The Power of Pre-Market

Great question. To answer this, it’s necessary to understand what an audience group (or cohort) first is. The pre-market audience group is one of a few audience cohorts within the Consideration Window of a customer journey. Let’s break this down. The Consideration Window is the time span when a customer is considering and transacting a purchase, which is also when EMG begins serving automotive advertisements to targeted consumers. For automotive vehicles, the Consideration Window (and the divided cohorts) is 90-0 days until the vehicle purchase date.

Each audience cohort reflects a distinct consumer behavioral phase leading up until purchase (aware, considering, purchasing). These audience cohorts are time sensitive, meaning they are dependent on each consumer’s specific point in buying behavior and how close they are to their eventual date of purchase. These cohorts require a revolving flow of users as consumers move into and out of these audience buckets as they advance down the sales funnel.

Pre-market consumers are in the awareness phase of their journey to vehicle purchase. They are at the top of the sales funnel, typically 90-31 days away from purchasing a vehicle. To define who is pre-market for a car, EMG looks for life events that are highly predictive of an impending vehicle purchase, such as a new job, new baby, moving, etc. Based on vast car purchasing consumer studies, EMG found a high correlation between big life changes and a car purchase within three months.

EMG also looks at automotive data, such as the age of their current vehicle, upcoming lease expiration, and a newly paid off vehicle, which trigger the need for a new car. EMG also tracks dealership location data, considering individuals who were on a dealership lot 3-5 years ago as a potential pre-market consumer. The average vehicle lifespan is 3-5 years, so these users are likely almost due for a new car.

Although pre-market consumers are in the awareness phase, many of them are not consciously aware they will need to buy a car in the next few months. We target them before they even know they need a car.

The pre-market audience is often overlooked because it is the farthest phase from vehicle purchase. Many automotive marketers believe their primary concern lies within in-market audiences who are rapidly approaching their purchase date. In actuality, pre-market individuals are the most powerful tool for marketers because they are highly influenceable and particularly open to processing the advertisements during this phase.

Unlike in-market groups, pre-market consumers are not yet closed off to a select few vehicle brands or models they are considering. Since they likely don’t know they will buy a vehicle in the coming months, they are less closed off to car advertisements because they don’t already have their mind made up or believe they are being targeted.

Creating brand awareness right as they enter their “Consideration Window” is the most optimal time to influence the actual downstream purchase behavior. Marketing to consumers early in their Consideration Window creates a subconscious connection to and memory of the vehicle, all before they are aware they will be in-market or being targeted.

EMG’s strategy generator distributes 60% of the campaign budget to pre-market. Paying extra attention to pre-market consumers capitalizes on their influenceability, thus guiding them down the sales funnel with early ad exposure. Don’t miss or underfund these highly influenceable and valuable individuals in automotive campaigns. Reach them before you (or they) think you should. Contact us today.