Advertising on Auto TraderA best practice guide to creating relevant, high-quality adverts

In this guide, you’ll find our advertising guidelines. These essential steps can help you to win more car buyers, more often, through Auto Trader.

At Auto Trader, we’re constantly improving the buying experience for your potential customers. By making it as easy as possible for car buyers to find their perfect car, you’ll benefit from better quality enquiries from car buyers who are more primed to buy. This can help you achieve a faster speed of sale and improved forecourt profitability.

Based on the scientific analysis of 50 million visits a month to Auto Trader, we’re sharing insight into what drives users’ decisions to choose one of over 13,200 retailers.

Contents

?7 Buy wisely

Sourcing the right cars for your forecourt

8 Make your car the starSimple ways to improve your ad quality

10 Price to marketPricing your cars just right for optimum speed of sale

12 Let your buyers do the talkingUse reviews to build trust in your business

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Your best practice checklist

Buy wisely □ Ensure you’re buying stock with the best chance to sell quickly in your

local area.

Make your car the star □ Use high-quality images of your car and don’t be afraid to add up to 100

images.

□ Make sure you list all standard specifications and optional extras for your car.

□ Try to avoid overcrowding your car’s images with your logos and business information – especially on the first picture.

□ A video walkaround of your car can be particularly effective, and your customers love them.

□ Use your Retail Description and Attention Grabber to stand out and tell a compelling story about your car.

Price to market □ Advertise your cars at a fair market price from day one. This will ensure

you sell your stock as quickly as possible with minimal discounting.

Let your buyers do the talking □ Keep your customers happy and ask for reviews.

□ Reply to all your reviews, positive or negative. Even negative reviews can be a chance for you to set the record straight.

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By ensuring you’re stocking popular cars for your area, you’ll naturally attract more potential buyers to your forecourt.

Buy wisely

Sourcing the right cars for your forecourt

Sourcing the right cars for your forecourt location can have a huge impact on your speed of sale. By ensuring you’re stocking popular cars for your area, you’ll naturally attract more potential buyers to your forecourt.

Auto Trader has several data-driven solutions to help source the best stock for you. All these solutions include a Retail Rating – a simple number out of 100. This rating helps you understand which cars are likely to sell fastest on your forecourt. Cars with a high Retail Rating are likely to sell nearly twice as quickly as those with a low rating.

Auto Trader Data Warehouse 2018

A car with a Retail Rating of 90 would take around 50 days to sell on average but one with a Retail Rating of 10 may take around 85 days to sell.

Retail rating

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Make your car the star

Simple ways to improve your ad quality

You can include up to 100 images on your ad, and high-performing retailers generally use 55 or more images. Quantity isn’t everything though - the more high-quality images you have, the more likely potential buyers will engage with your ads.

The best adverts on Auto Trader simply showcase your car without any unnecessary distractions. Avoid adding branding, logos and other business information in your cars’ images. Focus solely on the car - especially in the first image.

Make sure you list all specification details for your car. If your car has non-standard spec options, you can add these to feature in the Extra features section. These will help to show your customers what they’re getting for their money.

Along with a great Retail Description, using a snappy Attention Grabber can help your ad stand out in search. Remember, we already display service history information and how the car’s mileage compares to similar vehicles, so you can focus on the other highlights of your car.

Include a vehicle-focused video where possible. Buyers spend up to 60 seconds longer on adverts with video, and more time on your adverts means less time on your competitors’.

Let your customers know about the service history of your car.

Buyers respond to stories, not lists. Maximise your character limit by telling a powerful story, highlighting the unique features of your car.

Communicating your knowledge and care for the car establishes trust with buyers and helps you stand out from the crowd.

Add non-standard spec options and upgrades to show on the Extra features section of your ad.

Ensure your car is clean - inside and out.

Always try to photograph your car against a neutral background; avoiding dark shadows, overly bright lighting and any distractions from the car.

Ensure the car fills the image frame and your first image contains no logos or business information.

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Price to market

Pricing your cars at market value for optimum speed of sale

You don’t have to be the cheapest to appear high up in search. Instead, focus on pricing your car at the market value that you’d be happy to sell it for. Most buyers hate haggling, so you’re more likely to achieve a higher sale price by pricing the car at the market value from day one.

Our data proves that overpricing to try and make a higher margin increases the number of days to sell. These highly priced cars are often heavily discounted later to make a quick sale.

By using Auto Trader’s Price Position, you can aim to be in the pricing sweet spot from day one. Cars selling quickest on Auto Trader are priced at 99%-100% of the current specification adjusted market value. It isn’t all about being the cheapest, it’s about having the right car with an amazing advert at a fair price.

