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.

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

3:https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/09/25/2099304/0/en/TrueCar-and-ALG-Forecast-New-and-Used-Vehicle-Sales-for-September-2020-and-the-Third-Quarter.html#:~:text=Total%20SAAR%20is%20expected%20to,down%201%25%20from%20August%202020.

4: https://www.coxautoinc.com/learning-center/2019-car-buyer-journey-study/

5:https://www.marketingdive.com/news/connected-tv-spots-make-up-49-of-all-video-ad-impressions-study-says/557639/#:~:text=Dive%20Brief%3A,Reach%20shared%20with%20Marketing%20Dive