Did you know the first automotive ad appeared in the late 19th century? 

The Winton Motor Carriage Company wrote “dispense with a horse,” emphasizing the convenience of a motor vehicle. That is officially the first automotive ad copy. 

Ever since, the automotive industry just grew more competitive and compartmentalized. And catering to car owners, or aspiring car owners became an uphill struggle. 

Now, if you’re not a car brand, but a car parts—or car accessories brand… It’s even harder.

In that case, you’ll need to roll up your sleeveless and try to make the best out of your automotive ad campaigns. And we’ll learn why.

Why You Need A Tailored Ad Strategy If You’re Selling Car Accessories?

Stat time: US has 860 cars per 1000 inhabitants going by 2024 stats. Now, it might be even more.

So yes, almost everybody in the US owns a car. In Canada, it’s 707 per 1000, for instance. Still a huge number. Australia has 737 car owners per 1000 adults. Hm. 

What does that tell you? Your market is huge Depending on the type of automotive product you’re selling. Which also means the competition is stiff as well. 

The automotive ad market is also expected to grow to $57B by 2030 and North America dominated the digital ads share by 41.5% Which means that—if you’re from the US—you’ll definitely be in the “ring” with hefty competition. 

How to Market an Automotive Brand?

One of the best things you can do for your car accessories brand is to understand what makes them appealing.

Once you do, you can craft compelling automotive ads across all marketing channels—from paid ads to emails, to influencers, and more. 

Cater to Your Audience’s Emotions

Emotional marketing can help your automotive car parts brand connect with customers by tapping into their deeper desires for safety, reliability, and adventure.

You can highlight the peace of mind that comes with using high-quality accessories. Telling stories of families traveling safely and highlighting the gear part can tap into their subconscious. 

There’s the other side, too. The thrill of enhancing your vehicle’s performance or looks can pump the adrenaline and help improve personal connection. 

Here’s a Father’s Day ad we did for one of our motorcycles seats brand:

There’s hardly a better emotional connection than a father-son connection when you’re selling vehicle accesories, right?

Use Visual Content

Let’s face it. No one gets excited reading about a muffler. Seeing (or better—hearing) it in action is where the magic happens.

Crisp images, 360-degree views, videos showing how products look, fit, or perform can make or break a purchase decision.

Plus, visuals make it easier for customers to picture how that sleek spoiler or rugged roof rack will upgrade their ride. 

All this builds trust. You show customers what they’ll buy, after all.

Even when you’re discounting, make sure you add appealing images:

Just this one ad for an awesome vinyl wrapper did wonders. 

And here’s another example, this time an SMS marketing campaign:

Yep, even SMS marketing campaigns can be visual.

Educational Content

Educational content helps your car part brand build trust and authority. 

Think about it. You’re teaching customers how to choose, install, and maximize the use of your products. 

This not only simplifies the buying decision, but also positions your brand as a reliable partner in improving your potential customers’ vehicle experience.

Circuit Demon—a custom headlights brand that we’ve run ads for—has an entire YouTube channel dedicated to teaching you how to choose them and install them. 

They also share various other educational content:

You can share educational content as short-form videos (for instance Instagram Reels), or as longer, YouTube videos. You can also promote this content organically, or as paid ads. Simple.

Build a Community Around Your Brand

Car enthusiasts love their cars. Duh.

But they also love to connect with others who share their passion. Whether it’s off-road adventurers, performance junkies, or detailing fanatics, fostering a sense of belonging can turn your potential buyer into a lifelong brand advocate.

Sometimes, this can be as simple as encouraging customers to share photos and videos of your products in action. Or showing user-generated content on your social media channels to show appreciation and inspire others.

ou can also create online groups or forums where enthusiasts can discuss tips, share experiences, and showcase their builds. If your brand fee

ls like “home” for their passion, your customers will stick around—and keep coming back.

Reviews and Testimonials

It may seem like it, but car accessories aren’t an impulse buy.

Your potential customers need reassurance before they hit the “purchase” button. And nothing builds trust quite as much as social validation. 

