Online auto publisher and new car marketplace, CarExpert, is launching a $4 million media campaign with an emphasis on the site’s growing new car marketplace.

The campaign is designed to continue the site’s strong business growth as it moves towards a planned public share offering (IPO).

The announcement comes hot on the heels of recent news that the Gumtree Group is earmarking $2 million for promoting the group’s three core auto websites over the next 12 months and is an indicator of the intense competition coming from the online auto space.  CarExpert said in a statement that the campaign emphasises the brand’s positioning as Australia’s biggest new car website. It will use a combination of video, digital, display and direct-response formats with activity to be consolidated into a pre-Christmas campaign period. 

In addition, the campaign extends into digital sponsorships of Sunrise, The Morning Show, The Chase and 7News, delivering exposure right across the day.

CarExpert chief marketing officer, Chris Catchpoole said in a statement: “We’re delighted to further amplify the CarExpert brand beyond the millions of monthly visitors we are already seeing on CarExpert.com.au.”

Chris Catchpoole

“We’re fresh off breaking all our Australian visitation records in August, so we’re confident this campaign’s strong media footprint and its alignment with trusted properties like Sunrise and 7News, will deliver further growth. We feel it is launching at the perfect time.”

CarExpert said that the brand’s video presence on YouTube was also hitting all-time highs with nearly 500,000 subscribers generating 3.5 million views in August alone. It said this was more than double the views of its nearest competitor. 

Paul Maric, co-founder and presenter for CarExpert said: “We know that content sells cars and it’s great to be seeing such strong organic growth of our brand.

“Doubling-down on organic growth with this considerable media investment demonstrates our eagerness to cement ourselves as the most trusted authority when it comes to new cars.”

Paul Maric

As CarExpert continues to grow, the business has rolled out a number of new products that it hopes will drive further audience and revenue upside, both for CarExpert and its advertising and dealer partners.

The company said that it recently added a “Fillboard” advertising feature that runs full screen width and automatically resizes across desktop, tablet and mobile devices 

It said fillboard offers close to 100 per cent viewability and has already delivered click-through-rates “more than four-times higher than other rich media solutions”. 

CarExpert has also moved to independently host videos on its own site. This gives CarExpert greater advertising control over the content played than is the case with embedded YouTube videos.

Damon Rielly

CarExpert CEO, Damon Rielly said in a statement: “Though some may still see us a ‘start-up’ externally, we’re proud to say that the automotive industry is recognising us as a genuine authority in new cars. We’ve got more advertising and dealership partners than ever before and we know our exciting development roadmap will only unlock more opportunities in the near term.”

“We’re in a very strong position as we gear up for a forthcoming IPO, and we see this campaign solidifying our position even further,” Mr Reilly said.