NEW YORK, Feb. 13, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IgnitionOne , a global marketing technology, and data analytics provider with a focus on the automotive sector, today released its Q4 2018 Automotive Industry Report highlighting year-on-year (YoY) growth in key categories, including site visits, engagement metrics, lead volumes and segment trends.

While site visits are down by 11 percent YoY for North America, IgnitionOne’s report signifies those visitors who are coming to the site are more engaged than previous years, with an increase of 28 percent in engagement from 2017. This increase in engagement is attributed to automotive marketers making advancements in customer journey optimization with targeted interactions and website personalization.

Additional highlights include:

  • Mobile Continues to Dominate. Global site visits grew 5 percent from Q4 2017, with mobile site visits jumping an impressive 20 percent during 2018.
  • Engagement is Proving the Importance of Quality Over Quantity. Average engagement increased by 8 percent from last year, globally. The most prominent increase occurred on the desktop, while mobile devices saw a 12 percent higher engagement from last year.
  • SUVs Remain the Preferred Vehicle of the Future. The SUV category continues to dominate site engagement with over 20 percent increase YoY. Within mass-market brands, SUV engagement increased by 26 percent YoY. For luxury SUVs, the increase in engagement was 3 percent. In particular, Small Sport engagement increased by 31 percent, while Standard Sport SUV increased by 20 percent.

With an estimated 270 million Americans viewing their smartphones about 14 billion times per day , the smartphone is undoubtedly the preferred device for research and shopping. It is no surprise that mobile has amassed over 56 percent of total site visits. Engagement on mobile also shows growth, increasing by 21 percent YoY—however, mobile still trails in engagement on desktop by almost 40 percent. In Q4, site visit metrics indicate that marketers are increasing spend to drive traffic to mobile devices.

“With the increasing ways in which customers can engage with auto brands across different channels and devices, it’s vital for marketers to leverage identity resolution,” said IgnitionOne CEO Will Margiloff. “It’s crucial for automotive marketers to understand every interaction a customer has with the brand, and personalize the experience per each channel. Leveraging Customer Intelligence to identify and understand your customers—no matter the device or channel—is essential for true omnichannel personalization, and in turn the optimal customer experience. It’s a competitive market, and in order to win the customer, marketers need to pull out all the stops.”

Methodology Based on first-party data gathered from more than 350 automotive manufacturers and dealer websites across more than 50 countries, the Automotive Industry Report looks at global car trends including website visits, visitor engagement, and cumulative leads. The proprietary IgnitionOne Score™ models and defines, in real-time, each site visitor’s propensity to convert, based on the individual’s level of engagement and on-site behavior.

For more information and to download the full report, visit here .

About IgnitionOne IgnitionOne’s leading Customer Intelligence Platform empowers marketers to find and engage their most valuable customers across channels using a data-driven approach. By focusing on cross-channel scoring and robust personalization, IgnitionOne’s technology provides real-time, actionable insights for smarter marketing decisions and omnichannel engagement to maximize overall results. IgnitionOne is one of the largest independent marketing technology companies in the world, currently scoring over 600 million users monthly in 75 countries and powering more than $60 billion in revenue each year for leading brands, including General Motors, CenturyLink, La Quinta and Acer, as well as advertising agencies such as 360i, GroupM and Zenith Media.

For more information, please visit http://www.ignitionone.com or follow the company on Twitter @ignitionone .

Media Contact Kite Hill PR, Rachel Jermansky rachel@kitehillpr.com