In a challenging period, one of Australia’s fastest-growing car brands participated in an innovative carsales pilot program that generated immediate benefits…
Be seen and be considered – that’s the marketing tenet behind Sponsored Search, a new, mobile-first addition to the carsales suite of media solutions.
Designed to increase the awareness of an OEM to target in-market consumers, Sponsored Search is already empowering challenger brand, MG.
Indeed, in a trial conducted in late 2020, the fast-moving Anglo-Chinese brand boosted new car search share almost 150%.¹
Sponsored Search enables brands to leapfrog competitors and top brand search options. It is designed to disrupt consumers’ unprompted search paths and drive more traffic and engagement with an OEM’s new car search results on carsales.
“Sponsored Search is an exciting media solution for brands looking to influence consumer search behavior and ultimately drive more consumers to consider their new cars for sale on carsales,” said Charles Dangibeaud, Senior Product Manager – Media at carsales.
Highly contextual, Sponsored Search can deliver big benefits to challenger and established brands alike, and even those impacted by traditional A-Z ordering in search menus.
Challenger brand MG derived big benefits from a pilot of Sponsored Search on carsales during September and October 2020.
Via the trial, the brand heightened interest in its range of new vehicles at a time when new car search and enquires were heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The use of Sponsored Search had an immediate impact in awareness of the brand among car buyers. Over the duration of the pilot, MG’s share of consumer searches for new cars increased 149%.¹
As a consequence, MG’s share of new car details page views saw an increase of 34% during the pilot.¹
“The results of the MG pilot program speak for themselves. Sponsored Search has great potential for brands launching new models or retail campaigns, or simply looking to shift the needle on key metrics of awareness or consideration,” Dangibeaud explained.
Inherently cost-effective
Perhaps Sponsored Search’s key benefit is its inherent cost-effective nature in reaching more consumers at scale. A typical Sponsored Search campaign also runs for a standard timeframe of seven days, making it a perfect complement for any OEM retail campaign.
“Compared to other high-reach media solutions that funnel consumers to new cars for sale, Sponsored Search is a cost-effective choice,” said Dangibeaud.
“The simple nature of Sponsored Search also means that there are no lost creative costs for OEMs.”
The impending release of Sponsored Search on carsales comes at a time of strong shopping activity for brand new cars on Australia’s #1 for cars.
In fact, Sponsored Search pilot partner MG was one of the big winners of a difficult 2020.
“In 2020, MG proved that the use of an innovative solution such as Sponsored Search can help a brand cut through in the hyper-competitive Australian new car market,” Dangibeaud stated.
“We can’t wait to work with more challenger and mainstream OEMs with Sponsored Search this year, especially as new cars attract more attention on carsales,” concludes Dangibeaud.
Source: carsales internal data, 28 September – 7 October, 2020
