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The global shift from traditional radio to digital audio platforms has changed a lot more than just the tech world — it's changed the way auto dealerships can reach potential customers and motivate them. People can plug into audio channels just about anywhere, including their cars.
With the growth of in-car entertainment systems with enhanced connectivity, most modern cars are able to automatically connect cell phone audio to a car's speakers. Many cars have touch screens and smart applications that let consumers stream their favorite music, podcasts, and digital radio on demand.
In 2024, podcasts and online audio were used more than in previous years, with 55% and 32% respectively using these formats when on the go. With a well-timed, targeted ad served to a captive audience, you can catch a prospective lead and pull them into the customer journey pipeline.
In this article, we'll look at how audio advertising for auto dealerships has changed and how modern auto dealerships use innovations in digital audio advertising to sell more cars.
The Connected Car: Vehicles Are Now Streaming Platforms
Nearly every new car on the market has digital audio capabilities, mobile integration, a touch screen, and the ability to connect to various applications. The in-vehicle infotainment market is projected to grow from $18.8 billion in 2023 to $31.4 billion by 2028. That means drivers and passengers will have a wide range of listening options at their fingertips.
With all these new options, modern drivers are increasingly choosing to tune out from local radio. On-demand streaming is now — and will likely forever be — one of our favorite, convenient ways to get audio entertainment. While listening to music in the car still reigns supreme as the favorite activity, listening habits are shifting. More people are turning to their favorite podcast hosts to keep them entertained on commutes, road trips, and errand runs.
The Connected Consumer: Car Shoppers Prefer the Digital Path to Purchase
From awareness to discovery, to consideration and purchase — the new auto buyer's journey really starts and ends online. While consumers may encounter many different types of information, on average, car shoppers are influenced by 6-7 different sources. That's much higher than the average for purchases overall, which is 1- 2 sources. Many consumers now prefer the digital path to purchase.
- A quarter of buyers (25%) look to buy cars online, up from 18% in 2021.
- An estimated 39% of car dealers now enable consumers to complete every step of the auto buying process online.
- By 2030, the global online car buying market is expected to reach $723 billion, up from its 2020 market value of $238 billion.
The fact is, many of today’s car shoppers are discovering products online and want to compare vehicles, options, features, colors, packages, dealers, and rates from the comfort of their own phones. They also are looking for recommendations from their favorite podcast hosts or online communities. They're watching short video reviews from influencers on TikTok. Bringing your auto advertising into the digital age means expanding your market reach to the right spaces.
According to the latest EY Mobility Consumer Index (MCI), the dealership remains an important part of the process, with 66% saying they want to physically experience the car at a dealership and 61% saying they want to complete the purchase there, a number that has risen steadily from 54% in 2021.
The Power of Digital Audio Advertising in the Sales Funnel
How do you build the bridge between a person doing research on vehicles and getting them onto the lot? Marketing can provide the necessary one-two punch with cross-device targeting. Imagine a 30-something young professional who types "best hatchbacks hybrids 2025" into Google, then browses for a bit. She realizes she's late to pick up her child from daycare. She opens her favorite streaming platform on the dashboard. The music selection is a bit overwhelming, so she puts on her favorite parenting podcast for the 25 minute drive. Ten minutes in, thanks to dynamic ad insertion, she's hearing an ad for "Beach Ford," a local auto dealership.
Once she parks in the school lot, she looks down and notices a banner ad for a hatchback at Beach Ford that caught her eye when she was researching earlier in the day. She clicks the banner, and sees exactly what kind of hatchback hybrids Beach Ford has to offer. Buckling her daughter into her car seat, she decides that a sedan just isn't going to cut it as the family car — she and her partner are talking about having another baby. She calls Beach Ford and makes an appointment to see what they have to offer. That's the power of reaching your target audience with a strategic ad placement, andre-targeting.
The Targeting Advantage
In the realm of digital advertising strategy, the name of the game is "targeting." That is, you want to make sure your ads are landing in the right ears — the ones who are most likely to become sales.
So, now the question becomes: How can your dealership reach these interested car shoppers who are ready to buy?
Enter AudioGO's behavioral targeting feature. A tool that lists up 221 different user statuses and interests to help you target the listeners for your audio ad. You can choose from options like married, employed, new parents, in addition to more targeted options like car buyers, car owners, luxury car buyers, used car shoppers, and car enthusiasts.
A perfect vehicle for generating new leads. With AudioGO, you can also target blocs of people relative to:
- Gender
- Age group
- Device: mobile phones & tablets, PCs & laptops, or smart speakers
- Predictive audiences: choose from interests, activities, and personas derived from Comscore user data
- Genres, such as music streaming content or podcast content
The Location Advantage
We learned earlier that while interested buyers do most of their research online, they still want to travel to a dealership for an in-person user experience and test drive. That means that you have to make sure your ad is served to the people in your local community.
