4 Tips for Automotive Advertising in 2024

After riding the roller coaster of market swings and industry challenges over the past few years, there’s good news ahead for automotive advertising: the experts over at Cox Automotive are expecting the U.S. auto market to return to a state of relative normalcy in 2024.

Supply chains are stable, interest rates have likely peaked, and consumer confidence is inching upward—all of which support predictions that automotive sales and revenue will grow in the coming months. To capitalize on these favorable conditions, local auto businesses should be hard at work creating an automotive advertising strategy that can deliver a steady pipeline of sales prospects.

Advertising your automotive business isn’t as simple as stealing last year’s strategy to use in 2024. As market conditions change, your ad messaging and consumer engagement strategy also need to adapt. With that in mind, here are four tips to maximize the impact of this year’s automotive digital advertising campaigns.

1. Diversity Messaging Across Incentives and Your Customer Experience

One of the biggest industry shifts expected in 2024 is the transition from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. Discounts and incentives will become a more important carrot to dangle in front of prospective vehicle buyers who know the market is on their side.

Automotive businesses will need to highlight these incentives in their ad campaigns to attract potential buyers locked in on getting a good deal. But businesses that market solely around incentives also risk ignoring other consumers who care about strong customer service and other aspects of your brand experience.

Make use of your entire messaging toolkit in 2024: incentives, convenience, your business reputation, online reviews, and other selling points that may attract consumers to your brand. By embracing a diverse approach to this messaging, you can also test out different strategies and lean into the customer pain points that drive the best ROI.

2. Invest in Search Engine Marketing for Automotive Advertising

Most vehicle purchases may take place at the dealership, but the majority of those searches start online—more specifically, on a search engine.

Prospective buyers may start by looking up information about a particular kind of car, or they may seek a vehicle that meets search criteria. According to Think With Google, for example, mobile searches for “most reliable cars” have surged in recent years, illustrating how these paths to purchase often begin.

Search engine marketing isn’t only for dealerships, either. Google notes that search “is the first place people turn when they need auto maintenance information quickly.” By investing in paid search and targeting local keywords specific to your business offerings, you can claim premium search real estate and turn search queries into a prime source of lead generation.

3. Run Remarketing Campaigns on Social Media

Auto purchases can involve a long buyer’s journey. Keeping your business and its inventory top-of-mind is critical. One of the best channels to achieve this? Using Facebook and other social platforms to execute remarketing campaigns.

Given the potential reach of these platforms, social media is often a cost-effective way to create additional touches with warm leads. Platforms like Facebook can be ideal because they allow you to create carousels where you can highlight several vehicles or products currently available for purchase—including, potentially, specific vehicles and products the prospect has already viewed online.

These paid social products can serve as versatile automotive marketing solutions offering great personalization capabilities and strong remarketing ROI.

4. Anticipate Increased Demand for EV Leases and Used EV Sales

Electric vehicles only represent a small share of current vehicle purchases. But demand is growing fast, and government incentives continue to sweeten the deal for potential buyers.

While some models of electric vehicles may see slowing demand due to restrictions on these incentives, other areas of EV growth are prime revenue opportunities for agile auto businesses. The number of new EV leases, for example, is expected to increase from 20 percent in 2023 to 25 percent in 2024.

And as the number of EV vehicles on U.S. roads steadily rises, the market for used EVs is also expected to see steady growth. Automotive marketing strategies may want to target prospective EV lessees and used EV buyers in hopes of capturing sales from an emerging—and possibly less competitive—consumer group.

Want to realize the full potential of your automotive digital marketing? An automotive marketing agency can help your business reach its goals through close collaboration with auto industry experts.

Cox Media’s in-house advertising experts can support your business through every step of the process, making it easy to create, launch and refine a digital strategy that accounts for the latest industry trends and opportunities. Ready to get started? Contact us today.