Data Report | Is automotive industry promotion ineffective? See how peers invest...

During the period of 2011-2017, the scale of China's automobile industry has grown steadily and there is huge room for future growth. Advertising in the automobile industry shows optimistic growth potential. In 2017, China's car ownership reached 217 million. Although the number of cars per thousand people (140 cars per thousand people) is still lower than the global average (158 cars per thousand people), there is room for growth.

In 2017, the scale of China's automotive online advertising market reached 15.07 billion yuan, with mobile advertising accounting for 57.2%. It is estimated that in 2019, the proportion of mobile advertising in the automotive industry will reach 71.3%. Compared with PC, mobile advertising has the characteristics of richer forms, more precise delivery, and higher interactivity, and is increasingly favored by advertisers in the automotive industry.

What trends did mobile advertising in the automotive industry show in the first half of 2018? This report is based on the data of mobile advertising in the automotive industry tracked by iOS clients in the first half of 2018 (January 1st to June 30th), and publishes "Insights into the Trends of Mobile Advertising in the Automotive Industry in the First Half of 2018". The relevant insights are as follows:

1) Overall, the platform with the largest number of automotive app advertisements is Tencent Social Advertising, and the automotive apps that place advertisements are mainly automotive information apps, among which " Autohome " ranks first in the number of automotive app advertisements.

The advertising intensity of the car maintenance app "Tuhu Auto Maintenance" is second only to "Autohome". It mainly focuses on the tire category and emphasizes low prices. The advertising of automobile apps is mainly in the form of native ads and information flow ads , and the main copywriting routines are "guiding trial" and "emphasizing discounts";

2) In terms of automobile brand advertising channels , Sina Fuyi platform has the largest number of related advertisements, and BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz are the automobile brands that have placed the most advertisements on this channel . As luxury cars, BMW places more emphasis on subsidies and discounts when launching its products, while Mercedes-Benz’s promotional content is more focused on promoting brand events .

PS: The car APP advertising mentioned in this article refers to mobile advertising aimed at downloading apps related to the automotive industry, while car brand mobile advertising refers to mobile advertising placed to promote corresponding car brands. The automotive industry-related mobile advertising data tracked in this article is for iOS, and does not include advertising data for Android.

1. Analysis of advertising trends in automotive apps in the first half of 2018

1) Analysis of mobile advertising in automotive apps

In terms of the number of automobile apps advertising, the automobile apps that have placed advertisements are mainly automobile information apps. Among the top 10 apps with the most advertisements, there are 5 apps, namely "Autohome", "Auto Quotes", "Auto Encyclopedia", "Yiche", and "Dongchedi".

Autohome is a vertical community media for automobiles, mainly providing comprehensive automobile information. In the first half of the year, its ranking in the overall iOS application list fluctuated around 80th place, and it remained the first in the number of automobile App advertisements. The car maintenance platform Tuhu Auto Service also had a strong advertising performance in the first half of 2018, and its cumulative number of advertisements was second only to Autohome.

In terms of delivery channels, automotive app delivery covers nine channels: Tencent social advertising, NetEase Yixiao, Toutiao , Baidu information flow , Zhihu, Sina Fuyi, Phoenix Fengyu, and Ali Huichuan. Among them, Tencent social advertising channel has the most automotive app advertising, accounting for 72.98% of the total automotive app advertising delivery.

2) Analysis of the overall copywriting routines of car app advertising

In the first half of 2018, automobile apps mainly placed native ads and information flow ads. The main copywriting routines were "emphasis on discounts", "guided to try", and "shocked and exclaimed". The total number of ads with related routines accounted for as high as 66.94%. The commonly used copywriting of different routines is as follows:

3) Car information app case analysis: Autohome mainly invests in Tencent social advertising platform, with diversified advertising forms, emphasizing "discounts" and "low prices"

In the first half of 2018, Autohome mainly invested in Tencent's social advertising channel, and the number of advertisements on this channel accounted for 63.52% of its total advertising, followed by Baidu's information flow platform, which accounted for 14.75%. In addition, Autohome also attaches great importance to advertising on the emerging advertising platform Zhihu, with the number of advertisements accounting for 7.38%.

