The Short and Winding Road: The Path to Purchase for Auto Buyers in Brazil
Discover why and how the Brazilian auto purchase journey has shortened and explore new opportunities to connect with car buyers.
CONTENTS
The path to purchase a vehicle now lasts an average of 6 weeks in Brazil, just half of how long the industry believes it takes for people to buy a car.
And mobile is driving that shift. With smartphones being the most owned and used device,1 we see that Brazilians are turning to mobile throughout the path to auto purchase. And there are more than 480 opportunities to reach them on Facebook and Instagram along the way.
Facebook IQ commissioned GfK to study prospective Brazilian auto buyers ages 18 to 65 to learn their expectations and preferences when it comes to considering and buying vehicles. We also captured their online and offline buying behavior and analyzed how buyers arrived at their final decision.
Auto buyers are always on
Of the 218 auto intenders we tracked across digital devices, 98% could be reached on Facebook and Instagram. These platforms were the only touchpoint for over a third of these auto intenders.
Overlapping of online touchpoints
Facebook and Instagram (overall reach: 98%)
CAR-RELATED DIGITAL TOUCHPOINTS
2%did not visit any relevant touchpoint, search query nor a Facebook or Instagram property
63%Facebook, Instagram and other digital touchpoints
35%Facebook and Instagram only
Snapshot of an auto journey
On their path to purchase, auto intenders visited Facebook and Instagram 488 times, spending 52.5 hours on both platforms.
We interviewed 1,000 auto prospects to see how they used Instagram and Facebook on their path to purchase. 85% of buyers claimed to use these platforms for research: looking for info about a new model, specifications, reading peer reviews or learning about deals.2
Targeting the right group of buyers
We saw a difference in the way people of different demographics approach buying a vehicle.
Vehicle choices vary according to a person’s life stage
SINGLE / DIVORCED / WIDOWED
1.23x more interested in purchasing a 5-door hatchback compared to married peopleMARRIED PEOPLE
1.46x more interested in purchasing an SUV compared to people who are single, divorced or widowedPARENTS
3.74x more likely to choose a minivan compared to non-parentsWhat we know about a given person—like whether he or she is married or has kids—can give us a hint on their car preferences. Understanding demographic preferences can help brands target the right audience with the right message. Nielsen’s Digital Ad Rating showed that Facebook can help advertisers do just that. In an evaluation of 15 online campaigns in Brazil, we saw that Facebook delivered 89% of impressions on target whereas other digital publishers achieved 42% of impressions on target.3
What it means for marketers
Keep in touch with always-on intenders:
Mobile reach and usage are expanding. Brands can keep conversations going with consumers throughout the year, not only during product launch periods. Why is this important? Brand equity is the top driver of consideration for car intenders
Build on-target awareness:
Demographics and life stages can influence category choice. For example, people with kids are over 3 times more likely to buy a minivan.2 Brands can apply Facebook segmentation and approach only consumers who are more likely to buy their vehicles.
Be relevant for your consumers:
Along the consumer journey, car intenders visit Facebook and Instagram 488 times. Marketers can explore the role of these platforms to provide content and offers to intenders along the consumer journey.
Source unless otherwise specified: “Passive Consumer Journey Auto” by GfK (Facebook-commissioned passive observation of website and app navigation behavior of 218 people in Brazil ages 18–64 who self-identified as intending to buy a car in the next three months), May-Jul 2016.
