Social media has fundamentally transformed the automotive retail landscape, creating new opportunities and challenges for dealers and manufacturers alike.
TransUnion's Mobility Insight for Q1 2025 reveals that 63% of South Africans actively seek brand content on social media platforms, ranking fourth globally. This represents a paradigm shift from traditional one-way advertising to reciprocal interactions between manufacturers, dealerships, and finance institutions engaging directly with potential customers in real time.
Platform performance and consumer behaviour:
Facebook maintains market leadership with a 59.9% Adult Reach Rate for social media advertising, significantly outperforming the global average of 39.4%. YouTube follows at 52.7%, TikTok at 52.5%, whilst Instagram lags at 15.9%.
South African consumers demonstrate sophisticated digital behaviour: 76% use social platforms for product research, 92% research online before visiting dealerships, and TikTok advertising grew 34% year-on-year. The average consumer spends 3.6 hours daily on social media, with 82% conducting online searches before dealership visits.
Generational insights
Generation Z shows 27.9% year-on-year growth in vehicle finance volumes, with platform preferences varying by demographic. Gen Z favours TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, focusing on affordability and digital features. Millennials prefer Facebook and Instagram, prioritising practicalityand resale value. Gen X gravitates towards Facebook and YouTube, emphasising reliability and brand loyalty.
Strategic implications:
Successful automotive brands are implementing platform-specific strategies including engaging visual content, user-generated content campaigns, and influencer partnerships. Short-format video content proves particularly effective for digital-first audiences.
Emerging technologies like augmented reality test drives, AI-powered chatbots, and social commerce integration are transforming the online buying experience, enabling friction-free browsing and enhanced customer engagement throughout the purchase journey.
(Source: TansUnion).
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