Advertising platforms and autotrader

[Grantlfc81 88]

I’m currently noticing a huge shift in leads from the main advertising platform autotrader to others. 

I have written down all my leads for the month and as follows for feb

£1200 p/m autotrader - 20 leads

£330 p/m eBay & gumtree - 14 leads

£free - autovolo 3 leads

£free - car gurus 9 leads

£free - Facebook marketplace -28 leads

forecourt - 20 ish leads or more 

i have heard that within 2 years Facebook marketplace will be rivalling autotrader and will remain free.

how is everyone doing across all the advertising platforms? Autoraper seems to be losing its market share rapidly.

[Nick M.K. 574]

Have you got actual sales figures Grant? 

I get MANY leads from eBay for example and MANY emails from CarGurus but very few actual sales that I can attribute to them. 

The more popular a marketplace becomes  among sellers the fewer leads per seller are generated. 

Happened with eBay, happened with Gumtree (big time), it’s happening with Facebook and 80% of my paying customers come from AutoTrader while other dealers are leaving it. 

Quality not quantity as David Brent would say...

[NOACROSS 414]

 

14 minutes ago, Grantlfc81 said:

I’m currently noticing a huge shift in leads from the main advertising platform autotrader to others. 

I have written down all my leads for the month and as follows for feb

£1200 p/m autotrader - 20 leads

£330 p/m eBay & gumtree - 14 leads

£free - autovolo 3 leads

£free - car gurus 9 leads

£free - Facebook marketplace -28 leads

forecourt - 20 ish leads or more 

i have heard that within 2 years Facebook marketplace will be rivalling autotrader and will remain free.

how is everyone doing across all the advertising platforms? Autoraper seems to be losing its market share rapidly.

What a shame. I’m just surprised it’s taken so long for people to realise this. One by one most will come to the dark side and agree with me.

I’ve been without them for years now as I may have mentioned ;o) 

I too have been surprised by the Facebook traction though. 

Autoraper is a jumbled mess and just because someone gets directed to there from a google or other search, doesn’t mean they don’t find you if you’re not on with the greedy, robbing bastards. 

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by NOACROSS

[Grantlfc81 88]

I won’t leave auto trader just yet as one sale pays for our advertising on average. But I should imagine within 12-24 months they will be losing customers left right and centre.... 

car gurus seems to be making a good push on tv

16 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

Have you got actual sales figures Grant? 

I get MANY leads from eBay for example and MANY emails from CarGurus but very few actual sales that I can attribute to them. 

The more popular a marketplace becomes  among sellers the fewer leads per seller are generated. 

Happened with eBay, happened with Gumtree (big time), it’s happening with Facebook and 80% of my paying customers come from AutoTrader while other dealers are leaving it. 

Quality not quantity as David Brent would say...

I totally agree with this and I would say the quality from autoraper is generally better. Facebook has by far the highest decline rate on finance. Something like 9 declines out of 11 lol

[Nick M.K. 574]

I’ve never used Facebook enough to make it work and I imagine at lower price points Marketplace is great but if it gives such a high decline rate I will leave it for a couple of years. 

Had 2 customers today, both from AT, both approved including one on a 55 reg car. 

Edited March 3, 2019 by Nick M.K.

[It's me 611]

9 minutes ago, Grantlfc81 said:

Facebook has by far the highest decline rate on finance. Something like 9 declines out of 11 lol

[NOACROSS 414]

Have sold 3-10k stuff via Facebook. And I don’t work hard at it at all. Ebay up to 20k ish as with the other platforms  

It simply isn’t true to pigeon hole platforms to price ranges. Same with finance business. Wherever they find you, they mostly enquire direct and/or then go to your website. It’s there that you push the finance.

However, like you, I also include a couple of finance promoting pictures in the picture run of each car. 

I must admit though that getting a finance sale isn’t high on my priority list, but rather a bonus when it happens.

 

 

If Autoraper was say-700 a month for me to advertise all 30/35 odd in stock, then I would be able to understand it. 

Until then, life goes on without them quite well. 

Edited March 3, 2019 by NOACROSS

[Nick M.K. 574]

I remember when I was using Gumtree in 2006-2010ish, crazy amount of response for sub-£2000 cars, dozens of calls per ad! What’s your last price boss!!!

Now a friend uses it for cheapies and gets no more than 2 or 3 calls or texts, it’s just quieter. Last price still on their mind though. 

Edited March 3, 2019 by Nick M.K.

[Frankieola 22]

10 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

I remember when I was using Gumtree in 2006-2010ish, crazy amount of response for sub-£2000 cars, dozens of calls per ad! What’s your last price boss!!!