And for that, we recommend using our Zip Code targeting feature. This way you can get in really close to your local communities and neighborhoods. Other geotargeting segments include: state, county, city, MSA (metropolitan state area), and DMA (designated market area).
The Cost Advantage
Buying Google ads and paid search advertising have been effective marketing techniques for the automotive industry for years. But now the automotive search advertising market has become more competitive and costly. Dealerships are facing higher marketing expenses, higher cost per leads, and less profitability at the end of the day.
In their 2023 Full Year Report, NADA data found the nation’s 16,835 franchised dealers spent 4% more on advertising in 2023 than the previous year for a combined $8.9 billion — up $330 million from 2022. Of course, dealerships want to spend those ad dollars wisely.
Auto dealers have improved their ad campaign performance by including audio advertising.
For example, audio advertising can help increase brand recognition as users hear ads on their favorite podcasts and then later search online for deals they heard about. This subsequently improves the performance of their paid search campaigns as users search online and paid ads are front and center. Additionally, advertisers can use display retargeting for those listeners to reach them again.
Fortunately, ad costs are also where AudioGO beats a lot of competitors.
AudioGO includes dynamic pricing, which allows advertisers to optimize ad spend, securing the most relevant audience impressions at the lowest price.
With minimums as low as $250, you won't find a more affordable solution to market your dealership on some of the biggest music streaming, digital radio, live sports, news, and podcast apps around.
Not to mention, if you don't have an audio ad to get started, it'll run you only $10 to have one recorded by our team of real, professional voice actors. Or, for $0, you can opt for a synthetic voiceover for your ad.
No matter what kind of creative content or audio branding you have in mind for your dealership, AudioGO can make ad personalization a reality
Measure Your Returns, Market Better
Data analytics are what can make a good advertising campaign even better. AudioGO can also offer auto dealerships crucial visibility into their digital audio advertising performance with real-time reporting of metrics like impressions, tracking listener engagement rates, and even post-listening experience actions.
Our integrated attribution models can show dealerships which creative messaging drives website visits, the submission of forms, or in-person showroom traffic. This data helps immensely with budget optimization — shifting ad spend toward high-performing ads or demographic segments that deliver the strongest results.
With real-time reporting dashboards, marketing managers can make immediate adjustments rather than waiting for monthly reports so that every advertising dollar works efficiently. This level of transparency transforms audio from a brand awareness channel (car commercials) into a measurable driver of qualified leads with demonstrable ROI (sales conversions) for the dealership's bottom line. In addition, AudioGO Pixel tracks user actions and conversions on your website.
Let's jump into a real-world example of a company that used AudioGO to transform the way they do auto sales.
Case Study in Audio Advertising for Auto Dealerships: Formatic Digital & Allen of Monroe
Formatic Digital, an automotive digital marketing agency, and Allen of Monroe, a Chevy dealership in Monroe, Michigan, partnered with AudioGO to tap into this burgeoning audio advertising channel.
The end result was that Allen of Monroe was able to reach more local car buyers. Here’s how it worked:
Formatic Digital delivered over 180,000 audio ads for Allen of Monroe to a highly engaged audience actively seeking new cars in their local market. With an average frequency of 12 ads per listener, the campaign not only penetrated the community but also was effective at amplifying its message.
Moreover, Allen of Monroe was able to identify listeners who had heard the audio ads and to retarget them with display ads. This strategy alone resulted in over 260 clicks to their website from those banners and drove hundreds of unique listeners who heard the ad directly to their website — all of which can be meticulously tracked.
John Allen, President of Allen of Monroe, says: "The combination of audio and display is powerful. Reaching the same car buyers multiple times in a month with audio ads and display ads encourages buyers to learn more online and come buy a car in person. Add in all the tracking mechanisms, and it is clear that audio is having a noticeable impact on my business.”
AudioGO's ad tracking reporting provided helpful data as the campaign progressed, including the impressions, number of listeners and clicks, and demographic breakdown. They also received a real-time view of ad spend that showed how much funds have been used from the predetermined budget.
John Allen emphasized the significance of delivering the right message to the right audience: "It has to be something they want to hear about. Knowing who my customers are and what my customers want, I know I can reach them with the right message by targeting them based on where they are, who they are, and the fact that they are in the market to buy when they hear my ad.”
Ready to Take It for a Spin?
Ready to give AudioGO a try now? It takes just a few minutes to put together an advertisement campaign:
- Set your budget.
- Choose the schedule for airing ads.
- Upload your own audio or have one created for you.
- Define your demographic audience. You’ll be able to determine specific locations by city or Zip Code, and target listeners by age, gender, listener device, and over 500 different personas like 'new car buyers' or 'used car buyers' to name a few.
