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Nowadays, a dealer can assume that most every customer that comes through the store’s doors has searched the Internet once or twice before deciding on a dealership to try out.

But how and when are shoppers turning to search engines, dealership websites and third-party sites during the shopping process?

A new white paper from AutoTrader.com aims to answer these questions and shed some light on how shoppers utilize these online tools.

The white paper, entitled “Digital Audience Analysis: Understanding Online Car Shopping Behavior and Sources of Traffic to Dealer Websites,” provides insights about “the actual behaviors of online shoppers that dealers and OEMs can — and should — use to reach more shoppers and convert them into buyers,” the company said.

The paper leverages proprietary data and technology via AutoTrader.com; Kelley Blue Book and selected partner sites as well as Adobe technology, were partners in the study.

The digital audience analysis looked at the online behavior of more than 3 million car shoppers across 1,300 active dealership web sites to better understand what sites car shoppers visit, their on-site activity, how they navigate across a variety of automotive sites and the overlap among the sites they visit.

“There is a gap between perception and reality when it comes to the role of search in the car-shopping process, which could be leading dealers to over invest in search marketing at the expense of more effective sources,” said Kevin Filan, vice president of customer marketing at AutoTrader.

“Shoppers are using search engines, but what dealers should be focusing on is how and when shoppers are using those tools. Our research shows that for a large portion of shoppers, search engines are an intermediary step where they go to find something they’ve already been exposed to previously,” he continued.

The white paper also highlights a discrepancy between direct referral rates and third-party usage.

According to the Digital Audience Analysis white paper, Web analytics tools (which dealers use to analyze traffic to their web sites) typically show only a 2- to 5-percent direct referral rate from third-party sites like AutoTrader.com and Kbb.com to dealership websites.

That said, the study analysis shows “third-party sites are indeed a significant driver of traffic to dealer web sites, with 34 percent of visitors having visited either AutoTrader.com or Kbb.com before arriving at dealerships’ websites.”

Also, the paper highlights that search engines are mostly being used as directories and as a “path” to dealership websites.

“Initial analysis of the data used for the Digital Audience Analysis white paper shows that shoppers who visit a search engine immediately before arriving at dealership web sites often use branded search terms or keywords, such as the dealership’s name,” the paper states.

A More “Qualified” Shopper

The white paper also contends that “third-party sites not only drive a significant amount of shoppers to dealer websites, but they also drive a more qualified shopper.”

In fact, the study showed that 80 percent of visitors viewed inventory on the dealer site after having been on AutoTrader.com or Kbb.com, whereas only 59 percent of those without AutoTrader.com or Kbb.com activity did the same.

Moreover, of those who viewed inventory, visitors that previously shopped on AutoTrader.com or Kbb.com viewed six, or 54 percent, respectively, more pages on average than other visitors.

“The results of this analysis really show that there is significant risk for dealers who assume that shopping activity began from the source that provided a direct referral to their web sites,” Filan said. “By turning more of their focus upstream, dealers can have a greater impact and influence online, particularly if they execute well on the fundamentals.

“By having the right inventory at the right price and merchandising it well, dealers will be able to capture the attention of more qualified shoppers and have a higher chance of converting them into buyers.”

What the Results Mean for Dealers

In addition to releasing the paper, AutoTrader offered some trips for dealers regarding the study results.

First, the company stressed: “Don’t assume that car-shopping activity begins on search engines. Deeper shopping engagement occurs upstream of search engines.”

Officials also implore dealers to focus on the “keywords” shoppers are using while searching the Web for their new ride.

“To better understand which sources are driving traffic, focus less on direct referrals from search engines and more on the keywords shoppers enter into search engines to locate the dealership website,” AutoTrader further explained.

Lastly, dealers should focus on what AutoTrader contends are the “key tenets of successful online automotive marketing”:

—Having in-demand inventory, competitive pricing and robust merchandising online.
—For inventory, use multiple custom photos (not stock), custom vehicle comments and video.
—Don’t forget to merchandise the dealership to highlight why shoppers should buy from you.

This paper is the first in a series of white papers that AutoTrader.com will be making available to the industry this year. To access the full Digital Audience Analysis white paper, visit the link here.