REVERSE ENGINEERING THE AUTOMOTIVE PURCHASE FUNNEL

KEN INSANA SENIOR MANAGER, CONSUMER RESEARCH

COMMON ASSUMPTIONS

6 MONTHS

KPI’s

LINEAR

OEM SITES

Length of Purchase Process Shape of Purchase Process

Certain Actions Predict Sales Provide Comprehensive Measurement

NONE OF THESE ARE TRUE

IMBB CLOSED LOOP ROI LEAD GENERATION PANELIST RECALL

BROAD NARROW SMALL

UNRELIABLE

PAST OPTIONS NOT ENOUGH

WHAT IF WE GO BACKWARD?

PANEL SALES

BLOG

BROCHURE REQUEST

BUILD YOUR OWN

CALCULATE PAYMENTS

CAR FINDER

COMPARE VEHICLES

PAYMENT ESTIMATOR

LOCATE DEALER

MODEL INFORMATION

OFFERS

PHOTO GALLERY

REQUEST A QUOTE

REVIEWS

SEARCH INVENTORY

SELL YOUR CAR

TRADE IN

KEY INSIGHTS

WHAT WE LEARNED –

PURCHASE CYCLE IS SHORTER

28 DAYS

6 MONTHS

OLD ASSUMPTION…

28 DAYS

FIRST KPI LAST KPI

37 DAYS PRIOR

9 DAYS PRIOR

NEW ASSUMPTION…

“Active” In-market period before purchase

WHAT WE LEARNED –

THERE IS NO LINEAR PURCHASE PATTERN # OF KPI ACTIVITIES VARIES WIDELY FIRST & LAST KPI LOOKS SIMILAR PURCHASER PATHS SHOW WIDE VARIETY

