Industry marketing
Automotive marketing
How can Amazon Ads fit into the marketing strategy for your automotive business? Learn about the advertising solutions we can offer automotive marketers, on and off Amazon.
What is automotive marketing?
Automotive marketing helps you connect with prospective car shoppers, both near-market audiences (shoppers who might be 3-6 months out from purchasing a car) and in-market shoppers (higher-intent shoppers who are less than 3 months from purchasing a car).
The automotive industry today
In today's automotive industry, brands and dealerships are innovating vehicle technology while at the same time adapting their buying process in order to match changing customer preferences and the digital marketing landscape. Meanwhile, advertising remains an important channel for brand messaging and building relationships with customers.
Automotive marketing trends
2021 forecasted global light vehicle sales are expected to exceed 68MM.1
65% of US dealers expect accelerated development of online vehicle sales and booking platforms.2
14% increase in total expected automotive ad spending worldwide in 2021.3
Challenges facing automotive brands
Shift from linear TV
TV ads have been a staple of automotive marketing for decades due to TV’s effectiveness at delivering memorable ads and messaging. But viewers are shifting away from linear to streaming services, spending 57% more time streaming in 2020 compared to the previous year.4
Driving early consideration
The automotive shopping journey has moved increasingly to online channels, and potential customers are researching and forming opinions heading into their purchases. In fact, nearly half (48%) of car buyers were already decided on the vehicle make or model prior to purchase.5
Vehicle electrification
While electric vehicles (EVs) represented only 2.5% of all global new car sales in 2019, they are forecast to represent 32% by 2030.6 This change is being driven by a combination of global shifts in consumer sentiment and energy policy.
Insights for automotive marketers
83% of Amazon shoppers are either cord-cutters—audiences who switch from pay TV subscriptions to streaming media services—or cord-stackers—audiences who subscribe to both pay TV and streaming TV.7
Frequent Amazon shoppers visit an average 2.6 car dealerships versus only 2 for less-frequent Amazon shoppers.8
Frequent Amazon shoppers are 3 times more likely to purchase an electric or hybrid vehicle compared to less-frequent Amazon shoppers.9
63% of car buyers experienced a life-changing event such as a family, home, or hobby change before purchasing a vehicle.10
Automotive marketing examples
Learn how ŠKODA saw a 50% lift in purchase intent with an awareness campaign using Amazon DSP, combined with high-impact creative on Fire tablet, Amazon, and IMDb.
The luxury vehicle company drove over 600 test drives through its integrated marketing campaign with Amazon Ads.
Discover how Mitsubishi Motors utilized Amazon Live to debut their all-new 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander.
Automotive advertising strategies
Build awareness with streaming TV
Use Amazon Streaming TV ads to engage shopping, automotive, and lifestyle audiences that you can’t access with any other media provider. You also have the opportunity to reach cord-cutters and cord-nevers who use Fire TV devices. Plus, with over 55MM+ viewers of ad-supported streaming content, we can help your campaigns scale at a designated market area (DMA) level.11
Discover unique audiences
Access unique vehicle in-market audiences using shopping signals from Amazon Vehicles and Amazon's Your Garage. Amazon can also help you develop a near-market strategy that aligns vehicle promotions with your customers’ life events and interests, such as advertising EV models to shoppers who have indicated interests in green or Climate Pledge Friendly products.
Advertise programmatically across screens
With Amazon DSP, you can gain a singular view of your audiences and connect seamlessly between desktop and mobile devices. Sizmek Ad Suite is a global, multichannel ad server that offers creative tools, campaign management and optimization, and Media Rating Council-accredited measurement.
1 Scotiabank; Bloomberg; Ward’s, Global, October 2020
2 IHS Markit, US, October 2020
3 WARC’s Global Ad Trends: State of the Industry 2020/1, Global, November 2020
4 Conviva’s State of Streaming, Global, Q3 2020
5 Kantar and Amazon Advertising auto shopping study, US, April 2020
6 Deloitte Insights – Electric Vehicles, Global, July 2020
7 Kantar and Amazon Advertising TV viewers study, US, August 2020
8 Kantar and Amazon Advertising auto shopping study, US, April 2020
9 Kantar and Amazon Advertising auto shopping study, US, April 2020
10 Kantar and Amazon Advertising auto shopping study, US, April 2020
11 Nielsen Media Impact and Amazon internal, US, 2021