Online auto advertising expected to increase this year

Here’s a startling fact: More than 100,000 people have downloaded the iPhone app from AutoScout24, a German automotive web site.
And another: AutoTrader.co.uk generates more than 1.1 million searches per month through mobile devices alone, along with 9.5 million GPS tracking reports and 25,000 calls to dealers per month from its 300,000 unique users — again, just on mobile.
Those are two of the many eye-openers we found in our research on print and online auto advertising. Our research shows shows automotive advertising worldwide is on the rebound this year. Unfortunately for many newspapers, most of that growth is likely to come online.
Researchers at the AIM Group, which publishes Classified Intelligence Report, surveyed executives in the auto advertising industry globally for its report, “Revving Up: Online Auto Ads Rebounding Globally,” which contains statistical data about auto advertising markets in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The data were published in conjunction with Autobiz, a classified advertising data analysis company based in Paris.
Of the 20 executives surveyed (including Chip Perry, president and CEO of AutoTrader.com in the United States; Genevieve LeBrun of Trader Corp./AutoTrader in Canada; Nikolas Deskovic of AutoScout24 in Germany; Stephen Browning of CarsGuide.com/News Ltd. in Australia; Domenico Errico, who heads up three Italian auto sites; and Tim Peake of Trader Media Group in the United Kingdom), 17 expected improvement this year in online advertising revenue. Only one expected a continued decline. Several projected “significantly better” advertising this year, and some noted that a rebound began in mid-2009.
The recovery varies widely by market. Declines are expected to continue in print auto ads. Executives of online auto sites in several European countries projected limited growth, while Errico said, “We don’t see any rebound.” In the United States and Canada, several executives projected double-digit growth.
Our research indicates the three major developing areas for online auto advertising are:

• Growing use of mobile devices for searches, rather than just PC screens.
• Interactive video and its use by dealers, manufacturers, and private-party advertisers to sell cars.
• Integration of social media into auto sales.

“Social media will continue to play an even larger role in vehicle purchases as communities grow and share information and opinions, outside the control of advertisers and manufacturers,” said Deep Menon of Adicio, a leading technology vendor for auto sites. “We’ll see more individualidation with sites catering to niche interests, continuously splitting into more unique and specific realms of the automotive industry such as microsites that focus on low carbon footprint vehicles and initiatives.”