KPI % OF SALES # OF TIMES

Search Inventory 54.9% 84

Build Your Own 39.3% 41

Model Information 33.8% 10

Request a Quote 32.2% 6

Trade In 30.5% 9

Locate Dealer 28.4% 10

Offers 26.3% 6

Reviews 16.8% 12

Compare 14.8% 16

Payment Estimator 13.0% 8

Photo Gallery 9.7% 4

Brochure 4.2% 3

Blog 2.7% 4

% OF BUYERS WHO PERFORMED

80 KPI s

PERFORMED

3.5 SITES VISITED

25% VISIT 5+ SITES

A FRENZY OF ACTIVITY

FIRST KPI % OF SALES

Search Inventory 22.2%

CPO 17.8%

Build Your Own 11.3%

Trade In 10.2%

Model Information 8.4%

Request a Quote 7.7%

Locate Dealer 5.5%

Offers 5.1%

LAST KPI % OF SALES

Search Inventory 24.6%

CPO 14.8%

Build Your Own 13.0%

Model Information 9.4%

Trade In 7.9%

Locate Dealer 6.3%

Request a Quote 6.2%

Offers 4.9%

WHAT BUYERS DID

59% OEM SITES

41% 3RD PARTY

SITES

WHERE BUYERS FINISHED

NISSAN MURANO

UNIQUE KPI’s PERFORMED

THE STANDARD PURCHASER Build Your Own 30

Estimator 5

Locate a Dealer 4

Model Information 41

Offers 5

Photogallery 1

Request a Quote 3

Reviews 32

5/31 5/31 6/1

6/1

6/1

6/1

6/3 6/3 6/3 6/3

6/4

6/4

6/5 6/5

6/6 6/6

5/28

6/4

IN MARKET FOR 10 DAYS

121 KPI’s

6/7

VOLVO XC 90

UNIQUE KPI’s PERFORMED

ALL FOR NOTHING

Build Your Own 4

Brochure 1

Locate a Dealer 30

Model Information 2

Trade In 1

Photogallery 1

Request a Quote 4

Reviews 14

IN MARKET FOR 78 DAYS

57 KPI’s

11/8

Clearnign Lots.comDealer

11/8 12/15 12/22

12/23

12/23

12/23

12/27 12/29 1/5 1/5

1/15

1/7

1/7 1/23

1/2

1/25

TOYOTA PRIUS

UNIQUE KPI’s PERFORMED

THIRD PARTY GURU

Build Your Own 10

Car Finder 82

Compare Vehicles 5

Model Information 3

Financial 2

Reviews 32

IN MARKET FOR 88 DAYS

115 KPI’s

1/29

1/30

1/1 1/1 1/15

1/29 2/5

2/6

1/13

2/3

1/31

1/28

1/17

2/7, 2/15, 2/16, 2/20, 2/21, 2/22, 2/23, 2/24, 2/26, 2/28, 3/10, 3/14, 3/19

3/29

HYUNDAI ELANTRA

UNIQUE KPI’s PERFORMED

THE REASSURED

Build Your Own 4

Locate a Dealer 3

Request a Quote 1

Reviews 4

IN MARKET FOR 7 DAYS

12 KPI’s

4/29

CarPriceSecrets.com 1 REQUEST A QUOTE

4/30

1 BUILD YOUR OWN

4/30

4 REVIEWS

4/30

2 BUILD YOUR OWN

5/1 3 LOCATE A

DEALER

5/5 1 BUILD YOUR OWN

5/5

WHAT WE LEARNED –

3RD PARTY SITES ARE GROWING IN IMPORTANCE VOLUME HIGHER IN 2011 THAN OEM SITES OEM NOT ALWAYS PRESENT IN RESEARCH PATH

IMPORTANCE OF 3RD PARTY RESEARCH SITES GROWING

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

OEM

3rdParty

KPI defined as: Blog, Brochure, Build Your Own, Calculate Payments, Car Finder, Compare, Payment Estimator, Locate Dealer, Model Information, Offers, Photo Gallery, Request a Quote, Reviews, Search Inventory, Sell Your Car, Trade In

BUYERS USE MULTIPLE SITES TO INFORM THEIR DECISIONS

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

1 2 3 4 5

Both OEM & 3rd Party

OEM Only

3rd Party Only

# of sites used

37% NEVER VISITED

OEM SITE

WHAT WE LEARNED –

3RD PARTY SITES ARE USED DIFFERENTLY PORTALS USED BEFORE AUTO SPECIALTY SITES AOL AUTOS: REVIEWS & MODEL INFO MOST IMPORTANT

25 DAYS PURCHASE

MSN Autos

23 Days

22 Days

18 Days

15 Days

14 Days

12 Days

9 Days

OEM

Portals Endemics OEMs

MEASURED BY LAST KPI PERFORMED ON RESPECTIVE SITES

% OF BUYERS WHO VISITED THAT SITE AND PERFORMED AT LEAST 2 KPI’S

LAST KPI

AOL Autos Model Information 44.8%

MSN Autos Model Information 26.9%

KBB Model Information 21.6%

Yahoo Autos Model Information 15.3%

Edmunds Model Information 12.3%

Cars.com Model Information 2.7%

Autotrader Model Information 2.4%

AOL Autos Reviews 27.6%

MSN Autos Reviews 16.4%

Yahoo Autos Reviews 11.1%

Edmunds Reviews 9.1%

Cars.com Reviews 5.9%

KBB Reviews 2.6%

Autotrader Reviews 2.4%

AOL Autos Reviews 13.8%

Edmunds Reviews 12.7%

Yahoo Autos Reviews 9.7%

MSN Autos Reviews 6.0%

Cars.com Reviews 5.9%

KBB Reviews 2.3%

Autotrader Reviews 0.8%

AOL Autos Model Information 56.9%

MSN Autos Model Information 56.7%

KBB Model Information 19.3%

Yahoo Autos Model Information 18.1%

Edmunds Model Information 16.6%

Autotrader Model Information 8.8%

Cars.com Model Information 1.8%

FIRST KPI

94% KPI’s ARE NOT INVENTORY SEARCHES

APPENDIX

METHODOLOGY

BLOG

BROCHURE REQUEST

BUILD YOUR OWN

CALCULATE PAYMENTS

CAR FINDER

COMPARE VEHICLES

PAYMENT ESTIMATOR

LOCATE DEALER

MODEL INFORMATION

OFFERS

PHOTO GALLERY

REQUEST A QUOTE

REVIEWS

SEARCH INVENTORY

SELL YOUR CAR

TRADE IN

2011 BUYERS 90 DAYS OF KPI ACTIVITY PRIOR TO PURCHASE ASSUMED 5 DAY LAG BETWEEN PURCHASE AND DMV REGISTRATION NOT ALL KPI ACTIVITY IS CONSISTENT ACROSS SITES

DIFFERENT URL STRINGS

VARYING LEVELS OF DEPTH – PAGES

INCONSISTENCY DUE TO SITE REDESIGNS

PASSIVE VS ACTIVE KPI (VIDEOS, ETC)

KPI DEFINED AS:

PROCESS IS NOT LINEAR: ORDER AND COMBINATION OF KPI’s DOES NOT MATTER

Search Inventory++Build Your Own 28.9%

Build Your Own++Search Inventory 28.3%

Model Information++Search Inventory 27.3%

Search Inventory++Model Information 26.7%

Search Inventory++Locate Dealer 24.1%

Locate Dealer++Search Inventory 23.7%

Search Inventory++CPO 23.4%

CPO++Search Inventory 22.9%

Request a Quote++Search Inventory 22.0%

CPO++Build Your Own 21.7%

NO KPI ORDER IS DOMINANT…

Build Your Own++Search Inventory 33.8%

Model Information++Search Inventory 31.8%

Locate Dealer++Search Inventory 28.5%

CPO++Search Inventory 28.0%

Request a Quote++Search Inventory 27.4%

Search Inventory++Trade In 25.2%

CPO++Build Your Own 24.9%

Build Your Own++Model Information 24.5%

Offers++Search Inventory 24.2%

Build Your Own++Request a Quote 23.8%

NO KPI COMBO IS DOMINANT…

QUESTIONS &

NEXT STEPS