The auto buyer’s path to purchasing a new car is extended and complex. There are 24 average touchpoints, 19 of which are digital (Google). In order to reach an engaged car buyer and get them to your car lot, it’s essential to adopt multiple targeting tactics that cover the full car buying journey.

High-volume automotive dealers need to target potential customers from the initial search that signals interest in car buying — such as a search for “new car” or “family sedan reviews” — all the way through their online research.

But the potential to reach the buyer doesn’t stop once they’ve completed their research at home, it continues while en route to the dealership or while at a competitor’s lot via location based mobile advertising. With nearly 23% of car buyers using their mobile phones to research their purchase on while on the car lot (comScore), it’s clear that the importance of reaching a highly targeted audience through mobile is a must.

Given that the auto industry is very localized by nature, there is tremendous interest and need for using location data in auto advertising. Location-based intent data helps marketers precisely reach consumers at that all-important moment when they are interacting with the digital and physical world together.

With the need to reach car buyers across all stages of their purchasing journey, auto advertisers should adopt a localized programmatic strategy with cross-channel targeting capabilities. This enables them to optimize audiences to local needs and deliver dynamic, customized creative for different dealership locations, throughout the full buying process.

To help auto advertisers better understand localized programmatic and how it can help increase the bottom line, join us next week as we do a deep dive into exploring digital advertising tactics and solutions specific to auto dealerships.