New Car Buyers Use Social Media More Than Search Engines
By Anna Johnson on October 21st, 2009According to ‘clickstream’ research by J.D. Power and Associates and Compete, social media networking websites, such as Facebook, have greater reach among new-vehicle prospects than do online search engines or portals, such as Google and Yahoo.
J.D. Power and Associates reported its research results at the recent 2009 J.D. Power and Associates Automotive Internet Roundtable. The company, along with Internet research firm, Compete, tracked and analyzed the actual URLs visited by new-vehicle buyers and also found that:
- One-third of buyers visit an automotive brand site or third-party site six months or more prior to making a vehicle purchase.
- Two-thirds of buyers visit an automotive brand site or third-party site three months prior to purchase.
- Nearly one in five buyers (19 percent) who shop online first turn to dealer sites, with 41 percent first visiting manufacturer websites and 40 percent visiting third-party automotive sites first.
- New-vehicle buyers who shop online consider 2.9 vehicles, on average, before settling on one.
