I Bet Your Website Gets More Traffic Than AutoTrader & Cars.com...... Combined!

[John V.]

The attached report was just sent to me by my AutoTrader rep trying to show that AT gets more traffic than CG and cars.com. I am pretty sure there are some reps from the all the 3rd party listings on here that would like to chime in here..........BUT.............my one website gets more visits than any two out of these 3 combined.....I am sure there are other dealers on this forum who can best all 3.

Just passing along.........

Is this news to anyone? I was a little shocked to find out.......

 

[John V.]

****for my DMA

 

[Shawn Zents]

I've seen this happen (for years). I used to do reports like that when I was in the yellow pages business. 'Look: YellowPages.com has far more traffic than SuperPages.com.' It's idiotic and an immediate loss in credibility. But, to unsuspecting marketers, it may look impressive. I ditched that approach 20 years ago.

It's not the amount of traffic, it's the quality of traffic, even if it's less traffic! With bot traffic, overseas traffic, etc..., the volume of traffic (IMO) means nothing.

There are far better analysts in this forum than me, but for anyone looking to keep all these 3rd party vendors in-check and call BS on your own terms, I'd recommend reaching out to @Micah Birkholz at Vistadash. It's a small company that has done some powerful things. Wouldn't hurt to have a convo - he's a legit dude.

Full disclosure: I used to work for Vistadash, but still believe it's a strong fit for the right situation.

 

[John V.]

I've seen this happen (for years). I used to do reports like that when I was in the yellow pages business. 'Look: YellowPages.com has far more traffic than SuperPages.com.' It's idiotic and an immediate loss in credibility. But, to unsuspecting marketers, it may look impressive. I ditched that approach 20 years ago.

It's not the amount of traffic, it's the quality of traffic, even if it's less traffic! With bot traffic, overseas traffic, etc..., the volume of traffic (IMO) means nothing.

There are far better analysts in this forum than me, but for anyone looking to keep all these 3rd party vendors in-check and call BS on your own terms, I'd recommend reaching out to @Micah Birkholz at Vistadash. It's a small company that has done some powerful things. Wouldn't hurt to have a convo - he's a legit dude.

Full disclosure: I used to work for Vistadash, but still believe it's a strong fit for the right situation.

Thanks Shawn.
Familiar with VistaDash - very nice tool - i built a janky versions in GA using events because I'm cheap Looking at their VDP views vs. my site has always been an unfair comparison for them because your own website will always have more. I was just shocked that at how low of traffic they receive. Wondering if the ~~$3,000 I spend between the two is even worth it rather than increase my spend on FB Catalogs and Equity mailers.

 

[Anthony A.]

Hi John. Our company recently wrote this article in regards to AT vs CG vs cars.com. It's showing how the market has shifted and the importance of dealer websites.

Autotrader vs CarGurus vs Cars.com – Savvy Dealer

www.savvydealer.com

 

[John V.]

after further clarification and guidance from unnamed sources - Turns out that report is in the thousands......whoopsy!!!