AutoTrader.com Pricing???

[SOS]

If it involves ATC you know there's drama! Welcome back from vaca. just in time for the New Car Partnership Kool-Aid drinking contest!

 

[TTT]

The hundreds of millions they are about to spend on this campaign is a terrible waste of money and couldn't come in a worst time. New car business is horrible right now. This money is better spent modernizing the website and optimizing the search quality.

 

[SOS]

They've come to market way late in trying to capture revenue from dealers on new car advertising. Between the manuf's initiatives with display advertising on search engines and many other successful venues dealers have been utilizing, ATC has been asleep at the wheel and missed the boat on this one almost entirely. If dealers only knew how very small in comparison ATC's new car searches are in relation to used car searches would they be extremely skeptical on spending precious ad dollars going after new car customers with Autotrader.com. I'm sure they're too busy patting each other on the back in Atlanta to even realize this or even admit it. Purple mustaches from all the kool-aid I guess.

 

[Frank Davis]

Looks like might have been a good idea to cancel autotrader

 

[SOS]

Frank, the sad fact is that their attitude is so cavalier that they will actually expect you to come beggin back to them within a 3 to 6 month period. Some dealers would in the past and come to a compromise on pricing but so many dealers are tired of the game that they've written off autotrader and have found pastures just as green for less ad spend elsewhere. The 800lb gorilla has been on a diet the past year and is now down to about 250 lbs.

 

[Lightnup (blog)]

TTT provided this myopic, cockeyed marketing analysis: "The hundreds of millions they are about to spend on this [new car] campaign is a terrible waste of money and couldn't come in a worst time. New car business is horrible right now. This money is better spent modernizing the website and optimizing the search quality."

TTT, the company that provides your paycheck is launching a huge consumer-centric advertising campaign aimed at driving more shoppers to dealers' new car inventories at the very time when new car business is horrible. And you have a problem with that? Perhaps you'd rather wait until new car sales are at record highs and THEN offer to help our dealers sell more new cars...when they don't need the help? I hope you don't aspire to management or we're all in trouble.(And SOS is right, ATC's new car traffic has always been much smaller than used car traffic...that's why they are launching a new car campaign. DUH.)

TTT also wrote: "I heard lighten up got written up!"

Didn't happen. Your sources suck. Instead of chasing rumors, take a marketing class. Your employer, whom you enjoy dissing so much, will probably even pay for it....unless they discover who you are first.

 

[SOS]

ATC should've pushed into the new car sector SERIOUISLY three years ago. Now playing "catch up" in deciding to promote new car sector in the midst of the worst recession in 30 yrs. Is it a good idea ?, yes, will it be effective? no, it's tantamount to pi$$ing into the wind.

Autotrader is like a second grader who keeps raising their hand but doesn't know the answer when called upon. Ready, Fire, Aim.

 

[Frank Davis]

Wow you two are really in some kind of pissing match, if it was not for this post I am not sure what you two would do?

Anyway my thoughts regarding Autotrader.com. I like many others thought you needed Auto trader; I have to admit it is nice to afford the luxury of having them if you have money to burn. I checked my ROI for two years and what I spent with AT, Found it did not seem like a very good business decision to keep them. I have heard all the arguments from the reps as I have had three come by to try and get me to resign. Since leaving auto trader I have taken those dollars and used them to create more relevant traffic for my store. Some think I am crazy for not using them but AT is not our only source for web traffic. If you take a real serious look at what AT brings to the table you might also decide to move on without them.

If you stand back and take a real serious look at AT you will see that we pay to have our vehicles posted on Autotrader.com. On each search page there are banners everywhere doing everything but directing eyes to your vehicles, When eyes do land on your page what do they see? Your vehicle right, but what other advertising is on that page that you paid for? I believe if I paid for that page it should be mine, for my vehicle, my web address, my credit link. No other banners at all, no other links, no other credit advertisements period. Auto trader has it made because for every vehicle on the site that is another number, for every number there is revenue. I think it is great they make money and that is my goal also, but I am not spending my budget with someone who lets others advertise on my pages.(I just pulled up a at page and counted 14 links for other advertisers) WOW!!! How much revenue do the recieve from each and every page, might be they should pay the dealers so they have pages for everyone else to advertise on. When they stop that practice then they will have earned my business back, but they will have to cut the cost by more than half. It seems they think Dealerships cannot do business without them, I assure you that you can increase your business without them.

Just my opinion

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Right on Frank! This is exactly what I did a long time ago. In fact, we were so shocked with how poor the ROI was, we had our ATC rep bring in 2 years worth of reports and worked backwards. Just to give you an idea of how bad it was: two weeks after we were done our ATC rep quit to come sell cars for us - lol. This was back in 2005.

When this article was started (November of 2007) I was in the tail-end of a 3 month trial with ATC. At the time, we had two new GM's who swore we had to be there, so we gave it another shot. We're not paying for AutoTrader.com anymore. We have our Toyota store on because it is free through the Toyota regional ad agency. Because of this account I still get visits and calls from ATC. I have to say, our two newest ATC reps are incredibly nice and accommodating. At the end of the day it isn't the reps who make a ROI - it is the product, and it needs to change.

 

[TTT]

Lightnup, how could my sources be wrong if they sit 20 feet away from you! But in any event, it's okay, you can continue playing macho man in this forum... it's amusing!

Alex and Frank, ATC works, it might not have worked for your store but overall it works, what I’m talking about here is the used car classifieds section.

The New vehicle components are a joke, the credit center is useless, the bulk of visitors will continue searching for vehicles the old fashion way.
Autotrader's viewership has increased but due to the rerouting and refuneling of these visitors the average used car dealer is receiving less and less activity year after year.
If it wasn't for the "All" radio button, when searching for a car, new car clicks would be non-existent. The idea there is to have consumers look at new car advertising whether they like it or not!