Autotrader is it worth it

[Jon 2]

Thanks Arfur that's exactly the insight I was hoping for.

[Arfur Dealy 823]

9 minutes ago, Jon said:

Thanks Arfur that's exactly the insight I was hoping for.

It's true 

[BCC 9]

We have just doubled our Auto Trader package, will let you know what effect it has, if any.

Facebook is a goldmine though, out of the last 10 cars we sold, 5 were sold through Facebook.

[Jon 2]

Bcc how are you getting such results from Facebook if you don't mind me asking , we are advertising on there both on our own page as well as on all the local buy and sell groups . Are we missing something?

 

[Dan W 57]

6 minutes ago, Jon said:

Bcc how are you getting such results from Facebook if you don't mind me asking , we are advertising on there both on our own page as well as on all the local buy and sell groups . Are we missing something?

 

Similar to us then Jon, we have tried facebook and local groups never seen an enquiry, Pics are great advert has all info and priced very well just cannot drum up interest.

Any tips would be appreciated.

[whitestone679231 113]

I used to sell 20 cars a month when I was with Autotrader (60 cars advertised) The cost and arrogance of them got too much for me so I cancelled, at the time the rep said no one leaves AT for good     (he came in a few months ago..... he had left and was touting for a finance company) I advertise everywhere else e-bay, motors, car gurus, local paper, facebook, and have a good web site provider, since leaving AT I have still sold an average of 20 a month but saved £1000,s on advertising and increased my margins as I am not competing to be on page 1, Facebook really does need working at and takes a long time before results come through, you need to build up your audience and ensure all your past customers are fully engaging with you, time consuming but inexpensive and in my opinion is a no brainer.

[BCC 9]

Could you please send over a link to your Facebook pages, i'm happy to have a look and see if I can give you any tips.  

[RH Trading 80]

On ‎11‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 1:22 PM, ///AUTOKRAFT said:

I agree largely with everything you say. Can I ask approx how many cars you have in stock? What I would add is that Autotrader is expensive because they have the monopoly. No other company has been able to challenge Autotraders monopoly.

 

think something's only expensive if it doesn't work or doesn't give value for money, compared to motors and the others ive tried its better value, spent around £2000 on motors for good few months and got zero sales.- that's expensive! have sold off gumtree but bargains I wouldn't want to retail for next to no profit and for a lot of hassle. Last one I sold on gumtree was a 12 yr old Punto for £300, guy brought it back 6 months and 15k more miles demanding money back due to failed MOT! hounded me for weeks, painful. don't seem to get half as much hassle from the autotrader cars

[BHM 994]

Oh dear! Hounded for weeks!?!!! I find the phrase "fuck off & do what you like" works a treat with the bottom feeding chancers.

[LOVECARS 3]

On 8/13/2017 at 10:29 AM, BCC said:

We have just doubled our Auto Trader package, will let you know what effect it has, if any.

Facebook is a goldmine though, out of the last 10 cars we sold, 5 were sold through Facebook.

Your set up looks superb, I have been following you for a while now over the last 6 months and Ive got to say it looks great. One question how did you get so gather such a high following on Facebook/Instagram? Giveaways etc? 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

I'm off on holiday for three weeks so cancelled my AT from this Friday, I do it twice a year  Difference this time is, I've decided to take the full on DogsB package sponsored priority etc to start from the 7th next month, my rep says shes not had one cancellation and it should increase my business significantly......we shall see.....

[sparky 274]

12 hours ago, Arfur Dealy said:

I'm off on holiday for three weeks so cancelled my AT from this Friday, I do it twice a year  Difference this time is, I've decided to take the full on DogsB package sponsored priority etc to start from the 7th next month, my rep says shes not had one cancellation and it should increase my business significantly......we shall see.....

3 weeks holiday, I can only dream......

[NOACROSS 414]

Don't do it.  They're the biggest highway robbers out there! 