If available, advertise your monthly finance options. It makes life easier for your buyers if they can find your monthly payment deals on a trusted online platform. In fact, buyers rate transparent pricing as the most important factor when choosing which retailer to purchase from1, making it essential to provide them with this information online as early as possible.

1. Auto Trader Car Buyers’ Report 2019

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Internal Auto Trader valuations and proxy sold data from 1st June to 31st August 2019

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0 - 10% 10 - 20% 20 - 30% 30 - 40% 40 - 50% 50 - 60% 60 - 70% 70 - 80% 80 - 90% 90 - 100%

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46

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Percentage of stock well priced

On average, retailers that consistently price well turn their stock faster

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Let your buyers do the talking

Use reviews to build trust in your business

The more reviews you have, the faster you are likely to sell your cars. Car buyers often see reviews as an independent verification of the things you say in your adverts and on your website. Buyers can also see your reviews in search, so maintaining a healthy rating can increase your ad views.

Make sure every customer gets the opportunity to tell your future customers just how good a job you did for them. A simple call 48 hours after collection to check in with the buyer is a great opportunity to learn about what went well and what could have been improved. It’s also the perfect chance to request an Auto Trader review.

Remember, whilst you can always do a great job initially, sometimes cars go wrong, potentially leading to the customer blaming you. This can cause them to leave an emotional negative review.

It’s not all bad though—negative reviews can be extremely powerful for your business. A negative review can be your chance to talk about what you did to put it right or even just set the record straight. Make sure you respond to all your reviews, both positive and negative, in a considered and friendly manner.

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250246 reviews

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Retailer Review

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Number of days to sell (national) Number of retailer reviews (national)

We see a correlation between retailers in the top quartile who average 246 reviews and take an average 45 days to sell, compared to retailers in the bottom quartile who average only 6 reviews and typically take 81 days to sell.

Auto Trader Data Warehouse 2018

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To sign up to a masterclass or webinar, head to trade.autotrader.co.uk/events

Take the next step…

Now we’ve covered the basics, why not take the next step by making the most of the free education opportunities we have to offer:

MasterclassesHosted regularly in locations around the country, Masterclasses teach you how to use data and insight to help you make the most out of Auto Trader. We generally see that retailers who attend a masterclass earn more profit as a result.

Expert Account ManagerOur Account Managers are experts in helping retailers to maximise their response on Auto Trader. Get in touch for bespoke one-to-one guidance.

WebinarsOnline and easy, Auto Trader webinars are a great way to keep up to speed with the latest industry insights. Even if you miss a webinar, you can always catch up on demand.

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Optimising your advert performance with Performance Rating

Now you’ve covered everything you need to make great quality adverts, it’s useful to understand how they’re performing and how to improve those that aren’t doing as well as expected. We split your advert performance into three key conversion points.

Starting from:

By breaking them down, you can see exactly what needs to be done in order to improve performance.

In Portal, we make it easy to see advert performance by using Performance Rating. This looks at how well your advert is performing in terms of search appearances, advert views and leads & connections combined. We group Performance Rating into the following categories:

What impact does Performance Rating have?

We see that adverts with a higher (green) Performance Rating sell quicker, adverts in the red will take longer to sell on average but might attract a higher margin, so consider what’s right for your business.

You can also see a breakdown of the key conversion points under the Analytics tab when editing an individual advert.

• Search appearances, through to• Advert views and finally • Converting to leads & connections

ExcellentYour advert generated much more response than expected

Above AverageYour advert generated more response than expected

Below averageYour advert generated less response than expected

LowYour advert generated much less response than expected

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Search appearances

A search appearance is when your advert has appeared in search results on a page viewed by a potential buyer.

There are several factors that can affect search appearances. We would always recommend you review your advert and ensure it contains all the elements from previous sections of this guide that make up a good quality advert.

Success factors:

• Pricing (page 10)• Advert quality (page 8)• Paid prominence

Advert views

An advert view is when your advert has been clicked on after appearing in a search – it is the equivalent of a buyer checking a vehicle on your forecourt.Advert views are affected more by how appealing your adverts are to buyers. In general, advert quality is even more important at this stage. Including plenty of high-quality images will encourage buyers to click on your adverts.

Success factors:

• Pricing (page 10)• Advert quality – particularly image quality and

attention grabber (page 8) • Dealer rating (page 12)• Paid prominence

Leads & connections

A lead or connection is when a potential buyer makes some contact with you via Auto Trader, so that could be a call, text, chat, email or indeed just walking into your dealership. In order to walk in, they will locate your dealership – either through location views, directions or linking through to your website.

Success factors:

• Enable all contact methods, including live chat and text• Advert quality – particularly key information

and descriptions (page 8)• Finance options (page 10) • Dealer reviews (page 12)

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