Australia’s #1 for cars, carsales.com.au, has set a new all-time-high audience in May 2020, achieving a Unique Audience of 4.8M people according to Nielsen’s Digital Ratings Monthly report – 35% higher than on the same month in 2019.¹
carsales served 33.3M sessions in the month — also up 35% on the same month last year.¹ Visitors to carsales.com.au were also highly engaged, spending on average over 37 minutes onsite over the course of the month.¹
“There’s genuine intent to buy that’s underpinning this unprecedented period of car-shopping activity,” says Kellie Cordner, Chief Marketing Officer at carsales.
“It’s providing dealers and brands with both immediate sales opportunities and prospects to keep warm over the coming months.”
A key indicator of interest in new and soon-to-be-released cars, engagement with carsales Editorial content also grew substantially in May.
A record Unique Audience of 1.4M engaged with Editorial content across carsales auto sites (carsales.com.au and motoring.com.au).¹ Editorial sessions were 63% higher than April 2020 to over 2.4M sessions according to Nielsen – another record.¹
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, buyers can transition from researching a car via editorial content, to browsing a dealer or automaker’s virtual showroom and making an informed purchase decision – all from the comfort of home.
“Our written and video reviews and comparison tests continue to inspire and educate a broad range of Australian car shoppers about the merits of different models, makes and segments – from consumers with limited auto understanding to those more knowledgeable,” continues Cordner.
“The record engagement with carsales editorial content highlights how important it is to have new cars available on-site for consumers to research and purchase.”
The sizeable increase in new car research and shopping activity comes at a time when social distancing measures have been eased and many buyers have re-evaluated their transport preferences.
Government measures such as the extended Instant Asset Write Off allowance and the traditionally strong run into the end of financial year are also likely to have contributed to the record level of audience and engagement.
The Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton and Toyota HiLux were the three most popular new cars searched on carsales in May 2020.
Key models in the booming Medium SUVs segment were also well represented in the carsales top 20, with the Toyota RAV4, Volkswagen Tiguan, Mazda CX-5, Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class and Hyundai Tucson all featuring.
Source:
1. Nielsen Digital Content Ratings, May 2020
