carsales.com.au, Australia’s #1 for cars posted a Unique Audience (UA) of 4.65m in August according to Nielsen’s Digital Content Ratings Monthly report.
The August result was 30% higher than the same month in 2019.
carsales session metrics were also up considerably in August. In total, carsales served 31.8m sessions in the month — up 30% on the same month last year.
Across both metrics, carsales outperformed the automotive category, which was up 22% and 25% for Unique Audience and sessions respectively.
carsales page views for August exceeded 376m – more than 6x higher than the nearest automotive category competitor.
Visitors on carsales were also highly engaged browsing the latest inventory and editorial content, spending an average of over 34 minutes on site.
“Quality traffic to carsales continues to translate into sales opportunities for our partner dealers and brands,” says Kellie Cordner, Chief Marketing Officer at carsales.
“Concerns over the using Public Transport, an influx of first-time shoppers and newly licenced consumers, the extension of the government incentives and lower fuel prices are all contributing to strong and sustained demand for cars,” she adds.
Strong demand for pre-owned vehicles on carsales is pushing up the prices of used cars. According to Moody’s Analytics, prices for used inventory is up 25% compared to the same time last year.
Toyota RAV4 Hybrid tops new car sales
Engagement with carsales Editorial content — another key indicator of interest in cars — continued to grow in August. A combined UA of 1.33m consumers interacted with written and video reviews, comparison tests and news, across carsales.com.au editorial pages and motoring.com.au. Overall, 2.58m content sessions were served across these two destinations.
The results delivered carsales.com.au editorial Unique Audience and sessions growth of 72% and 47% respectively, compared to the same month last year.
The unique connection of carsales editorial content to dealer and automaker inventory cements its increasing importance and influence in the car-buying journey. With just one click on carsales.com.au, buyers can transition from researching a car via editorial content, to purchasing via a dealer or automaker’s virtual showroom – all from the comfort of home.
Mirroring June and July search behaviour, the Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton and Toyota HiLux were the three most popular new cars searched on carsales in August.
Toyota RAV4 was the sixth most searched new car on carsales in August. According to FCAI VFACTS, the medium SUV topped August new car sales with its Hybrid variant alone.
Source: Nielsen Digital Ratings Monthly, August 2020. CMV 2020 S05 National Online Survey.
