Over the past year, WUA conducted monthly Tracker research on private lease car purchases: 200 respondents explored options on desktop each month. The winner in the November & December 2016 research was Athlon.com. The victory is primarily due to high and especially fast findability. Of all respondents, 21% found Athlon.com as the very first website in their exploration. The number 2 in the research, ANWB.nl, was only visited first by 8% of respondents. This difference is significant.
If visitors can't find your website, they can't buy from you either
When you're searching for a product yourself, such as a private lease car in this case, exploration often begins on the internet. You have the choice to go directly to your own dealer's website or to the online domain of a party you know. You then type the address directly into your internet browser. In the private lease market, we see that the online exploration process most often begins with the search engine, with the favorite being Google.
Which websites do you encounter when searching for a private lease car? And which websites do you actually click to visit them? The website that is visited first sets the standard. The websites visited afterwards will automatically be weighed against this first visited website.
Athlon.com found first most often
Athlon.com has ensured that 21% of respondents visited Athlon.com's website first. The advantage for Athlon.com is therefore: all websites visited afterwards are compared with Athlon.com. The easiest way to be found quickly is high top-of-mind brand awareness. In markets that have been developed for years, we often see that consumers are more inclined to directly search for provider websites. Think of buying books at bol.com or booking a hotel at Booking.com. However, this is not yet the case in the private lease market. Respondents massively chose the search engine to begin their exploration. This means that 1) the right position in Google and 2) the right link text play an important role in quickly acquiring visitors.
How did Athlon.com ensure they are found first so often?
Athlon.com chooses to focus mainly on paid search traffic. 79% of Athlon respondents who came in via Google did so through paid search results. The number two in the research, ANWB.nl, chose the opposite strategy by attracting 82% of visitors via organic search results, and therefore focusing less on paid search results.
What's so good about Athlon.com being found first?
In the WUA benchmark we see a clear pattern. Websites that are found first most often also enjoy first preference most often. As a website that is found first, the advantage is often that the consumer still needs to read up on the topic and therefore gives just a bit more attention to your website. This gives a website the chance to win over this consumer with distinctive USPs and a good offer.
Paid search results have another advantage
With paid search results, it's much easier to lead consumers to pages that are relevant to them. It's therefore not surprising that Athlon.com scores highest on the following statement asked in the research: "the website is directly relevant". The website immediately shows the offer with a handy filter system: "Small - Medium - Large" to find the right car. The most important information pages are directly visible and not hidden behind a (hamburger) menu. This way, Athlon.com is directly relevant for visitors looking for a new car, but also relevant for visitors who first want to read more.
