Car buying has evolved dramatically. In today’s landscape, car dealerships face a trifecta of challenges: unpredictable inventory, inflation, and shifting post-COVID consumer behaviors. Moving vehicles off the lot efficiently and meeting consumer demands have become akin to hitting a moving target. The solution? Embracing innovative digital marketing strategies, with Connected TV (CTV) advertising leading the charge.
The Digital Drive: Where Car Buying Begins
The journey to purchasing a car increasingly starts in the digital realm. Prospective buyers now scour the internet, conducting thorough research before ever setting foot in a dealership. This shift places a heavy onus on dealers to ensure their digital presence is compelling and effective. While a stellar website, strong search engine optimization (SEO), and a robust social media presence are foundational, many dealerships are missing out on a critical component: CTV advertising.
The Power Shift: TV to CTV
Traditional TV advertising has long been a cornerstone of automotive marketing. However, as consumers transition from cable to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Paramount+, CTV has emerged as a potent tool for reaching potential buyers. The numbers tell the story: with 71 million auto intenders residing in streaming households and 79% of car shoppers engaging with ad-supported video content, the reach and influence of CTV cannot be ignored.
A study by the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) highlights the significant impact of TV on the car buying process. Millennials, for instance, are twice as likely to discover their local dealership via TV (56%) compared to online search (26%). Moreover, 40% of millennials cite TV as their primary motivator for taking a test drive. These statistics underscore the continued relevance of TV in the digital age, but with a twist — it's TV in a new form.
The Reach of CTV: Beyond Traditional Boundaries
CTV isn’t just another advertising channel; it represents a fundamental shift in how dealerships can connect with potential buyers. Traditional broadcast TV, while still valuable, is losing ground to the rise of streaming services. By 2026, eMarketer predicts nearly 81 million households in the U.S. will have cut the cord, opting out of traditional cable or satellite TV. In contrast, Digital TV Research projects that 86% of American households will have at least one streaming subscription by 2027, with an average of 4.37 subscriptions per home.
This migration to streaming means that CTV can reach audiences that traditional TV misses, particularly the elusive cord-cutters and cord-nevers. For dealerships, this translates to an opportunity to extend their reach beyond the confines of linear TV, tapping into a broader, more engaged audience.
Precision Targeting: The Hyper-Local Advantage
One of the most compelling advantages of CTV advertising is its ability to target audiences with pinpoint accuracy. Traditional TV advertising relies on Designated Market Areas (DMAs) and broad demographic data, which can be limiting and imprecise. CTV, on the other hand, allows for hyper-local targeting, drilling down to specific geographic areas, right down to individual households.
Imagine a dealership in a region covering multiple DMAs, such as Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. To reach potential customers across these areas using traditional TV, the dealership would need to invest in a multi-station, multi-DMA campaign, significantly inflating the budget. However, with CTV advertising, the dealership can precisely target their desired audience within specific zip codes, ensuring that their ads reach the right viewers without the waste associated with broad DMA buys.
Segmentation and Personalization: Tailoring the Message
Not all car buyers are created equal. Different demographics, interests, and purchase intents call for tailored marketing approaches. CTV excels in this area, enabling dealerships to segment their audiences and deliver personalized content that resonates with each group.
For example, a dealership might use CTV to target young professionals interested in the latest tech features, families looking for safe and spacious vehicles, or retirees interested in comfort and reliability. By leveraging both first-party data from their CRM and third-party data from trusted providers, dealerships can gain deep insights into customer preferences and behaviors. This allows for the creation of highly relevant and engaging ad content, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
Cross-Device Campaigns: A Seamless Buyer’s Journey
Today’s car buyers expect a seamless, integrated experience across multiple devices. From initial awareness to final purchase, they engage with content on their TVs, smartphones, tablets, and laptops. CTV advertising allows dealerships to create cohesive cross-device campaigns that guide buyers through each stage of the journey.
For instance, a dealership might start by raising awareness through engaging CTV ads, then retarget interested viewers with mobile ads showcasing specific vehicles.
As buyers progress in their research, they might encounter personalized promotions on their laptops, encouraging them to book a test drive or request more information. This multi-touchpoint approach not only enhances the buyer’s experience but also boosts campaign performance. A study comparing 30-second ads across multiple channels found a 15% lift in purchase intent when ads aired on TV and digital channels combined.
Accurate Measurement: Tracking Success
One of the standout features of CTV advertising is its ability to provide detailed performance metrics. Traditional TV advertising often falls short in this area, offering limited visibility into ad effectiveness. CTV changes the game, allowing dealerships to track high-level metrics such as impressions and video completion rates, as well as more granular data like website conversions and footfall attribution.
For example, dealerships can measure how many viewers who saw their CTV ads subsequently visited their website, booked a test drive, or even walked into the dealership. This level of insight enables dealers to optimize their campaigns, allocate budget more effectively, and ultimately achieve better ROI.
Origin: Elevating CTV Advertising for Dealerships
Origin's suite of performance CTV advertising solutions is particularly relevant for car dealerships looking to maximize their advertising effectiveness. Origin’s zero code CTV ad formats enable marketers to deliver dynamic and captivating ad experiences both inside and outside the home. Their products, such as the dynamic overlay format Aperture, allow for highly engaging and interactive ads that can significantly boost viewer engagement and conversion rates.
For car dealerships, Origin’s solutions can be tailored to target specific geographic areas, demographics, and even individual households, ensuring that ads reach the most relevant audiences. This level of precision targeting is invaluable in a market where competition is fierce, and customer attention is fragmented across various devices and platforms. This case study for an auto CTV advertiser demonstrates perfectly all of this being achieved.
Conclusion
In conclusion, CTV advertising offers car dealerships a powerful tool to navigate the complexities of the modern automotive market. By leveraging the reach, precision targeting, personalization, and measurable results of CTV, dealerships can connect with the right buyers, drive foot traffic, and ultimately boost sales. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, embracing CTV advertising is not just an option — it’s a necessity for staying competitive and thriving in the automotive industry.
Book a call with one of our sales professionals to learn more:
Origin is an award-winning Creative Technology company whose zero code CTV ad formats enable marketers to deliver dynamic and responsive ad experiences in the living room and outside the home.
With unparalleled creative capabilities and proprietary ad serving technology, Origin’s off-the-shelf and custom solutions are trusted by agencies, brands, creative teams and programmatic platforms who want the ads they run to get the attention, engagement and outcomes they deserve.
Founded by media veterans Stephen Strong and Fred Godfrey, Origin is driven by the belief that to win a viewer today, we must look beyond how it was done yesterday.
Learn more at: originmedia.tv
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