Cars.com Launches Cars360 to Help Automotive Dealers Influence Local Car Shoppers Throughout their Online Journey

CHICAGO, June 3, 2013  /PRNewswire/ -- Cars.com, the premier online resource for buying and selling new and used cars, launched Cars360, an audience extension solution designed to help automotive dealerships extend their reach and influence Cars.com shoppers even after they have left the site.  As consumers spend more time online and longer periods of time in-market, Cars360 keeps a dealer's brand top-of-mind throughout the consumer's online journey by targeting relevant, local car shoppers across a network of hundreds of thousands of websites.

"Car shoppers spend as long as 19 weeks in market to purchase a vehicle, and during that process, they spend over 20 hours a week online.  They're browsing auto websites, but they're also reading news sites, checking sports scores, planning out their weekends, shopping online or checking email," said Rock Irvin, Manager of Data & Partnerships, Cars.com.  "Cars360 offers additional exposure to a highly targeted audience of local in-market shoppers who have expressed interest in a dealership's make on Cars.com.  The dealership's brand will be seen by those shoppers across the web, providing dealers with a unique branding opportunity to influence potential customers even when they are not shopping on Cars.com."

Cars360 does not require manual setup and regular maintenance; dealers simply select their vehicle make and market, then either work with Cars.com's graphic design team to create their ads* or supply their own creative.  Cars.com then manages the process for them by tracking the vehicle searches completed by more than 12 million monthly unique visitors to Cars.com, driving awareness via display ads linking to either a dealership's website or to their Dealer Profile on Cars.com.

While retargeting solutions can be effective in helping dealers re-engage shoppers who have already visited their dealership website, Cars360 draws upon Cars.com's vast, high-quality audience of in-market car shoppers to drive new traffic to a dealership's website or Cars.com Dealer Profile.  And unlike behavioral targeting, which targets individuals based on inferred shopping behavior, Cars360 reaches consumers who have explicitly demonstrated in-market shopping behavior by searching for a particular make on Cars.com.

For more information, dealers can contact their local sales representative or visit dealers.cars.com/Cars360.
*Select markets only.

ABOUT CARS.COM
Cars.com is an award-winning online destination for car shoppers that offers information from consumers and experts to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. Cars.com offers thousands of new and used vehicle listings, consumer reviews, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and many other tools. Cars.com puts millions of car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make confident buying decisions. Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures LLC, which is owned by leading media companies, including A.H. Belo (NYSE: AHC), Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).

SOURCE Cars.com