L2 Report Evaluates the Digital Competence of Auto Brands Operating in the US

NEW YORK, April 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital benchmarking firm L2 Inc releases its 5th annual Digital IQ Index ®: Auto 2017

The L2 report benchmarks the digital performance of 43 Auto brands operating in the US, with a specific focus on key strategies and best practices for auto manufacturers to adapt to digitally-driven prospecting. The Digital IQ Index® methodology examines a brand's strengths and weaknesses across the four digital dimensions of Site and E-Commerce, Digital Marketing, Social, and Mobile. Index brands are classified as either Genius, Gifted, Average, Challenged, or Feeble.

"U.S. car buyers are continuing to reduce their initial set of considerations when purchasing a car, spend less time at physical dealerships, and are finding new ways to finance their cars through third-party online portals," explained Colin Gilbert, VP of Emerging Sectors at L2. "Therefore, digital investments are not only necessary for Auto brands to stay competitive but to align with evolving consumer expectations."

Key findings from L2's report include:

Brand Sites Are Tuning Up: Forty percent of Index brands implemented changes to their sites' primary UI/UX within the past 12 months. Ninety-five percent now support vehicle customization tools, nearly 50 percent allow users to save their car configurations, and 33 percent added a range of next-step options to ensure a fluid hand-off to matching inventory.

Social Seals the Deal: The average number of YouTube views is 13.9 million for Index brands, while top players Nissan and Porsche both earn over 22 million. Social interactions are largest on Instagram, averaging a growth rate of 135 percent year-over-year with 66 percent of brands more than doubling their community size since last year's Index.

Big Budgets, Wasted Opportunities: Despite its proven efficiency, less than 50 percent of Index brands made meaningful investments in programmatic ad buying. Year-over-year, Index Auto brands made a 5 percent increase in national campaign investments, a costly strategy as brands paid nearly 2x as much per impression on national ads as they did for local ads.

Mobile Misses the Mark: Only 19 percent of Index brands have positioned the most commonly available shopping tools on their desktop sites for optimal mobile access. Similarly, just 9 percent of their ads are placed on mobile, with the remaining 91 percent distributed between desktop and video.

"While brands have begun to acknowledge the importance of digital in their sales strategies, many are still lacking the sophistication and know-how to successfully leverage digital as a channel to reach and sell to new consumers," said Grant Torres, Senior Research Associate at L2.

To access a complete media-only copy of L2's Digital IQ Index ®: Auto 2017, contact [email protected]

About L2

L2 benchmarks the digital performance of over 2,200 brands across 12 industries globally. Our proprietary Digital IQ Index® is the global standard for measuring digital competence. We analyze 1,250 data points to provide brands with actionable, data driven insights on their digital performance.

SOURCE L2

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