Autotrader downturn

[BIGNIT 4]

Been a week or so since Autotrader changed search order to relevant. Inquiries and sales drastically plummeted. May be coincidence we will see.

Anyone else noticed a difference?

I did ring up to see what makes a car relevant, spoke to three  people no one knew.

Quite annoying saw a private advert with one line of text and only 3 pictures more relevant than mine with 20 pictures and large paragraph of text.

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

no the default is now  "relevance"  you can still set it to "Low-High".................   and i guess  most would do that

[Tony911 79]

We have been out taking more pictures increasing to 50 and adverts have jumped up the ladder on the 1s we have done so far, but used to have around 30 images and plenty of information regarding vehicles and was still coming under private sellers and other dealer adverts with only a few images and not as high quality as ours so hoping they are just teething problems and will resolve in the near future as we are high rated 2019 by autotrader with over 60 5 star reviews

[NacMan 67]

AutoTrader  a twats but they work so hey.

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

a Video would jump you up further too

[stockedup! 63]

11 hours ago, Tony911 said:

We have been out taking more pictures increasing to 50 and adverts have jumped up the ladder on the 1s we have done so far, but used to have around 30 images and plenty of information regarding vehicles and was still coming under private sellers and other dealer adverts with only a few images and not as high quality as ours so hoping they are just teething problems and will resolve in the near future as we are high rated 2019 by autotrader with over 60 5 star reviews

I had a query the other day about a highly rated dealer who had quite a low star rating being at around 3.5 stars, I was told that this was because the dealer responded to all of his reviews? Seems they make it up as they go along!

11 hours ago, Blenheim Car Sales said:

no the default is now  "relevance"  you can still set it to "Low-High".................   and i guess  most would do that

I think we know about relevance because we use it all the time, but there will still be a fair number who don't search as this!

[Rory RSC 596]

Does anyone know the relevance criteria and what it takes to be highly relevant Vs just a bit relevant?

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

All the boxes and information on all the tabs when completing the add must be  filled in ..................even the ones you would normally skip, and a considerable number of  pics 40+ i say 

 

there is a  relevance  video from Autotrader if you go looking for it on this very matter

[SouthernTrader 20]

I’ll be interested to know as well. It seems that nobody at AT can answer this despite them going ahead with the change.

If we had some clearly defined criteria at least we could then decide whether we wanted to change/amend our adverts to increase our search relevance.

And to answer the original question. No downturn from here so far. A few sticky cars that weren’t getting enquires still aren’t 

4 minutes ago, Blenheim Car Sales said:

All the boxes and information on all the tabs when completing the add must be  filled in ..................even the ones you would normally skip, and a considerable number of  pics 40+ i say 

 

there is a  relevance  video from Autotrader if you go looking for it on this very matter

Interesting, I assume you mean the boxes like the 2wd option boxes etc?

Ill go and look for the video now, thanks for the heads up

Edited August 27, 2019 by SouthernTrader

[RJEauto 18]

We only ever had 20-30 images, but always fill in all the boxes etc etc

Haven't noticed increase in enquiries but definitely an increase in ad views.. will have to see how it goes as we were just considering dumping them! 

[BHM 994]

9 minutes ago, RJEauto said:

We only ever had 20-30 images, but always fill in all the boxes etc etc

Haven't noticed increase in enquiries but definitely an increase in ad views.. will have to see how it goes as we were just considering dumping them! 

It’s not AT, other advertising mediums have also ‘enjoyed’ more views. I guess due to it being dead for the last month 

[Tony F 38]

8 hours ago, Blenheim Car Sales said:

All the boxes and information on all the tabs when completing the add must be  filled in ..................even the ones you would normally skip, and a considerable number of  pics 40+ i say 

 

there is a  relevance  video from Autotrader if you go looking for it on this very matter

So if based on this theory, every advertiser completed and ticked every box, photos etc available, thereby making every ad equal, the search results filter would be unable to sort out the results. Rendering the sort by relevance...er...irrelevant! The only real difference I have noticed is that they have substituted the word 'sponsored ad' and renamed it 'relevance'. I would guess that this change by a/t indicates they are just gearing up for another passive/agressive price hike. They probably have a thoroughly researched 'new and exiting' package coming soon, that will put u ahead of the competition for just an xtra monkey a week blah blah, or am i being unjustly cynical. Deja vu. One last thought here. Why do any of us need standard or enhanced packages anymore, if search results are now filtered by relevance? We all may as well downgrade and save a packet. Just wondering what our a/t reps answer to that one might be. Might call him tomorrow actually.

[NOACROSS 414]

Eric Cantona Seagul ramble, so only read if v bored:

I’m not that old (47), but I have always liked the music of Bob Dylan.  I wasn’t around for when he defected to electric (my dad was there -so he always said), but, I’ve always liked his recordings and so on over the last 40 odd years. 

Last year, my Mrs bought us tickets to his show at The Bournemouth International Centre near us.  They were an extortionate price, but I thought, oh well, it’s Dylan. Will be a good show and he's the man....

Anyway, the day comes and it’s packed outside etc. He’s obviously raking it in still!  Never mind the queues and the extortionate prices for the drinks in a plastic cup and the bottles with no lids:It’s Dylan. Worth the money and you get what you pay for...

Anyway, after the first opening bars (musical) I realise I’m a sheep and been duped. It’s utter crap and tuneless noise. Never mind that I can’t recognise the song that I think he said was blowing in the wind. Must be a new jazzed up better ‘all bells and whistles’ version that I’m not getting. Maybe the next song will be better. 