You may see 'some' increase in replies and a slight up lift in sales during a busy period, but it will only level out over time to show you're only covering their extortionate prices at best.  During quiet periods that cost will suck your blood dry.  

I was with them from 'day one' of AT Digital (it was a pound a car and they begged us to come on board) and have watched them turn into the greedy vampires they are now.  

If you go to their site and click on 'trade adverts' and then 'private ads' you'll see that the trade is 80 percent of their business, but they couldn't give two hoots about us. 

The pricing is insane and value for money is appalling. 

I noticed very little impact when I finally kicked them in to touch. The punters search for cars differently nowadays and most simply do a google search and, as long as you're with a few of the other companies, they will find you.  

I use some of the £3000 a month I've saved on a full page local press ad once a month. I also advertise with:

ebay motors pro (ensure you enable 'best offer option', motors, car gurus and Exchange and Mart.  My website is hosted by the brilliant Click Dealer. 

Times are are hard at the moment and we're in for a tough ride. Autotrader are dinosaurs and you can do without them. 

[metcars 397]

I've noticed AT are running a campaign offering free 'private' ads for cars under £1k at the moment. Interesting that apart from their issues with traders that they must also be losing a lot of revenue from private sellers using facebook for 'free'?

[NOACROSS 414]

They've done this a few times. In their head it's 'giving back'. Something you don't need and won't benefit from; whilst putting up the prices again.

They're not bright enough to realise that all they've got to do is (at least) double the stock number and reduce the prices. Basic economy of scale.  Also, there is practically no sensible bulk-buy discount  if you have ten cars or a hundred, the cost per car is the same.

If you bought 300 cans of coke individually from a newsagent you'd be daft as much cheaper in bulk from a cash & carry or similar.

AT just rape you for as much as possible and don't care if you advertise in bulk  even though, those 100 cars you pay for at the premium are littered with their sponsored adverts  

Oh, and don't forget, you can pay even more to get a premium listing at the top of the page! This is why they get through SO many Reps.

They're more interested in littering the site with adverts and looking after their target audience: the private customer (who can advertise for the same cost as us and get for free all the Dealer Portal Pricing tools we get charged for.)

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-valuation

A previous comment made me laugh -with regards to asking punters where they saw the advert. I've done this for years and I still get told "Oh it was Autotrader". Even though I've not advertised with the crooks for six months ;0)

 

 

 

[Tadams 29]

No one is forced to advertise with Auto Trader so i don't understand all the threads about them, if you feel what you pay doesn't return what you think it should do then simply don't pay it, many have and have lived to tell the tale (there's many an example on here)  

It's like buying a steak from Waitrose and comparing to a steak from Netto, naturally the cheaper of the two probably wont be as nice but if your happy with it and your full afterwards then that's all that matters. 

You then wouldn't go on to Twitter and tell Waitrose that their steaks are too expensive compared to the one you just bought from Netto.  

[BCC 9]

On 8/15/2017 at 0:27 AM, LOVECARS said:

Your set up looks superb, I have been following you for a while now over the last 6 months and Ive got to say it looks great. One question how did you get so gather such a high following on Facebook/Instagram? Giveaways etc? 

Thanks for the feedback. 

The quickest way to build followers is to constantly share your posts in owners clubs and car sell pages, that way you are building up targeted likes from people who have an interest in what you are selling.  

A few basic tips:

Post engaging photos, videos, articles etc which are going to get people to like and comment, even if its not directly related to the cars you are selling. Facebook pages are now set up to only show your posts to people that have engaged with your page. There is no point having 20k+ likes if your posts aren't coming up for 99% of those 'followers'. If you just post boring photos of the cars you are selling constantly people will get bored very quickly.

Be tactical about timings of posts, our audience are most active at around 5pm so we aim a lot of attention grabbing posts around that sort of time. It will be different depending on who your followers are and who your target market is.