Whether it’s someone praising how easy your roof rack was to install or how durable your floor mats are after months of heavy use—real experiences help cut through buyer hesitation.

Make reviews a central part of your marketing strategy. Highlight them on your product pages, sprinkle them into your social media posts, or even feature a glowing testimonial in your ads. 

Video testimonials? Even better. They pack more punch and feel more authentic than plain text.

Here’s an example of how we do it for one of our partners:

Automotive Ads Best Practices

Now that we’ve covered what content types and practices are best when promoting automotive brands, we can focus on the real deal—ads.

Leverage Segments and Targeting

Naturally, you’ll target vehicle enthusiasts and owners if you’re selling automotive parts. 

However, if you really want to win in your campaigns, you’ll have to go deeper than that. 

For instance, our partner only sold custom-made seats for Mustang cars. Targeting all vehicle owners wouldn’t be wrong, but it might also be… well, wide.

You can maximize campaigns by segmenting audiences based on vehicle types, but also ownership status, or other interests. For instance, off-road accessories make SUV owners a perfect target. Or fuel-saving products could be a target for drivers with different eco-conscious interests. 

There’s also geotargeting where you can focus on areas with higher car ownership and income—then you can also leverage retargeting for website visitors and car abandoners; while you can use custom audiences imported from your email marketing sequences for repeat buyers.

Use the Power of Local Ads 

What makes automotive buyers different from others is that they just want to see stuff for themselves.

And often they’ll be more inclined to visit your store after visiting your website. So if you have a store—make sure you leverage local ads. For example, you can use Store Visits to track conversions on Google.

Even if you don’t have a fixed place, you can always leverage events—which are a goldmine for 

automotive marketers. 

Partner with local car shows, meetups, or races to showcase your brand and connect with enthusiasts (remember how we mentioned community before).

Here is a brand that uses a specific event to promote itself:

Use Platform-Specific Automotive Features

Depending on what you sell, you can use platform-specific features. 

For instance, carousel ads on Meta are pretty good for showcasing a car before and after applying a car part—or promoting educational content that works very well among car part owners.

At the same time, Google even has Vehicle ads product that allows automotive ads to appear on specific search queries. 

Try Native Advertising

Native ads can be a seamless and non-intrusive way for you to engage with potential customers as an automotive brand.

Why? Because you are integrating promotional content directly into users’ online experience—and even better, they usually come in the form of educational or informative articles.

However if you want to drive conversions, you’ll have to ensure your native ads are both contextually relevant and value-driven.

Take note: Native ads are top-of-the-funnel ads. They can drive clicks and are often useful as awareness or, if targeted well lead generation campaigns. So make sure you use them in combination with a strong email marketing strategy for your automotive parts brand as well. 

By combining authentic storytelling, strategic targeting, and visually engaging formats, automotive brands can use native ads to build trust and drive meaningful conversions.

Use Influencer and Whitelisting Ads

You know what is cooler than your car part brand? When someone who’s already knowledgable in the industry showcases it—and recommends it.

Wonder who can do that? That’s right. Influencers. Their best perk is that they bring a human touch to a technical market—bringing your niche product to a highly targeted audience.

Content creators, especially car enthusiasts and mechanics, create relatable content that can demonstrate how your automotive part can improve your customers’ performance, reliability, or style. 

Trust is critical. And their followers trust their expertise, which drives more authentic engagement than just traditional ads—plus other fans of your brand can comment on it and bring more social proof to the table. 

Plus, influencers can showcase your products in action and make benefits tangible. And all this boosts both awareness and trust, which should also impact long-term brand loyalty. 

Here’s a snapshot of an influencer ad for a radar detector: 

You get the gist.

Shift Your Ad Gears

The automotive market is vast, and competitive, but it can also be lucrative. 

When you advertise for car accessories, your campaigns may hinge on emotional connections, visually engaging content, and super-targeted strategies.

You might also want to combine education, community building, and influencer marketing to stand out and slowly build up trust and long-term loyalty.

Need some help running automotive ads? You’ve seen some examples in this article, but there are many more from where that came from. So reach out and we can talk.