eMarketer just published a story that automotive ad spending has fallen to No. 2 behind retail - something that hasn’t happened in a long time.
The automotive industry is having a rough year, and the effects are spilling over into its advertising. In Q1 2008, online was the only medium for which automotive ad spending did not fall compared with Q1 2007, according to Bernstein Research.
The research firm said that even Internet ad spending by automakers rose only 3.8%, accounting for 8.6% of total advertising—down from Q4 2007 when it reached nearly 10% of the industry’s total.
“After consistently leading the US in advertising spending, the automotive sector has dropped into the No. 2 spot behind retail,” said Lisa E. Phillips, senior analyst at eMarketer.
What’s NOT suprising to me is that all categories of ad spending are off with the sole exception of Internet. Newspapers and Radio/Outdoor have taken the biggest hit.
So what are you doing with your internet budget? Buying internet leads? Hiring an SEO vendor? Trying some Pay Per Click advertising? Can your dealership afford $99/month to drive quality traffic, gain valuable SEO text links, leverage consumer reviews, track phone leads and saturate page 1 of Google with your brand? NO? Then you should lock the doors and just head home right now. If $99/month seems rediculously cheap for quality links & traffic, then head over to our signup page and purchase 6 months of advertising - if you don’t think it was worth the investment, we’ll give you 6 months free - and that’s no joke.