In terms of advertising formats, Autohome’s advertising is mainly native advertising, accounting for 63.05%, followed by information flow advertising at 35.34%.

In the analysis of advertising copy by Autohome, words such as "price reduction" and "lowest price" are commonly used to attract the attention of car owners by emphasizing discounts.

The landing page of Autohome mainly jumps to its wap homepage, lists information about cars of various brands, and guides users to pay further attention to relevant details.

4) Case analysis of car maintenance app advertising: Tuhu Auto Maintenance uses tires as a breakthrough to enter the car maintenance market, emphasizing affordable prices

Similar to Autohome, Tuhu Auto Service still mainly relies on Tencent social advertising as its advertising channel, accounting for 80.87%, followed by NetEase Yixiao platform, which accounts for 13.91% of the number of advertisements.

In addition, its advertising forms are relatively simple, with only two forms: information flow advertising and native advertising, and no other forms are involved. Analyzing the material format, its advertising materials are mainly single pictures, accounting for as high as 71.30%, while video ads account for only 0.43%.

In terms of advertising copy, guiding people to try and being shocked and impressed are the common copywriting routines of Tuhu Auto Maintenance, and the corresponding advertisements account for 23.84% and 20.87% respectively.

"Tuhu Auto Maintenance" provides car-related maintenance and accessories recommendations as its main service content, and price discounts are its main promotional point. An analysis of the advertising copy in the first half of the year shows that its advertising copy mainly uses the "tire" category as the entry point, and "4 tires for 500 yuan" is a point that it repeatedly emphasizes, promoting its low price. In addition to tires, "Tuhu Car Maintenance" also promotes car interiors and lights when placing advertisements. The overall idea is "low price, making your beloved car instantly high-end."

In terms of advertising materials, the main category is "tire", promoting discounts and low prices to attract the attention of car owners. The title of the first screen of its landing page, "Starting from X yuan", highlights the discount and guides car owners to download the App and purchase as soon as possible.

II. Analysis of advertising data for automobile brands in the first half of 2018

1) Ranking of mainstream automobile brands in the first half of 2018: GAC brand has the most mobile advertising

Among the automobile brand advertisements tracked in the first half of 2018, the top three automobile brands in terms of the number of advertisements were GAC, BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz.

PS. The GAC brand advertisements mentioned here are mobile advertisements promoting the "GAC brand" and do not include advertisements of GAC's sub-brands such as Honda and Toyota. The same applies below.

2) Analysis of advertising channels for automobile brands in the first half of 2018. Automobile brand advertisers mainly invested in Sina Fuyi and Tencent social advertising platform.

In terms of delivery channels, automobile brand advertisements are mainly placed on two platforms: Sina Fuyi and Tencent Social Advertising. Sina Fuyi's comprehensive news information is mainly for men, which has a high match with the target users of automobile brands. It is speculated that this is also the reason why Sina Fuyi platform is favored by automobile brand advertisers.

As a vertical automobile advertising platform, Autohome takes automobile brand advertising as its main advertising type and is also ranked among the top 5 channels for automobile brand advertising.

The number of automobile brands that have placed advertisements on the Sina Fuyi platform is counted and ranked as shown in the figure below. The top five automobile brands with the most ads on Sina Fuyi are BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Honda.

3) BMW vs. Mercedes-Benz, case analysis of automobile brand advertising

① BMW car brand advertising: mainly promotes the 3 Series, and emphasizes discounts and low prices

In the first half of the year, BMW brand advertisements were placed mostly for the 3 Series, with the main creative directions being “down payment discounts”, “installment payments” and “test drives”, and the discounts were also clearly reflected in the materials.

② Mercedes-Benz car brand advertising case: focusing on brand activities to reflect brand connotation

Different from BMW's promotion of specific models, Mercedes-Benz focuses more on launching related brand activities to showcase its brand connotation. Its main activities are "Safe Travel for Children", "Participating in the 2018 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition" and Mercedes-Benz's replacement and repurchase plan "Operation Hunting for Youth".

The above are insights into mobile advertising trends in the automotive industry in the first half of 2018.

Source: AppGrowing