Last week we unveiled our very first Automotive Quarterly report, which among other things included the inaugural Experian Hitwise Automotive Brand Index. The Index ranks the top manufacturers according to the volume of searches received for both manufacturer and individual car models. Ford emerged as the most searched for brand online, accounting for 11.12% of all branded Automotive searches during the first three months of 2011.

On first glance this list may look a little stagnant, especially as all of the top 10 manufacturers have held the same place this quarter as they would have done last quarter. The list is deceptive though, and hides a much more interesting story: Ford is currently clinging to its top spot, and the German trio of Volkswagen, Audi and BMW are all catching up with the UK’s most popular online car brand.
What’s interesting to note is that although Ford receives more branded searches than any other manufacturer, it is actually only the fourth biggest manufacturer in terms of UK Internet visits to its homepage. BMW, Audi and Volkswagen all received more visits to their website than Ford in April 2011, and Ford hasn’t been the number one website in the Experian Hitwise Manufacturers category since March 2009.

This may seem a little odd, given Ford’s strength in branded search. However, if you look at the downstream websites that are receiving traffic from those branded terms you can start to see how Ford differs from competitors like Audi. Just shy of 30% of all Ford branded search terms go directly to the Ford UK homepage, whereas almost 50% of Audi branded searches go to the Audi homepage.

For Ford, you can see that a lot of searches for Ford models are going directly to Ford dealerships such as Polar Ford and Jennings Ford, rather than to the main Ford website. Audi on the other hand has a much higher concentration of visits going to its homepage, with fewer visits going to classifieds sites, dealerships and car supermarkets.
If you haven’t seen the Automotive report yet, you can download it for free from our website, it contains lots of interesting market insight into the movers and shakers within the Automotive industry not just for manufacturers but also in classifieds, dealerships and motor insurance. You can also follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates online.