improve their digital advertising strategies and lower their overall cost per unit of ads sold. This key metric helps to identify the ultimate ROI in driving greater advertising expenditure efficiencies in producing vehicle sales.
The two companies began working together in 2011 and evolved into PureCars offering a Software-as-a-Services (SaaS)-based digital advertising solution to help Asbury improve its digital advertising efficiencies while lowering their cost per vehicle and RO. Together with PureCars, Asbury concentrated on cost efficiency in 2020 and it has paid off. Asbury saw Year over Year (YoY) cost efficiency gains across New, Used/CPO, and Service-related campaign segments, freeing up significant funds to reinvest in operations.
Key to the relationship has been PureCars’ SaaS offering, which is complemented by seasoned automotive industry expertise-driven human capital. This approach originally filled the need found at the largest retailers and their agency partners, but today is leveraged effectively at smaller and more mid-sized retail groups as well.
Today, Asbury and PureCars collaborate on over 90 retail rooftops combing SaaS and human capital for a comprehensive competitive advantage, including group sites for used vehicles and unique parts shopping experiences.
“Asbury and PureCars have been strong partners over the years and together we have broken the mold of the traditional vendor/dealer relationship,” said Jeremy Anspach, CEO of PureCars. “Our collaborative efforts have fostered a data-driven environment of measure-optimize-repeat to continuously improve efficiencies over time, driving a dramatically lower cost per vehicle sold, as well as the cost per RO. Furthermore, we have successfully navigated the constantly changing automotive landscape while identifying programs that benefit OEM partners and retail customers.”
“We’re proud of the accomplishments our two companies have produced and PureCars has found a way to help us push the business envelop through technology and innovation while never forgetting the car shopper’s experience,” said Miran Maric, VP & Chief Marketing Officer at Asbury Automotive Group. “The efficiencies and savings created have allowed us to produce highly effective customer-facing resources such as PushStart, further revolutionizing the car-shopper experience.”
About Asbury Automotive Group, Inc.
Asbury Automotive Group, Inc. ("Asbury"), a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Duluth, GA, is one of the largest automotive retailers in the U.S. Asbury currently operates 91 dealerships, consisting of 114 franchises, representing 31 domestic and foreign brands of vehicles. Asbury also operates 25 collision repair centers. Asbury offers customers an extensive range of automotive products and services, including new and used vehicle sales and related financing and insurance, vehicle maintenance and repair services, replacement parts and service contracts.
About PureCars
Get stronger, smarter intelligence with PureCars. Our proprietary automotive digital marketing platform is built on the expertise of a wide range of car people — from data scientists to digital advertising experts — working relentlessly to ensure your dealership keeps growing. We make decisions rooted in strategy, not speculation, and have the proof in every penny.
Take your numbers to the next level with our comprehensive suite of solutions that address every aspect of your business, from sales to fixed ops. With PureCars, you outperform the competition and are prepared for the road ahead. Learn more at www.purecars.com.
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PURECARS RELEASES OTT ADVERTISING FOR AUTOMOTIVE DEALER PARTNERS, AGENCY PARTNERS & TIER 2 AGENCIES
Growing Medium Offers Low CPM, Dynamic Messaging, & Segmented Data for Personalization & Reach
PureCars, a leading provider of digital marketing and advertising insights for automotive dealers, today announced the release of PureCarsTV, a programmatic OTT buying solution built exclusively for automotive advertisers.
OTT (Over The Top) Video refers to any video delivered to the end user without the assistance of broadcast airwaves, or a set top cable or satellite TV box. OTT audiences are inclusive of SmartTVs from a multitude of manufacturers, and Connected TV Devices including Amazon FireTV, Google Chromecast, Roku, Apple TV etc, and is also inclusive of other online delivered video on Video platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Instagram.
Today’s online ecosystem offers an ideal medium for the delivery and consumption of video advertising formats. Unlike traditional television, the internet is universal in how it delivers content and is a far more granular and targeted environment for the delivery of advertising messages. CTV has become critical for dealers and agency partners looking for a complete-funnel solution to leverage audience reach and deliver messages to local car shoppers. Industry estimates show that CTV households are expected to grow 82% by 20231, and cord-cutter and cord-never households will increase to 44% of the population2 during the same period.
Through PureCars’ OTT digital advertising services, automotive dealers can broadcast OTT ads to their locally targeted audiences using data-driven programmatic ad purchasing methods. OTT advertising for dealers is essential today for optimized advertising personalization and should be a cornerstone piece of every dealer’s demand generation strategy. With PureCarsTV, local dealers can deliver a specific ad to a particular in-market shopper or household. Instead of running the same ad for all viewers of a TV show, dealers can run a variety of ad spots to different people depending on their purchase intent, behavioral markers, and any number of household demographics or characteristics. While watching similar programs, consumers will be shown different dealership ads that better correspond to their likes, interests, age, level of income, etc.
