The Automotive Nomadic Customer
Introduction
A few years ago, reaching automotive shoppers was much easier.
You knew exactly where to spend your ad dollars, because you had your “clear-cut YouTube watchers,” your “die-hard Facebook-ers”, and then “whatever the kids were using.”
But since the pandemic, shoppers have become nomadic with their digital usage.
And this makes it hard—impossible, really—to place a dealership’s ad exactly where auto shoppers are spending time. Which means advertising is getting more expensive, while becoming less effective.
The 2 Most Expensive Challenges For Auto Marketers Today
Today, Google’s “death of the cookie”, iOS 14’s privacy lockdown, and other data policy changes are making it so that automotive marketers and General Managers alike have no choice but to hunt down leads and customers where they’re hiding.
Unsurprisingly, a recent survey revealed that 41% of marketers believed their biggest challenge was the inability to track the right data. In other words, Automotive customers aren’t all that easy to track anymore, and it’s only going to get harder.
In addition, the ever-changing habits of today’s digital shoppers are making it so that shoppers are impossible to track down. The average automotive shopper today has a whopping 40 apps on their phone, and spends a total of 494 minutes a day consuming information digitally.
The truth is, Automotive Nomadic Customers have little to no attachment to any specific app (or brand) itself, and will re-allocate their time (or $$$) to another digital medium (or brand) that provides them with more value.
However, on a positive note: once dealers know who Nomadic Customers are, where they are, and how they shop for cars, they will have the power to stop them in their tracks…
And it all starts with social media. That’s where Automotive Nomadic Customers are, and all auto marketers need is a full-funnel omni-social advertising strategy.
To combat these two challenges all while the automotive market softens, auto dealers and industry marketers are almost back to a “Spray and Pray” mentality.
Are We Back To Spray & Pray?
Today’s consumer has too many choices and a shortened attention span. To gain the same relative exposure that we did through spray and pray in the past would now bankrupt any dealership.
You simply can’t throw darts at the wall when there are hundreds of places where automotive nomadic customers are spending time. Remember, even 3 years ago you could advertise on just Facebook and Google and cast a wide enough net…But with the “New Digital” mediums of today, that simply won’t cut it.
Remember that stat about the average person having 40 mobile apps on their phone? Now factor in that Social Media and Chat apps are #1 when it comes to where mobile US users spend the most time, and that the average user today has a whopping 8.4 social media accounts, spending 4.5 hours on social media per day. (Source: Global Web Index)
The demographics of your target buyers are changing.
Guess what? They’re not all on Facebook. They’re not all on Instagram…or Snapchat or Pinterest or TikTok either.
They’re scattered everywhere; and the only way to reach them is with a true omni-social strategy – one that gets your ads, offers, and inventory in front of virtually every vehicle buyer in your market – to ensure you’re gaining share in a challenging market.
Most dealers love Facebook and Instagram’s targeting capabilities, but you should be aware that without a true omni-social strategy, many automotive intenders in your market will never put you in their consideration set when it comes time to purchase.
Why? Because you missed them on the 6 other apps they’re using outside of Meta.
And if you’re not on the majority of these platforms with a real brand presence, engagement, steady frequency, and — yes, ads —you aren’t reaching shoppers throughout the entire customer journey, which began around 90 days ago.
Before you start throwing money at the growing problem of a softening market, it’s important to understand the omni-social opportunities you have, and how to master them.
That’s why we’ve put together this massive guide, to not only help you maximize opportunities on social, but also become an expert.
![[PDF] Bulletproof Automotive Social Ad Framework For Agencies](https://buyerbridge.com/wp-content/uploads/BB-Bulletproof-Automotive-Resource-Featured-Image-1-1080x675.png)
