Tesla is now advertising on YouTube, marking the most significant expansion of the company’s advertising campaign since CEO Elon Musk finally agreed to try it after years of saying it wasn’t necessary.
Tesla has become one of the biggest automakers in the world without spending any money on advertising. This is in stark contract to legacy automakers, most notably General Motors who according to Statista spent a whopping $3.25 billion on advertising in 2022, nearly double its next closest competitor Stellantis, who still spent an eye-watering $1.83 billion.
Despite its success without an advertising budget, one of the major talking point among some fans and investors was that Tesla should start advertising, in part to combat some of the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) being spread about the company and its cars. After years of facing the same question, Musk finally agreed to “try a little advertising” for the first time at the Annual Shareholder meeting earlier this year.
The company didn’t start off big though, first launching ads on Google. These were simply text-based ads and didn’t provide the same punch that a video ad would. After a few months of testing the waters with text, Tesla has moved on to video ads, with its first ad appearing on YouTube this week.
The ad was spotted by Trevor Scott, who tells us he was browsing the Shorts section of YouTube when he came across the video highlighting the safety of Tesla vehicles. The video talks about all the data Tesla has its hands thanks to the connected nature of its vehicles, all of which allows it to design the safest cars on the road. The video ends with Tesla inviting people to book a test drive.
Tesla YouTube Ad + link to website for a test drive. pic.twitter.com/qp9WAfACTL
— Trevor Scott ☠️ (@Space_Taz) November 15, 2023
With Tesla launching the first video ad on YouTube, the company is taking its first steps into traditional advertising. What do you think Tesla should advertise next, and where? Let us know in the comments below.
