Radio To Get 11.6% of Local Automotive Ad Spending

In its latest vertical industry report, “Insights into Local Advertising – Automotive Vertical,” BIA/Kelsey estimates automotive organizations will spend more than $15.1 billion on local advertising in 2015, representing 11.1 percent of the $137.9 billion total local advertising market. Of this amount, 77 percent is expected to be allocated to traditional media.

“The auto industry and television came of age together as keystones of twentieth-century American culture,” said Dr. Mark Fratrik, SVP and chief economist BIA/Kelsey. “The two industries remain closely tied, with the auto industry being dependent on over-the-air television advertising, and all auto vertical subcategories relying heavily on traditional media to get their message to their audience.”

BIA/Kelsey estimates 33.9 percent of local automotive advertising budgets is spent on over-the-air television, and another 1.7 percent on TV online advertising. In addition to the heavy use of television, newspaper (14.7 percent), online (12 percent) and over-the-air radio (11.6 percent) account for meaningful traditional market shares in automotive local ad spending.

Mark Fratrik

“Despite traditional media’s dominance in the current automotive marketing mix, digital advertising is on the rise, and will represent nearly one-third of automotive local ad spending by 2019,” added Dr. Fratrik.

Pure online advertising, consisting primarily of search, is the largest digital automotive channel. BIA/Kelsey projects all growth in local advertising for the automotive vertical category will occur on online/digital media, reaching 30 percent of total local advertising by 2019, up from 12 percent in 2015.

Industry subcategories featured in BIA/Kelsey’s automotive vertical forecast include auto dealers, other motor vehicle dealers, auto parts and accessory stores, tire dealers, and gas stations.

The data featured in the report is drawn from BIA/Kelsey’s Annual Local Media Forecast and Media Ad View Plus Reports, the company's local market ad forecasts that track ad spending across media categories, ad categories and verticals.