The Search Monitor grades automotive advertisers for search marketing visibility

The Search Monitor releases search marketing visibility scores for Automotive

Which automotive advertisers were the most visible to searchers during September? We turned to our Search Marketing Visibility Score for the answer, and here’s what we found. We looked at these five high-spending sub-verticals in Automotive:

• Boats & Watercraft
• Motor Vehicles
• Vehicle Dealers
• Parts & Accessories
• Repairs & Maintenance

Let’s start by defining this new KPI for search marketers. Then we’ll show you who scored the best in September.

What is The Search Marketing Visibility Score?

The Search Marketing Visibility Score™ (SMVS™) is a measure of a company’s search presence across the entire results page—Paid, Organic, and Product Listing Ads (PLA)—adjusted for the company’s specific competition. It forces search marketers to look at the results page holistically—which is exactly how searchers see it. The Search Monitor created the SMVS by combining its daily ad monitoring data for millions of keywords and thousands of companies with a weighting system indicating a company’s likelihood to receive a click given its competitors’ presence. Marketers can pull the score as often as daily and use to:

• Learn about current competitors to their visibility
• Get alerted to new competitors to their visibility
• Pinpoint areas for improvement (among Paid, SEO, and PLA)
• Justify PPC spend decisions

Which automotive advertisers were most visible in September?

September is the time for end-of-summer sales. Let’s see which advertisers succeeding in appearing to the most to shoppers. All data comes from our Lighthouse industry spend database and covers US spend on Google and Bing. You’ll see the top 10 advertisers along with their score change from August 2015.

Search Marketing Visibility Highlights

BOATS & WATERCRAFT: The data suggests that ad spend drops for this category as summer ends. All but one of the top 10 advertisers saw a decrease in their Search Visibility Score from August (Cabela’s was the only exception).

MOTOR VEHICLES: Edmunds won the Search Visibility battle for September, while only two car manufacturers made the top 10—Chevrolet and Hyundai. Could it be that manufacturers are happy letting the 3rd-party sites do their advertising for them?

VEHICLE DEALERS: September was a big search visibility month for dealers. 8 of the top 10 advertisers saw a jump in their scores, with the highest leap coming from CarFax.

PARTS & ACCESSORIES: Auto parts companies also increased their search visibility during September, with the strongest jumps coming from realtruck.com and eBay.

REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE: Amazon was the most visible search advertiser for ads related to repairs and maintenance during September. We also saw that most advertisers decreased their search visibility from August, with AutoZone showing the largest drop. ECS Tuning and Glass Doctor were the two exceptions. Could there be a strategic reason for the larger advertisers to pull back spending (and visibility) in September?