We did do a car giveaway a while back which did help us gain a lot more followers. We chose a Clio Sport as we knew that would attract the right sort of people for our business model, people who have an interest in performance cars and modified cars.  We did it as a joint venture with our bodyshop, they painted the car Nardo Grey to help boost their online profile as well as ours.  Showing progress photos and posts etc kept the giveaway engaging for the 4 weeks it was live.  In my opinion, for a giveaway to work and build the right audience then you have to think of a unique way of doing it, otherwise you have a page full of full time mummys who will more than likely never be interested in buying one of your cars or even engaging in any more posts once the competition is over.

You have probably seen that we offer a £100 reward for anyone that shares the post and it leads to a sale. This encourages a lot of people to share the posts which increases your reach and hopefully builds more followers. We have also sold a few cars this way, worth the £100 in my eyes.

We had a an open day with a DJ and some food vans which went down really well. Lots of people turned up and it helped get our name out there. We are already planning another one in the next few weeks. People check in and post photos on Facebook  which again builds followers. 

I spent a lot of time reading and watching videos about how to be successful with Facebook, theres lots of good information if you spend the time to research it. We sell around 40% of our cars through Facebook, more so than Auto Trader, ebay or piston heads. We purchase at least half of our stock from people who message the page looking to sell. 

It really is a valuable tool, hope some of this helps. Good luck. 

[Rory RSC 596]

1 hour ago, BCC said:

Thanks for the feedback. 

The quickest way to build followers is to constantly share your posts in owners clubs and car sell pages, that way you are building up targeted likes from people who have an interest in what you are selling.  

A few basic tips:

Post engaging photos, videos, articles etc which are going to get people to like and comment, even if its not directly related to the cars you are selling. Facebook pages are now set up to only show your posts to people that have engaged with your page. There is no point having 20k+ likes if your posts aren't coming up for 99% of those 'followers'. If you just post boring photos of the cars you are selling constantly people will get bored very quickly.

Be tactical about timings of posts, our audience are most active at around 5pm so we aim a lot of attention grabbing posts around that sort of time. It will be different depending on who your followers are and who your target market is.

We did do a car giveaway a while back which did help us gain a lot more followers. We chose a Clio Sport as we knew that would attract the right sort of people for our business model, people who have an interest in performance cars and modified cars.  We did it as a joint venture with our bodyshop, they painted the car Nardo Grey to help boost their online profile as well as ours.  Showing progress photos and posts etc kept the giveaway engaging for the 4 weeks it was live.  In my opinion, for a giveaway to work and build the right audience then you have to think of a unique way of doing it, otherwise you have a page full of full time mummys who will more than likely never be interested in buying one of your cars or even engaging in any more posts once the competition is over.

You have probably seen that we offer a £100 reward for anyone that shares the post and it leads to a sale. This encourages a lot of people to share the posts which increases your reach and hopefully builds more followers. We have also sold a few cars this way, worth the £100 in my eyes.

We had a an open day with a DJ and some food vans which went down really well. Lots of people turned up and it helped get our name out there. We are already planning another one in the next few weeks. People check in and post photos on Facebook  which again builds followers. 

I spent a lot of time reading and watching videos about how to be successful with Facebook, theres lots of good information if you spend the time to research it. We sell around 40% of our cars through Facebook, more so than Auto Trader, ebay or piston heads. We purchase at least half of our stock from people who message the page looking to sell. 

It really is a valuable tool, hope some of this helps. Good luck. 

Very good post and nice to hear someone talk about Facebook who is actually doing well with it. Good work guys keep it up.

[Tom 164]

Great Stuff BCC. I think what helps you more is the type of cars as well. All the cars you have are sporty so all the younger generation who are welded to facebook will be attracted to this type of car, than an old dealer down the road selling Rovers or Volvos which attracts the older generation. I'm fortunate to have an open roadside forecourt with a small showroom which most of my sales come from is passers by.