Now a friend uses it for cheapies and gets no more than 2 or 3 calls or texts, it’s just quieter. Last price still on their mind though. 

A lot of the calls your friend will be getting will be about the car accident he had and not the car he has for sale! Relentless from gumtree! 

My current record is 35 seconds from pushing the submit advert button to the 'Hello, may I speak with Mr Frank'!! 

[NOACROSS 414]

 

14 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

I remember when I was using Gumtree in 2006-2010ish, crazy amount of response for sub-£2000 cars, dozens of calls per ad! What’s your last price boss!!!

Now a friend uses it for cheapies and gets no more than 2 or 3 calls or texts, it’s just quieter. Last price still on their mind though. 

I honesty don’t get that question any more than when I was just on Autoraper. 

Gumtree is only average at best. I’ll agree there. The response has been better this trial than last though  

Anyway, things change. Especially in 13 years on the internet and the other platforms get good results and are building as Grant says. 

100% of my sales are obviously not AT. Three on Saturday for example, one was Facebook (and finance) for an old Zafira at 2295. One Ebay and one CarGurus. 

It’s worth pointing out that we have quite different stock profiles mostly and the vast majority of my customers have their own money due to location maybe (retirement belt)?

Also my hatred of diesel and late German stuff scuppers me selling more/doing more finance. 

Hey- we’re all different, individuals  (I’m not‘ ;0) Monty Python reference there for Mark. 

[Tom 164]

I'm giving motors one last chance with a feed to FB market place to see how it goes. Ebay for me has tailed off maybe because my stock is more expensive and ebay is supposed to be a bargain site. I'm not renewing my sub when it expires in may. I've been on AT since November and sales are definitely up especially on hatchbacks. 

[MrV 66]

From a newbie point of view Facebook marketplace is my current number 1, autotrader doesn't really bring me many leads, maybe that's because of stock profile etc I don't know but I do know they are absolutely useless at customer service for a non "package" holder, eBay seems to be people "watching" and that's it, gumtree full of looneys, car gurus free package waste of time

[BHM 994]

I tried 4 ads on AT last month after whinging about Ebay being dead. All of a sudden eBay sprung alive, which was just as well because I did not receive a single call from AT. 

I’ve not tried CarGurus but they’re currently having a marketing campaign as I’ve seen a few adverts on the idiots lantern.

[Grantlfc81 88]

8 hours ago, Tom said:

I'm giving motors one last chance with a feed to FB market place to see how it goes. Ebay for me has tailed off maybe because my stock is more expensive and ebay is supposed to be a bargain site. I'm not renewing my sub when it expires in may. I've been on AT since November and sales are definitely up especially on hatchbacks. 

Hi mate, marketplace is free.... no point signing up to motors just for market place.

Car gurus has actually been producing leads for me and they are free

[Nick M.K. 574]

Motors at £100 pm (20 cars) is also very cheap for the leads and sales it produces. They list the stock on a dozen other websites as well. 

[RH Trading 80]

I think as long as you measure what you're getting out for what you're putting in that's the main thing. different websites work for different dealers, different price points, different profiles, we've all got different business models and what works for one doesn't for some.

I religiously pour over my advertising bill and match it with my CRM to measure not just leads but the gross and net profit per sale from that advertising. If the figure is a minus I drop that website after 3 months after which I've given it a good crack of the whip. I then move that spend into what is working. Currently at this moment in time its the autotrader. For February it generated 80% of my sales, sold cars to Totnes, Bournemouth, Sunderland, Dundee, all over the place where people wouldn't have found me as I don't use anyone else. for what I'm spending and the profit of those sales its well worth doing for me but each to their own. when that starts to drop I'll look elsewhere but until then I'm happy, have tried Carguru's (lots of leads no sales) tried ebay (lots of leads, lots of timewasters, lots of ridiculous offers, 1 sale after 3 months) have tried motors (zero both) and have tried Facebook (lots of leads, lots of timewasters, no sales)

I stock 35-40 cars priced around £4k-£20k max nothing heavy, all makes.

measure the profit you get from the sales you get from your advertising - I'd happily pay more for 1 quality lead than 100 shite ones

[Tom 164]

3 hours ago, Grantlfc81 said:

Hi mate, marketplace is free.... no point signing up to motors just for market place.

Car gurus has actually been producing leads for me and they are free

Yes I know its free but I simply dont have the time to list them all on there, I'm trying motors again because they also feed to alot of websites as well as stated above not just for facebook. 

I feed to car gurus free listings as well and sold one last friday on there. 

At the moment AT is working well for me.