Beyond the Big 3: Diversifying Your Online Marketplace Presence in 2026

[scibotixsolutions]

Been in the industry for a while now and wanted to share something that's been working for our dealership. Like most of you, we were heavily reliant on AutoTrader, Cars.com, and CarGurus for our online leads. The problem? Lead costs kept climbing while quality seemed to drop. We were paying $30-40+ per lead and maybe closing 5-8%.

Started testing some alternatives to diversify:

What's been working:


- Smaller marketplaces with less competition (lower cost per lead, buyers are more serious but at the same time slower sales rates)

- IQ Auto Deals ! - they aggregate inventory across dealers nationwide and the lead quality has been surprisingly good. They provide backend linking and AISEO along with inventory importing from multiple vehicle DMS IMS systems. 90 days trial

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- Facebook Marketplace still converts well for certain demographics

- Direct SEO on our own site (long game but worth it)

What hasn't:


- Craigslist (too many tire kickers now)


- Some of the newer "disruptor" platforms that promise the world


Curious what others are using beyond the big 3? Anyone else seeing lead costs spike this year?

 

[Rob]

Spaaaaaaaaam

 

[scibotixsolutions]

No spam buddy. I can see how it can come off as spam but it is truly a 90 day trial of free leads on our platform.

 

[Anron]

So Im testing it out, started my trial and all.

Seems like you just starting out.
Some stuff needs a bit of fixing it seems. We are getting errors while trying to upload pictures and when it works which is rare at the moment, sorry. You cannot organize the pictures. Like select the main picture then you delete the picture to upload in order it doesnt work at all.
Also why we cannot price the car 5999 why does it have to be 5900 or 6000.
There is some wierd stuff, hopefully you guys will get fixed.
Good luck!

 

[scibotixsolutions]

So Im testing it out, started my trial and all.

Seems like you just starting out.
Some stuff needs a bit of fixing it seems. We are getting errors while trying to upload pictures and when it works which is rare at the moment, sorry. You cannot organize the pictures. Like select the main picture then you delete the picture to upload in order it doesnt work at all.
Also why we cannot price the car 5999 why does it have to be 5900 or 6000.
There is some wierd stuff, hopefully you guys will get fixed.
Good luck!

This is great information! Thank you so much!! We will get our team on that right now. Our software teams are available 24/7. Is there any other special feature you would like?

 

[Anron]

Alright. I will bite but will be blunt. This doesn’t work without full automatic inventory integration.


No dealer has the time to manually update another platform. Between the DMS, inventory management, pricing changes, photos, sales, and day-to-day operations, anything that requires constant manual input is dead on arrival.


Dealers move cars every single day. Sometimes multiple units per day. If inventory isn’t pulled automatically, customers will be looking at cars that sold days or weeks ago. That’s bad for the dealer, bad for the customer, and bad for your platform.


Right now, what you’re asking for is extra work with no clear upside. And dealers don’t adopt tools that create more work especially from a platform that’s still getting started.


So the question is simple:

• Why would a dealer do this?
• What problem are you solving better than existing tools?
• Where is the traffic coming from?
• What value do you provide that justifies the time investment?

This needs to be set it and forget it. Dealer signs up, connects inventory, runs it for 60–90 days, and evaluates results. If it requires ongoing manual updates and management, adoption will be extremely limited.


I’m not saying this to be negative. I’m saying it because without automation, this won’t scale, and it won’t get real dealer buy-in.


That’s the reality from the dealer side, an independent one.