New “Top Spot” advertising position helps retailers stand out from the crowd and capture local buyers

By Karolina Edwards-Smajda, Director of Commercial Products, Auto Trader.

 As an industry we’re continuing to navigate today’s changing landscape and retailers are battling to recover lost sales to finish the year strong. Since the reopening of forecourts in June, the market has experienced record consumer demand, and in September alone, there were 61.6 million cross platform visits to Auto Trader, up 23.5% on the same period last year. The effect of COVID-19 on consumer confidence is still being felt with 54% of consumers saying they are unsure or don’t want to travel as far to look for their next car*, meaning a focus on local buyers will be key. The challenge retailers face is making the most of this demand and winning sales from their competition.

Introducing Auto Trader Top Spot. Turn local fame into a sales fortune.

To help retailers tap into and focus their marketing efforts on more profitable local buyers, Auto Trader is launching Auto Trader Top Spot. This high impact advertising unit shown across our desktop, mobile and app platforms, will help retailers to capitalise on the huge surge in consumer appetite in a strategic and efficient way.

The new advertising real estate provides unparalleled exposure to the retailers’ brand with their logo and review rating shown alongside up to six matching new and used vehicles, depending on the consumer search criteria. Retailers can choose to target a set radius from their site or set specific post code areas.

The new solution is highly flexible and based on a cost per thousand search impressions (CPM usage charging model), meaning retailers can control spend by ​tactically choosing​ when to activate or deactivate the unit and only pay when they get seen.

See how it works and speak to one of the team about it here.

Access prime real estate on the Auto Trader site

Your brand, review rating and 6 cars matching the consumers’ search are shown at the top of search

Why focus on local buyers?

Local buyers are often seen as the most profitable for retailers; not only willing to pay for convenience, but also offering ongoing revenue opportunities through after sales, service opportunities and repeat custom. We recently proved this to be true by running detailed analysis with one of our large franchised retail partners analysing 12,697 sales over a 2 month period, showing a clear link between local buyers and a higher sale price.

The secret to marketing your brand

The reality for many retailers is that they don’t have the budgets to successfully promote their brand and compete with OEMs or marketplaces, and in fact they would be wiser not to. Research shows that buyers tend to think about the car they want first, before deciding which retailer to go to. This means making your stock and brand visible where buyers shop, is more important than thinking of brand to attract buyers. Consumers tend to contact a retailer when they’re ready to purchase and it’s at this point where your brand can clinch a deal, with reviews a key building block in cementing buyer trust.

We’re very excited about the marketing potential this new product opens up to our retail partners, allowing them to target buyers that matter to them and showcase their brand at the most relevant point in the buying cycle. This offering fits within our existing suite of solutions offering our partners levers to pull, whatever their business goals. Our packages are a core part of our offering providing all-round visibility on our site, whilst our PPC products allow retailers to target specific stock or stock types such as overage. Our aim is to provide retailers with complete flexibility to choose a solution that fits their business goals. Our team of experts are on hand to help any of our retailer partners understand or explore these solutions in more detail to get the right fit for their business needs.

* Auto Trader onsite survey, July 2020