Sun, sand, cricket and all-round good times with family and friends are synonymous with a traditional Australian summer.
Is it time to also add car buying to that list?
Some Australians might head away on holidays this Christmas and New Year’s period, but history shows that they take their car buying journey with them, as in-market buyers take advantage of increased leisure time to hunt down their new Pride and Joy.
And with OEMs investing money into high-profile, end-of-year plate runout campaigns that generate interest, summer is the perfect time to invest in the tools that help your business shift more new and aged inventory.
More leisure time frees up more car shopping
“There is a common misconception that car buying stops in the festive season. In truth, when buyers have more time off – whether it is at Christmas and Easter – car shopping activity on carsales accelerates,” explains Michael Holmes, Executive Director – Dealer.
“Historically, January is the busiest month for buyer activity on carsales, making it important for dealers to optimise their online presence.
“carsales sessions actually increased 11.2% in the month following Boxing Day (December 26th 2018 – Jan 25th 2019), compared to the preceding period (Nov 25th to Dec 25th 2018),” says Holmes.
Taking advantage of peak period
A cost-efficient way to capitalise on buyer activity over the festive season is investing in Promote Automation.
Promote Automation uses real-time carsales market intelligence to automatically purchase Promote upgrades on new and aged inventory on your behalf – ensuring that your inventory ranks higher in search results and gains more exposure from buyers in terms of views.
In a recent study, inventory published on carsales with Promote upgrades automatically purchased by Promote Automation received an average of 5.2x more views than unpromoted inventory on carsales.2
“Promote Automation keeps your business open even when your physical showroom is closed – ensuring that your inventory is in full view of buyers when they undertake relevant searches on carsales,” says Holmes.
“We know from the data that over 50% of buyer searches on carsales are not sorted.3 As a consequence, cars that have Promote upgrades applied rank higher and generate more buyer consideration and views.”
The time benefits of investing in an A.I assisted-solution such as Promote Automation cannot be understated during peak sales and holiday periods.
“Promote Automation is the perfect tool when you’re strapped for time over a busy period. It is as simple as setting your budget and strategy and reaping the benefits from automated purchasing backed by real-time market intelligence. There is no research time required and complete elimination of gut feel about which inventory items to upgrade, which helps your business achieve better results,” concludes Holmes.
Increase views on your inventory
Source
1. carsales internal data (Google Analytics), November 25 – December 25 vs December 26 – January 25 2019. 2. carsales internal data, January 2018 – June 2019. Promote Uplift calculated on all dealer stock promoted during 2018. Uplift from Promote Automation calculated from all stock promoted by Promote Automation (n = 245) since its release (Jul 2018 – Jun 2019). 3. Source: carsales internal data (Google Analytics), March 2018–March 2019.