SEATTLE and SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

Following a separate announcement on Wednesday in which Cobalt and Edmunds.com said they will be partnering to provide a window into online automotive shopping behavior, Edmunds also revealed a new way for dealers to connect with shoppers looking to lease a new car.

Lease levels continue to rise, and now dealers have a new way to make leasing terms for inventory available to car shoppers through the Edmunds.com Price Promise tool.

The site says dealers can now easily set a promised down payment, deposit, term and annual mileage for a lease on any of their new cars posted to Edmunds.com’s inventory listings.

The resulting monthly lease payment is displayed next to the vehicle's upfront purchase price on Edmunds.com Price Promise certificates, the company explained.

Shoppers can then download and print the certificates to lock in the guaranteed price that they can use to either lease or purchase the vehicle at the dealership.

"Price Promise made it easier to buy a new car, and now it's making it just as easy to lease a new car," says Edmunds.com president Seth Berkowitz.  "Car shoppers are opting to lease vehicles now more than ever and there's every reason to expect this trend to continue to grow. Dealers can attract more of these shoppers right now by showcasing guaranteed upfront lease offers through Price Promise."

Cobalt and Edmunds.com Partner for New Consumer Behavior Research Initiative

In other news, Cobalt and Edmunds.com announced Wednesday they will be working together to provide a comprehensive view into online automotive shopper behavior, analyzing actions across advertising networks, search engines and independent research sites, as well as manufacturer, regional and dealer websites.

"It is part of our culture to innovate new ways to apply and share our vast and growing collection of car shopping trend data," said Brian Terr, Edmunds.com vice president of business development. "Our collaboration with Cobalt is part of our continuing effort to provide car buyers with a richer and easier shopping experience. Our dealer and OEM partners will also benefit from a better understanding of consumer engagement with their brands and as a result have a greater ability to make more strategic marketing decisions."

The companies will also be analyzing consumer behavior across the aforementioned properties as shoppers interact with different types of branded and unbranded content, not simply measured as clicks or visits.

"The joint research will guide marketers to understand the advertising value attribution of different content and offers in contributing toward a sale," the companies explained.

How will the new partnership help the automotive industry?

The companies intend to share their findings in an effort to advance digital marketing practice as well as to inform the industry of the details behind how a shopper looks for a new vehicle online.

The companies contend that previous research hasn’t given insight into automotive shopper behavior across all of the proposed online properties, and research under the partnership will seek to provide a window into the actual content viewed by consumers.

And the research has already begun.

The two companies are already collaborating to better understand the experience of shoppers as they go between Edmunds and the Cobalt dealer network.

"This research has found that consumers who visit both properties purchase at more than three times the rate of the average dealer website visitor," officials said. "By optimizing consumers' experiences as they cross properties the companies expect to serve consumers better and significantly improve conversion."

The companies will be inviting manufacturers to participate in the initiative as it progresses.

"Cobalt's prime focus is on how we can improve the auto buyer's experience to the benefit of the consumer, manufacturer and dealer", said Max Steckler, vice president of global advertising solutions/business intelligence. "Edmunds.com's unmatched insights into cross-brand consumer vehicle research combined with Cobalt's research and dynamic consumer experiences platform will give our clients a profound competitive advantage in serving the rapidly changing automotive consumer."