2016 marketing campaign sees busiest February ever with 59 million visits[1] to the marketplace.
- Increase in traffic generated over 263 million advert views[2], more advert views correlates with retailers selling more cars, quicker
- Auto Trader’s site visits are now almost 18 times larger than Motors and RAC combined[3]
- Six TV adverts highlight a range of new products to help consumers; from free online valuation tool to expert advice
Auto Trader’s latest marketing campaign has seen the automotive marketplace achieve its best ever February, with 59 million visits to the site. The increased traffic has generated over 263 million advert views in February 2016 – an additional 13.4 million advert views from last February. Auto Trader research shows retailers securing more advert views have more chance to sell stock, quicker.
Auto Trader is now six times larger than its nearest competitor (Gumtree), almost 18 times larger than Motors and RAC combined, and nearly 40% larger than all classified competitors combined[4]. It’s also the UK’s most visited automotive website, with 83% of all time spent on automotive classified websites spent on Auto Trader.[5]
The latest campaign focused on the promotion of a new range of products that have been designed to make it easier for consumers to buy and sell their vehicles. The original 30-second TV ad which launched on 1st January was created to help first time car buyers, as well as more confident consumers, and is supported by five further 10-second adverts, which show each product in more detail. The 10 second adverts focus on the free, online vehicle valuation tool, the new easy-to-use search function, new car editorial content and a new part-exchange tool. This is all under-pinned by a very coherent and thorough digital strategy in PPC and display.
Nathan Coe, Operation’s Director at Auto Trader, said: “Our campaign is all about growing our current audience as well as attracting new audiences so that we continue to deliver the largest and most engaged car buying audience to our retailer customers. The campaign has had the desired effect as we have had the biggest January ever in terms of the number of visits to the site, our rate of growth in both visits and engagement is significantly bigger than all the other auto classified sites whose growth is in fact declining in both areas.
“92% of consumers know Auto Trader as a brand that can help them throughout the car buying process.[6] So our focus is on developing products for consumers that help them to buy and sell cars as quickly and easily as possible. Our consumer valuations tool was used over 1.5 million times in March 2016 alone.”
[1] Auto Trader: 59 million cross platform visits – comScore MMX MP Feb 2016 data
[2] Full Page Advert Views an internal metric from Auto Trader
[3] Gumtree: 9,592,000, Motors: 2,911,000, RAC: 266,000 – comScore MMX MP Feb 2016 data
[4] Auto Trader [P] Entity compared to a custom competitor set: Ebay Motors Uk [S], Exchangeandmart.Co.Uk [C], Gumtree.Com – Motors [C], Motors.Co.Uk [M], Pistonheads Sites [M], Raccars.Co.Uk [M], Vcars.Co.Uk [M], Parkers.Co.Uk [C], Carwow.Co.Uk [P], Autoexpress.Co.Uk [M], Whatcar.Com [C], Topgear.Com [M], Cargurus.Co.Uk [P], Trusteddealers.Co.Uk [P] in January 2016 – comScore MMX MP Feb 2016 data
[5] comScore MMX MP Feb 2016 data
[6] HPI Brand Tracking Data – March 2016
Valuations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIZ9sMNz0qg
Discovery search: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSFIGFZPN88
New Car Editorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKYWJ2DUohU
Part-ex ad here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcsDALfpCB8
For all trade media enquiries, please contact:
Kieren Puffett 07802 483971 kieren.puffett@kjjmarketing.co.uk
