Auto Advertisers Using Behavioral Targeting

What happens when all the ad space is taken up in top automotive Web sites such as NADA Guides, Kelly Blue Book, and Vehix? Auto advertisers that don’t get ad space on these target sites have been turning to behavioral marketing and have been quite successful. Behavioral targeting involves using creative sources and specifically targeting the demographic the advertiser would like to reach.

With behavioral marketing and automotive advertising there needs to be three different parties involved with each having a valued proposition. The three parties involved are the automotive Web site where the behavior is being captured, the Web site where the ad is running which is non automotive, and the advertiser. With top automotive Web sites having no inventory left for new ads, the automotive advertiser is spending their money first to reach people that are known to be in the market and then the advertiser will continue working up the funnel.

Most consumers in the market shop around for about eight weeks before making a purchase. During this time the consumer will most likely visit four or five automotive Web sites visiting each of them two or three times. The rest of the consumer’s online time will be spent on non automotive Web sites however they still are in the market and therefore receptive to car messaging. This is the chance for automotive marketers to reach them with behavioral targeting because once the user leaves an automotive Web site; they can capture this information and benefit from it.

One main concern of auto dealers using automotive space mixed with behavioral targeting is having a very creative and catchy ad to grab the viewer’s attention. Through research it’s been found that automotive advertisers plan to use behavioral targeting in 2006 and increase there spending limits throughout the upcoming years. So agencies that are able to provide automotive advertisers with creative resources should implement this into their strategy for the upcoming years as well.