Ad tech firm AdTheorent has released the results of a study looking at how the automotive industry uses mobile as an advertising channel, conducted during Q3.

The company analyzed user engagement with approximately 117m mobile impressions in the auto vertical for insights regarding the highest performing secondary engagement actions as well as household incomes, display sizes, locations and other outside factors that influence mobile advertising engagement. The data was taken from campaigns for 13 of the largest auto brands in the US. The company says its auto category campaigns outperformed the industry’s auto average by 363 percent.

The study found that rich media mobile ads drove high secondary engagement for automotive brands. The top secondary actions were visiting the brand’s landing page; viewing product features and comparisons; and watching a video. It also found that high earners were more engaged with automotive advertising on mobile. When household income was: $120-130,000 engagement was 514 per cent higher than the industry average. And when household income was: $70-80,000, engagement was 455 per cent higher than the industry average.

Other findings include:

• Females outperformed males, delivering an 8 per cent higher engagement rate
• Users on a cellular network delivered a 6 per cent greater engagement rate, compared to users on wi-fi
• Mobile Apps outperformed Mobile Web by 57 per cent
• Tablet users delivered 7 per cent higher engagement than smartphone users
• Larger display sizes delivered higher engagement.

“As more and more automotive brands shift dollars to mobile, it’s exciting to see the level of secondary engagement across AdTheorent’s network in this vertical,” said Jason Han, AdTheorent’s director of data and analytics. “Mobile’s ability to deliver very tailored, location-based information to the user, coupled with highly dynamic, engaging creative is a natural fit for the auto vertical. When advertisers provide something very relevant, valuable and actionable to the consumer, they are able to create a good brand experience and ultimately, engagement and ROI.”