Today's sophisticated automotive marketers want to understand the impact Meta ads have in driving both their sales and brand KPIs, using Mixed Media Modeling (MMM). To help answer this question, Meta commissioned a custom marketing mix study with Nielsen using two years of syndicated media, sales, brand consideration and favorability data across five top automakers (representing 60% of the US car market).

The goal was to understand:

How do Meta ads impact sales and brand KPIs when compared to other channels?

Which strategies within Meta ads are more efficient than others?

How do Meta ads drive both short and long term ROAS?

In this two-part study, we first quantified the impact of media in driving short term car sales and then the impact on brand metrics. The combined findings of both the Sales and Brand MMM quantify both short term and long term impact of various strategies on Meta in driving car sales.

Key findings of the study

1. Most advertisers were significantly underinvested on Meta.