carsales.com.au on top

carsales.com.au has topped the Australian automotive web marketplace – again.

Launched this week, the latest digital audience measurement system, Nielsen Digital Ratings, shows carsales.com.au has a monthly online audience more than 900,000 people ahead of its nearest competitor.

The new Digital Ratings system is cutting edge and uses a number of measurement systems to determine combined PC, mobile and app audience. In the new figures released today, carsales.com.au’s monthly audience of 1.981m, dwarfs Gumtree (1.048m) and carsGuide (0.764m). Drive’s audience was just 0.630m and Caradvice 0.426m.

In February 2016, in total over 4.8m Australians engaged with an automotive publisher via a digital device. While PC’s were the most likely method for engagement with over 3.2m people, smartphone and tablet users account for over 2.1m. [Ed: the total of the devices is larger than the total audience as the statistic is de-duplicated and some users access the sector on more than one device].

Much of the growth in the Australia automotive market is being driven by handheld devices. By way of example, carsales.com.au’s apps, including the award winning iPhone application, have been downloaded more than 4.9m times.

“We are seeing the move to mobile and apps across our sites accelerating with over 64 per cent of customers using mobile and apps to search for a car on carsales.com.au. To have 50 per cent of the smartphone automotive market and 100 per cent of tablet market is testament to the strength of our technical teams,” Carsales director of marketing, Kellie Cordner stated.

Cordner predicted that the new ratings would help to stop misrepresentation in the market over audience sizes.

“No longer will companies be able to fudge the numbers and confuse the market.

“Clarity in the market is vital so that advertisers and agencies have a clear understanding of the state of the digital market,” she said.