The process of buying a car has been flipped on its head in recent years. Not long ago, linear TV was the centerpiece of any auto campaign — the most reliable way to spark an emotional response and create demand for new models. But the decline in linear TV viewership, coupled with the rise of digitally led experiences, has changed the playbook.
Today, a new generation of car shoppers demands an entirely different car-buying experience. To reach them, auto brands have increasingly turned to TV streaming, which offers a multitude of opportunities to reach in-market buyers at all stages of their journey.
The auto experience goes digital
The car buying journey historically began with linear TV ads that boosted awareness of brands and models, nudging viewers toward the next step. But the rise of digital channels has led to a different shopping experience — one where consumers expect to have knowledge at their fingertips.
Before they set foot in a dealership, car buyers scour the web for reviews, YouTube videos and forum posts. In some states, they can complete almost the entire process online.
In response to this consumer shift, auto marketing has gone through its own digital transformation. What began as a mass marketing approach to boost brand awareness has transitioned to precision tactics that reduce waste while increasing effectiveness, and most importantly, ROI.
These precision approaches, initially the domain of digital video, are now available via streaming. Streaming represents the ideal fusion of branding and performance — boosting ROI while also delivering the emotional impact — the “sight, sound and motion” — that is inherent to TV.
To showcase this fusion, Roku recently partnered with Cox Automotive, owner of a popular network of auto shopping tools and websites, to better understand how TV streaming ads influence potential buyers from discovery to action. In a campaign for MINI, Cox matched its first-party data to de-identified Roku ad exposure data. This allowed MINI to understand how streaming ads inform consumer behaviors on Cox Automotive properties such as Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book.
Streamers: The next generation of car buyers
And of course, streaming ads can also deliver brand awareness and customer growth, at scale, that was once the exclusive domain of linear TV.
The truth is, car buyers love streaming. Close to 8 million Roku users intend to buy a new vehicle in 2024. And they are 51% more likely than non-Roku users to be shopping for a vehicle right now!¹
Roku's car intenders — those who are actively shopping for a vehicle within the next year — also skew younger, with the largest demographic being millennials. They are regionally distributed, mirroring the US population, and tend to be early adopters of tech and EVs as compared to non-Roku users.
Buying the platform
While mass audience reach remains critically important in the auto vertical, today’s precision approaches require that scale to be refinable. Streaming, especially Roku, now provides that.
The winners will go beyond traditional video ads to create powerful experiences across the Roku platform. This starts with engaging viewers as they walk through the front door — and before they even decide what to watch. In Roku's case, the front door is the home screen Marquee Ad, reaching U.S. households with nearly 120 million people.
When the Southern California Toyota Dealers Association wanted to boost consideration of the newest Mirai model, it ran targeted video ads across Roku’s Audience Network and a Marquee ad on Roku’s home screen. The Roku campaign drove nearly 73,000 visits to Cox Automotive websites and more than 11,000 visits to Toyota dealer websites.²
Once viewers decide what to watch, auto marketers can continue to reach them across the Roku experience, through interactive Action Ads, or during viewing breaks, through Pause ads. Roku's measurement solutions and large user base can then help auto marketers connect the dots between upper funnel awareness and lower funnel action.
For example, Subaru has used interactive ads on Roku to allow streamers to opt in to receive texts and other messages from Subaru. This has helped it gather intent signals and close the loop on purchases in ways that weren’t previously possible in traditional TV.
“It’s allowing us to begin to test conversions and [assist] folks taking that next step via streaming which historically we haven’t been able to do,” Ryan Johnson, integrated media manager at Subaru of America, said in a recent podcast with Campaign. “Those partners that can truly get us in front of a person who is in market to buy a car, or will be in the near future, are the ones who are going to prove the most value for us.”
Roku: The first stop for auto discovery
Roku is the streaming leader in ad-supported reach and innovation, the doorway to everything happening in TV. More than half (52%) of Roku streamers discover vehicle models from the ads they see on TV, representing a huge opportunity to engage and educate audiences.³
As consumer behavior continues to shift, efficient marketing investment is more critical than ever. With TV streaming, auto marketers can make the business case by delivering ROI and proving that their marketing efforts are truly driving sales.
Want to reach a growing audience of TV streamers? Contact Roku Advertising to learn more.
¹ Lucid Study | Cox Auto
² Roku + Cox Automotive Partnership Results; Campaign Flight: April-June 2023; Measurement Period: January-July 2023
³ Lucid Study. This survey was distributed by a panel in an online format to 3,000 respondents in the USA. The survey was fielded from August 11th, 2023, to August 30th, 2023.
