RAC Cars goes free for dealers

[James Baggott 227]

Here's a turn up for the books then. A large advertising portal goes completely free in a bid to take on Auto Trader.

They're aiming for 500k cars too.

What do you think?

http://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/advertising-rac-cars-now-free-dealers/91251?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[umesh 336]

Interesting to offer Free, Think we all know Free or not IF Consumers are not searching the RAC website dealers wont make a sale! so pointless 

However if they get the SEO right and the marketing then the sales may come ! a tough challenge .. but its all about where ' buyers' are looking - isn't it?

[Codeweavers Shaun 5]

Its all about unprompted awareness ratings, not just SEO and marketing Umesh.

 

Go and ask 100 people if they have heard of Auto Trader, I would imagine 98 or so would say yes, ergo I would guess their prompted awareness rating would be around high 90's.

 

Then ask 100 people to name a place on the internet where there are cars for sale from multiple vendors, my guess, at least 50% would say Auto Trader ergo an unprompted rating of around 50% (maybe someone from Auto Trader could confirm, they will have these stats and they will have the ratings for their competitors). 

 

Until someone gets close to these ratings then they will have a tough time competing at the same level. The likes of RAC and AA can certainly take them on in the unprompted awareness stakes, they have extremely strong brands, now they need to convert that into unprompted awareness in the portal arena and its game on. The strength here is in the brand and brand awareness, not necessarily in the car numbers.

[Daylight 28]

I agree that the vast majority of potential buyers will be a lot more aware of Autotrader and as such our stock exposure is much higher with them (I know their market dominance is debated regularly), however;

 

My parents (late 60s, early 70s) were recently looking for a new car (Golf Plus), and decided to have a look on the internet to see what is around to get an idea of colours etc. During this search my mum sent me a link to a couple she liked the look of to gauge my opinion, these were all on the RAC cars site and none on autotrader. I have no idea how she ended up there, as I didn't ask at the time but this shows that even the less internet savvy amongst us can still wander across the site.

 

If it's free we have nothing to lose, so I'll be trialling some stock on there and see how we fare.

[Jack Regan 116]

Any one tried to advertise on RAC site yet, every car I try to put on, it comes up with "registration is already on our database" and won't let me proceed, phone lines are always busy and can't get an answer to try and sort it .

[v5cars 2]

If it doesn't take much/any time out of your day, why not advertise, if only one sale comes from the advertising surely its worth it. If it costs nothing (including time) then why not add to the exposure of your brand on the internet, it will do nothing but good for you and your own dealer website.

[jamslug 91]

Any one tried to advertise on RAC site yet, every car I try to put on, it comes up with "registration is already on our database" and won't let me proceed, phone lines are always busy and can't get an answer to try and sort it .

 

I think they prefer a feed , maybe that is the problem? I am going to get a feed sent over to see what leads I get, if any.

[Jack Regan 116]

Got email from them today , looks like need to fill out a form to complete registration.