Through PureCarsTV, dealers can average lower than $35 CPM and ensure those impressions are only delivered to their target audience, which helps eliminate wasted ad dollars commonly associated with wide scale broadcast or cable television buys. A well-structured broadcast or cable television buy would conservatively range from $7-$20+ CPM, across all viewers, whether the audience is in the market to buy or not.
As dealerships experience ongoing margin erosion, it’s important for them to explore opportunities to optimize historically wasteful traditional media channels. Currently, 49% of all video ad impressions today are through OTT channels5, and the lower CPMs mean dealers can reach in-market shoppers with more frequency, and less wasted dollars in their finite ad budget. To accurately compare traditional to digital, advertisers must apply calculations to the amount of in market shoppers that are reached by each campaign type. For instance, when assessing TV, assuming 11.51% (14.8 MM SAAR projected for 2020) of households will buy in a given year3, and a 3 month purchase cycle4, that would put the conservative effective CPM for in-market shoppers reached in traditional television between $230 and $689 vs. $30-40 CPM in highly targeted OTT.
“Consumer migration to internet-enabled TVs and CTV devices represents a unique opportunity for dealers and their agency partners to reach more potential car shoppers,” said Jeremy Anspach, CEO of PureCars. “The ability to reach a larger number of people through a growing medium at a low price point, while taking advantage of the great data segmentation for personalization offers a number of benefits for dealerships today.”
1: eMarketer, Connected TV Households, July 2019, US Population
2: eMarketer, July 2019, US Population
4: https://www.coxautoinc.com/learning-center/2019-car-buyer-journey-study/
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How Dealers Can Successfully Tap into Election Cycle Digital Advertising
An estimated $400 million1 worth of presidential campaign advertising, and possibly more, is likely to hit Americans’ television programming over the next few weeks as the race for the Presidential election heats up. These numbers, reported recently in The Wall Street Journal, show just how important advertising has become today to persuade millions of voters.
Advertising has become as much a part of the election season as its impact usually is on the Super Bowl. Early forecasts showed political ad spending will total $9.9 billion in total during 2020, according to an advertising forecast2 from WPP PLC’s ad-buying unit GroupM also published in The Wall Street Journal.
The benefit of tapping into election cycle advertising cycles
Auto dealers recognize that many viewers, who are also potential car-shoppers, are tuned into their televisions and realize this to be an opportune time to capture mindshare, especially in a year that has seen millions of car sales washed away by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, dealers also realize the cost to advertise also increases around each November election, but it’s not always because of the election that these costs tend to increase.
With each major election taking place in November, dealers are also up against a flurry of retailers who are also tapping into holiday and end-of-year sales promotions. This push often results in higher prices for advertising not only on television, but also online and for social marketing as well.
Social Marketing costs are also expected to rise
In fact, according to a report by Kantar Media, the current president and many others on the ballot have been active themselves advertising on Facebook, with approximately $37.6 million3 already spent on social media marketing during the first six months of 2019, versus $2.2 million spent on television ads. This emphasis on social and digital advertising is expected to continue through this November.
An analysis by PureCars found that during the 2016 November election, digital ad clicks (CPC) rose as much as 29%-64% in the second half of the year.
Tips to help dealers successfully advertise during election seasons
How can dealers successfully tap into the election cycle? For starters they should be especially focused on local keywords in all their digital advertising to optimize their efforts and see the largest possible return on their investment. They should also work closely with their account representatives and be wary of having their ads placed near or in affiliation with false, misleading or abusive political advertising. “Political fatigue” is certainly a thing at this time of year, and many consumers may actually seek out non-political content online or in their favorite social platform.
Dealers may also want to consider starting their schedules a few weeks AFTER the election is completed. This way they will still take advantage of more people tuning in for post-election analysis but may avoid the heightened rates.
Dealers should also consider video to reach consumers at this time of year. Many consumers online and using social channels connect well with video content, and in a year when empathy has been a primary message, video has helped dealers connect with potential car shoppers on a more emotional level. This will remain through the end of the year as the pandemic continues to impact the broader economy.
Flexibility is also key this time of year and around election season. Dealers will want to work with digital media counterparts and have several different placement options available to choose from as ads and ad placement options are continuously shuffled. It is also a good idea to ask for alternate options from the media outlet for in-content opportunities and promotions across all digital channels and exposure placements.
While the cost of digital advertising is expected to rise in the coming months, dealers can leverage these tips to maximize their advertising investment to connect, engage, and transact with car shoppers so they can make the most of their 2020 sales goals through the end of the year.
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