It wasn't. 

Utter taking the piss, over complicated drivel. He was literally laughing all the way to the bank without a care to us, the audience. Almost as if WE actually weren’t his customers or he at least didn’t give a damn. 

We were not near the front in the ‘even more pricey’ seats. The people that were there seemed oblivious to it and were clapping and going along with it. They would clearly pay double and not moan or wake up  

From a bit of a distance, everyone else, it was clear, had realised also the emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes. 

It’s all I could do to sit through it. 

As we left, a busker outside was singing early Dylan stuff. It was brilliant. I gave him a couple of quid, as did others....

Of course this is my side of the story. The people in the front row singing, will disagree and say it was worth the money and more, as he is ‘the best’. 

One of us is wrong of course. It might be me....

Edited August 27, 2019 by NOACROSS

[Mojo121 229]

11 minutes ago, NOACROSS said:

Eric Cantona Seagul ramble, so only read of v bored:

I’m not that old (47), but I have always liked the music of Bob Dylan.  I wasn’t around for when he defected to electric (my dad was there -so he always said), but, I’ve always liked his recordings and so on over the last 40 odd years. 

Last year, my Mrs bought us tickets to his show at The Bournemouth International Centre near us.  They were an extortionate price, but I thought, oh well, it’s Dylan. Will be a good show and he's the man....

Anyway, the day comes and it’s packed outside etc. He’s obviously raking it in still!  Never mind the queues and the extortionate prices for the drinks in a plastic cup and the bottles with no lids:It’s Dylan. Worth the money and you get what you pay for...

Anyway, after the first opening bars (musical) I realise I’m a sheep and been duped. It’s utter crap and tuneless noise. Never mind that I can’t recognise the song that I think he said was blowing in the wind. Must be a new jazzed up better ‘all bells and whistles’ version that I’m not getting. Maybe the next song will be better. 

It wasn't. 

Utter taking the piss, over complicated drivel. He was literally laughing all the way to the bank without a care to us, the audience. Almost as if WE actually weren’t his customers or he at least didn’t give a damn. 

We were not near the front in the ‘even more pricey’ seats. The people that were there seemed oblivious to it and were clapping and going along with it. They would clearly pay double and not moan or wake up  

From a bit of a distance, everyone else, it was clear, had realised also the emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes. 

It’s all I could do to sit through it. 

As we left, a busker outside was singing early Dylan stuff. It was brilliant. I gave him a couple of quid, as did others....

Of course this is my side of the story. The people in the front row singing, will disagree and say it was worth the money and more, as he is ‘the best’. 

One of us is wrong of course. It might be me....

Better to burn out than fade away... (said neil young and later someone else with a shotgun)

Big Dylan fan too, love the early stuff aswell but I've seen enough clips of him recently to just not bother. Sad he feels the need to carry on. I'd be ashamed to get up and play like that in front of people, then again, maybe he's more Zimmerman than Dylan?

EDIT: FOR THOSE INTERESTED 

 

Edited August 27, 2019 by Mojo121

[Casper 272]

39 minutes ago, Mojo121 said:

Better to burn out than fade away... (said neil young and later someone else with a shotgun)

Big Dylan fan too, love the early stuff aswell but I've seen enough clips of him recently to just not bother. Sad he feels the need to carry on. I'd be ashamed to get up and play like that in front of people, then again, maybe he's more Zimmerman than Dylan?

EDIT: FOR THOSE INTERESTED 

 

Terrible the price of a lot of those shows Think I could go a weeks holiday to Spain cheaper ... 

[SouthernTrader 20]

Good God that version of Blowing in the wind is awful!

On the AT side of things I’m curious do you currently fill in the service history section? I’ve never used it before and just listed the service history details within my description text but maybe I’m missing a trick?

[David Ayers 171]

Never been the same since he split from  Doogal, Zebedee and Florence.

[Taz 1]

My adverts keep fluctuating now, maybe time to give AT a big miss. Greedy twats they are

[It's me 615]

who is this dylan bloke i believe he had a hit in 1966 or somethink

AT arr yes i remember them they had their 'periods' in the 80/90/20's just like yellow pages

[Orrell autos 1]

I used to use AT but never heard a thing I signed up to carguru on the free listing to test it out and I've been getting alot of interest phone calls and sales 

[Grantlfc81 88]

We did 9 cars in 7 days, and from bank holiday Monday to Friday we did zero. It’s 6 weeks holidays. Just relax. Back to normality today with 2 done. 6 weeks holiday and payday coming. All back to normal with a huge influx of cheap cars at the auction next week. Time to party.

[Tom 164]

1 hour ago, Grantlfc81 said:

We did 9 cars in 7 days, and from bank holiday Monday to Friday we did zero. It’s 6 weeks holidays. Just relax. Back to normality today with 2 done. 6 weeks holiday and payday coming. All back to normal with a huge influx of cheap cars at the auction next week. Time to party.

I like your enthusisam 

[Grantlfc81 88]

Just now, Tom said:

I like your enthusisam 

Can’t be worried about a week. Customers will sniff out the right cars.  As long as auto trader has low to high we will all be ok

[NacMan 67]

could you not just add the same photos over and over again. ad 25 proper ones then the same 25 after

[Lucky13 14]

I got rid of AT months back absolute rip off.. replaced with eBay motors package and Motors for less than half for both and easily doing the same amount of cars as last year