AUTOTRADER Group, the newly-minted automotive website triumvirate of CarsGuide, Autotrader and Gumtree Cars, has finished testing its reinvented advertising sales model and has announced that its new way of charging for online classified advertising has gone live.

The new arrangement with dealers means that instead of different billing methods and invoicing systems, all advertising across the group’s websites will be based on a subscription-only model.

The new system of paying for online advertising was first detailed exclusively in GoAutoNews Premium in April.

As reported in April, alternative models such as pay-per-view were dropped because budgeting for that model by dealers was difficult to predict; potentially leading to bill shock.

The changes will mean that rather than dealing with multiple advertising methods (pay-per-view and subscription), different billing systems and two field sales teams, dealers will have just one touchpoint and pay on just one invoice from the Group.

This is seen as a way to improve efficiency for dealers when doing business with the Autotrader Group and allow them to more easily manage and budget for their activity with the group.

The company says it will continue to operate an ‘open platform’ where the dealers selling a car in an online listing are identified up front within the advertisement.

This is a fundamental difference with the alternative and generally unpopular ‘blind lead’ where the buyer does not know the identity of a dealer selling a car until the dealer makes contact.

The new subscription model will have three packages called Economy, Essential and Elevated. Within each of these three levels are package tiers where a dealer can buy a number of car slots depending on how many cars the dealer wants to list in a month.

In its announcement this week Autotrader Group has also revealed that its three websites are now reaching 3.6 million Australians a month (duplicate visitors not included).

In a statement, Autotrader Groupdealer sales director Richard Dicello said: “The launch of the Autotrader Group platform comes at a time of strong growth for our business.

“For the last two years, we’ve seen Australians show continued interest in the purchase of new and second-hand vehicles, a trend that has created the opportunity to redefine the relationship between car buyer and seller.

“In response to this, we’re excited to take Autotrader Group to market as an offering that will revolutionise the automotive buying and selling process.

“Our unique ecosystem combines the best elements of all our services under one roof, fostering a win-win environment for all parties involved.”

The company said Autotrader Group was also the only platform in the Australian market equipped with Kelley Blue Book price advisor.

“This is providing an extra level of confidence to align buyers and sellers on the market value of a vehicle.”

The three websites, Autotrader, CarsGuide and Gumtree Cars are each known for their respective strengths: Autotrader is has a range of a popular buyer tools and options for dealer network customers, CarsGuide.com.au is a leader in online automotive editorial and Gumtree Cars is said to be Australia’s favourite local marketplace and a leading destination for privately listed cars.

By John Mellor