Engagement for carsales content continued to grow in June 2021, with Sessions up +13% year-on-year to a record 2.9M¹, as measured by Nielsen’s Digital Content Ratings Monthly report.
The result underlines three months of continuous growth in carsales content engagement, as Australian consumers seek out independent and trustworthy information to make informed purchase decisions in a strong car market.
Australian consumers trust carsales content to be informed and independent. In fact, carsales content is 78% more trusted by Australian car shoppers than its nearest competitor.2
“carsales content is proudly Australian and pitched towards consumers across all stages of life,” says Kellie Cordner, Chief Marketing Officer at carsales.
“Critically, Australians can also not only understand carsales content, but they can enjoy engaging with it and take immediate action from it due to its contextual positioning adjacent to inventory for sale, helping to deliver better outcomes for dealers and brands.”
The importance of reviews and independent advice in the car-buying journey informs the unique connection of carsales editorial content, and dealer and automaker inventory. With just one click on carsales.com.au, buyers can transition from researching a car via independent editorial content, to purchasing via a dealer or automaker’s virtual showroom.
Sitewide, Australia’s #1 for cars, carsales, delivered 30.8M sessions in June, more than 7x greater than its nearest competitors CarsGuide and GumTree Cars, and more than 17x greater than AutoTrader.¹
Visitors to carsales were also highly engaged, spending on average over 35 minutes on carsales over the course of the month. This compared to 13min:58 on GumTree Cars, 4min:58 on CarsGuide, and 8min:23 on AutoTrader.¹
carsales users logged over 415M page views in June. This result exceeds carsales’s nearest competitor GumTree Cars by more than 400M page views, and CarsGuide and AutoTrader by more than 403M and 402M page views, respectively.¹
“carsales plays a huge part in educating Aussie car buyers. And our quality traffic and strong engagement continues to supply sales opportunities for our partner dealers and brands,” Cordner says.
Cordner notes that macro trends stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic continue to drive positive sentiment towards expanded car ownership.
“Certainly, COVID-19 has impacted consumer confidence with public transport and ridesharing, and influenced more consumers to consider purchasing a new car.
“The sustained interest in cars is reflected in the volume of carsales sessions that sits above pre-pandemic levels.”
However, in the midst of robust interest in cars, some brands, models and segments are proving to be in greater demand than others.
SUVs of all sizes are increasingly in vogue, and the popularity of LCVs as work-and-play vehicles continues to increase in momentum—especially with government instant asset write-offs still in play.
June 2021 saw three utes – the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux, and Isuzu D-MAX – rack up almost 15,000 sales. Indeed, in the first six months of 2021, nearly one in four new cars sold Down Under was a ute.
Challenger brands have also grasped the unique opportunity presented by demand for cars and curtailed supply from many established marques. New brands such as MG, Haval, and LDV have achieved strong growth in key consideration and interest metrics on carsales.
Source:
1. Nielsen Digital Content Ratings, June 2021
2. carsales Loop insights community, Editorial Content survey, 8th April – 16th April 2021, n = 847
