Car buyers use social media more now in deciding where to buy

Car buyers use social media more now in deciding where to buy

Its no surprise that car buyers are using social media more than ever to help them decide where to buy. But a recent study shows that consumers find review sites much more helpful than dealership sites. And they are much more likely to trust a review from a Facebook friend than reviews on other sites.

Digital Air Strike surveyed 2,000 consumers who had bought a car in the past six months and, separately, surveyed 650 dealerships. The majority of buyers said they consider review sites helpful in their decision about where to buy. More specifically:

24% consider review sites the most helpful factor in their purchase decision.

15% consider dealership sites the most helpful.

81% of buyers who use review sites said they look at review scores.

Car buyers use the top five sites 13% more than they did just 6 months ago. The top five are Cars.com, Edmunds.com, Google+ Local, Yelp and Yahoo.

Is it worthwhile to advertise on Facebook? The study found that 27 percent of car buyers click on mobile ads on Facebook. Clicks on dealership ads more than doubled from October 2012 to April 2013, to 39 percent.