Tesla emerges as fastest growing brand for used car searches in August

Tesla emerged as the fastest growing car brand among buyers searching online for used cars in August, according to our in-house analysis.

Used car buyers using “Tesla” as a search term, rather than a specific model, increased by 98% to 30,280 in August, followed by MG up 74% and Porsche up 17%.

Our analysis of Google searches for used cars by car brand revealed a total of 5 million for the month, up 1.05% year-on-year.

General searches for used cars, excluding brand names and models, but including the terms “used car”, “used cars for sale” and “part-exchange”, increased by 9% to 2.4 million.

“Our research shows the relative strength of car brand names as the starting point for Google searches where buyers begin with the marque rather than specific models,” says Telson Thomas, SEO Analyst here at Honchō.

“With Tesla still an emergent carmaker, the results show the strength of its brand equity among buyers considering purchasing a used electric car and using the carmaker’s name as their starting point.”

German premium marques dominated the top five used car searches in August led by BMW with 276,170 searches, followed by Audi (261,480).

Ford was the third most viewed brand (255,030), followed by Mercedes-Benz (199,770) and Nissan (155,960).

With the rise in used buyers searching by brand, our advice to franchised dealers would be to review their paid search activity to increase the online visibility of the marques they represent.

“Since coming out of lockdown online activity has increased, so now is a good time for dealers to review and refresh their search activity,” says Telson.

“While SEO remains a long-term strategy, there are opportunities within paid media which will unlock immediate performance benefits. We’ve seen less competition in paid search with dealerships generally being slow to react to the changing landscape, making it an easy win for those that do.”

Are you looking for some expert assistance with your automotive search marketing? Give us a call on 01438 870220 or fill out our contact form to see how we can support your team.