According to a new study published by DT University, the educational and training center of DialogTech, despite the well-publicized shift in automotive digital advertising spend to mobile, most phone calls to dealerships are still generated by consumers shopping on their desktops and laptops, not their smartphones.
That trend is even more pronounced during the two peak sales seasons for dealerships in North America. The study should cause automotive marketers focusing primarily on mobile to reconsider how they allocate digital ad spend.
The DT University study, which examined data from the DialogTech voice management platform on over 1.1 million phone calls to thousands of North American dealerships, found that:
- 54.8 percent of call conversions from Tier 1 (manufacturer/OEM) and Tier 3 (local dealership) websites are from shoppers on their desktops and laptops
- Only 45.2 percent of calls come from visitors on mobile devices
The gap between desktop- and mobile-generated calls is even more pronounced during the automotive industry’s two peak sales seasons from March to May and September to November:
First Peak Sales Season
- March: 22.2% more calls from desktop/laptop than mobile
- April: 27.3% more calls from desktop/laptop than mobile
- May: 27.3% more calls from desktop/laptop than mobile
Second Peak Sales Season
- September: 22.2% more calls from desktop/laptop than mobile
- October: 22.2% more calls from desktop/laptop than mobile
- November: 56.4% more calls from desktop/laptop than mobile
The study also found that shoppers who call a dealership purchase vehicles on average 10 times more than consumers who fill out a form on a Tier 1 or Tier 3 website, making calls more valuable conversions to generate from digital advertising campaigns.
“When you ramp up digital ad spending during peak sales seasons, don’t forget to target desktop shoppers – they drive the most calls and revenue,” said Alain Stephan, SVP of Analytics Services at DialogTech.
The full DT University study can be found here.
SOURCE DT University
Edited by G. Davila
