How to measure your performance on Auto Trader, understanding Performance Rating
Most retailers want to sell more cars, more quickly, for more profit. In order to do that on Auto Trader, you need to attract buyers to your adverts, engage them with the advert content so that they enquire about your vehicle, giving you an opportunity to convert that lead. Last year we introduced our new Performance Rating which was designed to give you at-a-glance feedback on how well the advert was performing so you can focus on which adverts are doing well and which need your help.
We’re now making some improvements to how you track your overall performance rating at a forecourt level so you can see the impact of any broader changes you make. Here’s a recap on what Performance Rating does and why you should care.
What is Performance Rating?
Performance Rating is a measure of how your adverts are performing vs the response we’d expect them to achieve and ranked vs competing adverts on Auto Trader. It considers the adverts performance across the buying journey from search appearance, to advert view, to leads & connections.
We visualise this in quartiles, giving each advert a colour-coded rating.
Retail Rating vs Performance Rating
It’s important to remember that Performance Rating is about the advert, not the vehicle. When sourcing vehicles you should use Retail Rating to know which vehicles are in demand in your area that are likely to sell fastest. Then once you’ve advertised the vehicle, Performance Rating measures how well that advert is performing.
Retail Rating: A measure of how desirable the vehicle is based on demand, supply and days to sell.
Performance Rating: A measure of how well the vehicle is advertised vs competing adverts.
How is it calculated?
It calculates the expected response and compares your adverts to competing adverts by make, model, trim, age, mileage, body type, fuel type and location of the vehicle by postcode area.
It’s important that we consider the advertising potential of each vehicle when calculating the rating and not just compare advert performance across vehicle types looking at absolute numbers, whether that’s search appearances, advert views or leads & connections. As an example, a Ford Fiesta ST will get about 3 times more advert views than a Zetec because of supply and demand. You could advertise the ST worse, and price it higher and still probably get more absolute response than the Zetec. But it would have a worse performance rating because we adjust that response to what is expected of an ST by comparing it to competing adverts. The low performance rating tells you that you've lost the opportunity to sell the ST faster and make more profit.
How can I influence my Rating?
There are 3 areas that impact your performance rating and that you can influence:
Advert Quality - creating engaging adverts
Pricing - pricing adverts to market
Package - advert prominence through our packages or PPC & Boost products
So, a good Performance Rating means you’re creating high-quality adverts which will rank well in relevance sort order, are priced well to market and have the right level of exposure on Auto Trader to get seen by buyers.
Improve your advert quality with RPM
RPM offers bitesize masterclasses to help you improve your business profitability across the automotive ecosystem; from sourcing the right stock, to pricing to market and expertly advertising your stock. Take an RPM module now.
Why should I care – what impact does it have on me?
Put simply, a higher Performance Rating means you’re attracting a higher share of buyer attention on your advert and taking more market share. Achieving a higher Performance Rating and moving more of your adverts into the green has been proven to translate into a quicker speed of sale, quicker overall stock turn and more profit. It is important to balance speed of sale and margin, so some retailers may aim for a slower speed of sale and higher margin, in which case an Excellent Performance Rating may not always be your target.
Speed of sale impact by Performance Rating quartile
A higher Performance Rating leads to a quicker speed of sale
New - Helping you track your overall performance
We’ve had feedback from customers that it’s hard to tell if Performance Rating is improving over time in the analytics section of Portal due to fluctuations in stock levels. So, we’re pleased to introduce a small change which we think will have a big benefit to you. We will now show the share of your stock over time in each Performance Rating bucket, meaning you can more easily see the impact of any big changes you make. This is live on your portal homepage now.
How else can I use Performance Rating?
