Carsales achieves a record audience of 4.8m people in May
Carsales has achieved a unique audience of 4.8m people in May, an all-time-high audience for the site.
The announcement:
Australia’s #1 for cars, Carsales.com.au, has set a new all-time-high audience in May 2020, achieving a Unique Audience (UA) of 4.8M people according to Nielsen’s Digital Ratings Monthly report. The UA was 35% higher than May 2019.
Carsales served 33.3M sessions in the month – also up 35% on the same month last year. Visitors to Carsales.com.au were also highly engaged, spending over 37 minutes (average) onsite over the course of the month.
“There’s a genuine intent to buy that’s underpinning the unprecedented period of car-shopping activity,” said Carsales Chief Marketing Officer, Kellie Cordner.
“It’s providing dealers and brands with both immediate sales opportunities and prospects to keep warm over the coming months.”
With working from home the new norm for many, the Carsales editorial audience also grew substantially in May. A new record Unique Audience of 1.4M engaged with Editorial content across Carsales auto sites (carsales.com.au and motoring.com.au).
From providing inspiration for car buyers and enthusiasts alike, to the critical role of informing buyers through all stages of the purchasing journey, the breadth of Carsales content spans the latest news, reviews, features and advice.
Carsales is the preferred new car destination and interest in soon-to-be released cars is soaring with 61% of auto intenders shopping at Carsales when looking to buy a new car. Carsales’ new car content has also come out on top against key competitors as the most enjoyable (75% surveyed), the best quality reviews (60%) and the most interesting (79%).
“The unique connection of carsales editorial content to dealer and automaker inventory cements its increasing importance and influence in the car-buying journey,” Cordner stated.
“With just one click on Carsales, buyers can transition from researching a car via editorial content, to browsing a dealer or automaker’s virtual showroom and making an informed purchase decision – all from the comfort of home.
“Our written and video reviews and comparison tests continue to inspire and educate a broad range of Australian car shoppers about the merits of different models, makes and segments – whether they be consumers with limited auto understanding or those more knowledgeable,” continued Cordner.
“The record engagement with Carsales editorial content highlights how important it is to have new cars available on site for consumers to research and purchase. 90.1% of searches on Carsales listings don’t specify new or used vehicles, or they select both new and used,” stated Cordner.
The sizeable increase in new car research and shopping activity comes at a time when social distancing measures have been eased and many buyers have re-evaluated their transport preferences.
Government measures such as the extended Instant Asset Write Off allowance and the traditionally strong run into the end of financial year are also likely to have contributed to the record level of audience and engagement.
The Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton and Toyota HiLux were the three most popular new cars searched on Carsales in May 2020.
Key models in the booming Medium SUVs segment were also well represented in the Carsales top 20, with the Toyota RAV4, Volkswagen Tiguan, Mazda CX-5, Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class and Hyundai Tucson all featuring.
Source: Carsales media release
