Is there really a science behind car pricing?

[Tallcool1]

Sorry but of the people I survey (at workshops, 20 Groups and webinars) and ask this question, 99% of them get it wrong
"What will get you more search results (SRPs)
1.Better photos
2.Better comments
3.More Competitive Pricing
4.All of these will work
5.None of these will work"
99% of the people say #4 and the video was to prove that it is really #5, those 3 things will not guarantee more SRPs

Common sense or not, I admit that I would have guessed #4. I would bet that a lot of others would have guessed that as well (if they would admit it).

I would have answered this thread "Is there really a science behind car pricing?" with a simple one word answer of No.

I am rethinking that now based upon what Jasen @LotPop has shared.

 

[craigh]

Common sense or not, I admit that I would have guessed #4. I would bet that a lot of others would have guessed that as well (if they would admit it).

I would have answered this thread "Is there really a science behind car pricing?" with a simple one word answer of No.

I am rethinking that now based upon what Jasen @LotPop has shared.

I think the survey is always going to be skewed, as many surveys are, by the way a question is worded.
If the surveyed has not received prior education on VDP vs SRP then they may simply not understand the question.


And for what it's worth, up here in Canada this data is incorrect because of the following:

1. Better Photos - there is a part of the search ranking that favours new photos and quantity of photos. If you have no photos you are exempt from results by default.
2. Better Comments - absolutely, 100%. The comments are searched by the "keyword" box on AutoTrader.ca so better comments made a difference of over 40% more VDP views which requires more SRP views of course.
3. More competitive pricing - absolutely. Almost all the default search filters relate to location first, price second. Better pricing means more SRPs because that competitive price puts you at the top of the list.

So, up here in Canada, #4 is the correct answer. I wouldn't be surprised if that holds true elsewhere.

 

[LotPop]

I think the survey is always going to be skewed, as many surveys are, by the way a question is worded.
If the surveyed has not received prior education on VDP vs SRP then they may simply not understand the question.


And for what it's worth, up here in Canada this data is incorrect because of the following:

1. Better Photos - there is a part of the search ranking that favours new photos and quantity of photos. If you have no photos you are exempt from results by default.
2. Better Comments - absolutely, 100%. The comments are searched by the "keyword" box on AutoTrader.ca so better comments made a difference of over 40% more VDP views which requires more SRP views of course.
3. More competitive pricing - absolutely. Almost all the default search filters relate to location first, price second. Better pricing means more SRPs because that competitive price puts you at the top of the list.

So, up here in Canada, #4 is the correct answer. I wouldn't be surprised if that holds true elsewhere.

I like this debate and its fun so I hope you are taking this that way too but I am some what familiar with Autotrader.ca just from playing around on there and helping some dealerships on marketing there but not a total expert on their site.
But on your #3 point on competitive pricing, just like I said in the video, dropping a price won't get better search results because if you did a search for a vehicle $20000 or less on autotrader.ca, the vehicles closest to the area come up first and they show 15 a page. So lets say they are 5 vehicles in the same distance of the zip priced at $20000 and yours is one of them, their default is high to low, and you decide to drop your price from $20000 to $19500 you are still showing up on the search (no increase in searches) and you might fall into page 2 now because they sort high to low and there are others between $19500 and $20000. On Autotrader.com, they don't count a SRP or search unless the customer goes to that page, so if you fall to page 2 on Autotrader.com because you dropped your price, you don't get the SRP. The only way it would in this case would be if you went from a $20500 price to $20000 then now you would get the SRP but if you went from $20000 and dropped it less it wouldn't matter on SRPs.

 

[LotPop]

I'm not arguing the strategy at all. Just pointing out from the original screenshot, any time you drop the price of a car $1500 you're going to get more exposure. It doesn't matter what the price is.

Sorry @Bill Simmons I didn't mean to come off harsh when I said "I can go all day" I was typing that with a smile because I love this conversation...and I put it in bold and red so the text didn't get lost in the images....lol

 

[joe.pistell]

Jasen,

Inventory counts are dynamic. Show studies on how the vehicles position in the SRP and competition in the SRP interact with flat pricing. For example:

Shrinking pool:
Upon listing, your car could be 1 of 50 and 3 weeks later it could be 1 of 10.

Pricing clusters:
Your car's original price could have placed it among 50 units and it's new price moves it to a far smaller group.

 

[LotPop]

Jasen,

Inventory counts are dynamic. Show studies on how the vehicles position in the SRP and competition in the SRP interact with flat pricing. For example:

Shrinking pool:
Upon listing, your car could be 1 of 50 and 3 weeks later it could be 1 of 10.

Pricing clusters:
Your car's original price could have placed it among 50 units and it's new price moves it to a far smaller group.

Joe, I agree and thats why I say price changes don't guarantee you search results, but when you do move a car from a traditional price to a BIG Flat Price number (like $5k, $8k, $10k, $12k, $15k,$18k, $20k and so on) you will get a huge spike almost over night. And to kind of prove this I have a picture of a 2006 Cadillac DTS, a car that the market really would change much over the last 2 weeks (its not like Enterprise rental car would dump 30 of these in the market over night) so you can see the spike happened right away when we moved the price from $10,500 to $10,000. It went from a 5 day SRP average of 108, to a 5 day average over 330 and the market, or competitive set, really didn't change.

 

[joe.pistell]

...we moved the price from $10,500 to $10,000. It went from a 5 day SRP average of 108, to a 5 day average over 330 and the market, or competitive set, really didn't change.

You've moved from one Autotrader price bucket to another ($10,500 to $10,000).


From a user's P.O.V. , they choose:



AutoTrader search defaults puts your car at top position

 

[joe.pistell]

Ditto Cars.com