AutoTrader breaks records this January

Just over 36,000 cars were sold according to AutoTrader this January, with combined sales recording a price tag of over R10.2bn. This places the company atop a sales acceleration wave from a six-month average of 7% to almost 11% in January 2020 versus January 2019.

“This January 2020 is a record-breaker,” said AutoTrader CEO George Mienie. “Car dealers listed more cars on our site, and consumers searched for more cars than ever before.”

In January 2020 total searches surged by 30% YoY, consumer advert views recorded 40% growth YoY, hard leads to sellers yielded a 15% YoY jump, and page views recorded a 31% increase YoY. Activity across the country was also revealing. Predictably Gauteng accounted for 59% of total sales, with 15% coming from Western Cape and 13% hailing from KwaZulu-Natal.

In terms of consumer taste, insights garnered from AutoTrader’s sophisticated vehicle taxonomy database revealed that the Volkswagen Polo was the top-selling used car in January 2020, while the most searched for Brand was BMW. Used cars sold for an average of R283,734 at an average mileage of 73,368km and an average age of five years and four months.

“January’s record numbers are due to a lot of factors,” said Angelique Lynch, AutoTrader’s marketing director. “We are now seeing the true effect of digital innovations that were rolled out in 2019, our elastic search capability is one of the most influential among them. At the same time, our marketing efforts throughout 2019 have captured public sentiment really well, with our ‘Search AutoTrader’ brand campaign adverts ranking fifth most viewed by Google.”

In addition, its brand marketing activity has been ranked as some of the country’s best performing on YouTube by Google. The company’s ‘search 22s zoomed’ brand advert was seen by millions across free-to-air and subscription-based channels before making its ultimate mark on YouTube. There, based on an algorithm that considers organic views and audience retention, the advert was ranked fifth most viewed across SA. With over 2,6 million views, the auto ad beat big brands Coca-Cola, Capitec and Nestle.

“2019 was a profound year for us,” said Mienie. “It saw the fruition of multiple projects that had been in development for years. To see these positive results is a boost for us, indicating the health of both our auto industry as a whole and our company in particular. We couldn’t be more motivated to build on AutoTrader’s success in 2020 and introduce more buyers and sellers to our marketplace.”