US Automotive Insights ‘Pickup’ the Competition Insights that help you understand the path to purchase and how top-selling pickup trucks are ranked and searched against competing models
Trucking Ahead
With the microchip shortage impacting car availability,1 there has been an increased urgency for buyers to make a decision before getting sidelined. Dwindling access to supply has significantly decreased the time it is taking for a user to contact the dealership, with pickup truck buyers who considered payment options taking 3 fewer days before contacting a dealership.
Knowing that this customer journey is happening more quickly, it’s never been more important to tap into audience insights to:
Understand the “pickup path to purchase”
Today’s pickup truck buyers have specific triggers and paths to purchase. Know who this audience is and how they buy.
Learn where you rank with competitors
Through Quadrant Segment Mapping, understand how your car brand ranks among pickup truck competitors.
Pickup Path to Purchase Today’s pickup truck buyers have specific triggers and paths to purchase.
The automotive customer journey has four key touchpoints
What does the online journey look like for pickup truck buyers in recent months?
DEMOGRAPHICS Aspirers versus Intenders
Pickup trucks, like many other car segments, attract aspirational buyers as well as core in-market intenders, with this reflected in the demographics at each buyer stage. Intenders who have contacted a dealership skew mid-life (ages 30-44) compared to the aspirational site visitor who is age 21-29. This younger audience shows higher interest in promotions and payment estimator tools, highlighting that it could be a more complicated financing process for this group, and so they may be receptive to sales and financing flexibility.
Model Search
Gender: Neutral
Age: Neutral
Income: Neutral
Education: Neutral
Kids: Neutral
Promotions
Gender: Neutral
- Age: 21-29 (104)
- Income: $100k+ (106)
Education: Neutral
Kids: Neutral
Payment Estimator
Gender: Neutral
- Age: 18-34 (110)
- Income: less than $50k (105)
- Education: Grad School (110)
Kids: Neutral
Contact Dealership
Gender: Neutral
- Age: 30-44 (107)
Income: Neutral
- Education: No College (107)
Kids: Neutral
Devices Most digital research happens on mobile, but financing decisions move to desktop
General model searching is predominantly done on mobile devices, but payment estimating skews more to desktop, likely because it is a more time-intensive research exercise.
Devices While mobile phones are most widely used, desktop usage increased in recent months
Similar to macro trends, tablet usage is declining for all audience groups, and mobile phones continue to remain the most preferred device type.
Quantcast data and research show that users aged 45+ prefer laptops and desktop for online search activities, indicating a preference for larger screen experiences versus accessing information quickly using a handheld mobile device.
There are two primary paths to purchase for buyer types
Typical Auto Buyer
The majority of all test drive bookers (62%) head straight to contacting the dealership from the model info page, taking an average of 2 days.
62.3%
of all test drive bookers in 20213 day
pathing duration in 20202 day
pathing duration in 2021
The Comparison Shopper
31% of test drives lead consumers to do a same day model search, highlighting that digital research tools are used to make a final decision on make and model.
31.2%
of all test drive bookers in 2021
0 day
pathing duration in 2020 and 2021
Adding financing as a step translates to a longer decision process
The Window Shopper
Pickup truck buyers who look at financing options last often take much longer before contacting the dealership, with an average of 11 days to schedule a test drive.
1.6%
of all test drive bookers in 202113 day
pathing duration in 202011 day
pathing duration in 2021
The Price-Conscious Buyer
When price is a key factor in choosing a vehicle, it takes longer for a pickup consumer to contact a dealership, with an average of 15 days to schedule a test drive.
1.6%
of all test drive bookers in 2021
18 day
pathing duration in 2020
15 day
pathing duration in 2021
Learn Where You Rank with Competitors Through Quadrant Segment Mapping, understand how your car brand ranks among pickup truck competitors.
What is Quadrant Segment Mapping?
Understanding consumer consideration in relation to close competitors is key to growing the brand and ultimately sales. Quadrant Segment Mapping methodology allows for car brands to understand their appeal and uniqueness. These two measures are a great way to understand the car buyer mindset, honing in on make and model favorability, set against the number of competitors in a given segment.
How are makes and models mapped on a quadrant?
Using a combination of Quantcast interest and demographic data, we have mapped pickup truck models in quadrants based on their appeal and uniqueness score. Each make and model audience group is created from Quantcast’s real-time keyword interest data aggregated across publisher and tagged sites.
The Data Pickup Truck Rankings Against Competing Models
Learnings Key competitive segment takeaways
What is a cross-search indices?
It is a way for you to understand the consideration set for your specific vehicle, highlighting not only what other brands are also being searched with yours, but also how they rank in that search process.
The Data Pickup Truck Cross-Search Indices
Learnings Key competitive cross-search takeaways
It is a way for you to understand the consideration set for your specific vehicle, highlighting not only what other brands are also being searched with yours, but also how they rank in that search process.
