Several years ago I sold a bunch of cars by advertising with Cars.com and Autotrader.com . I’ve used them both and had pretty good results as long as I was doing my research on the huge number of competing vehicles that are listed on their site. I would suspect however, that if a dealer just slapped them on, it might not be a good investment. Times have changed and Google is much more sophisticated than it was back when Autotrader.com and Cars.com were in their hay day. It is easier for buyers to simply type the vehicle that they are looking for into a Google search. Your website can prove to be a far greater tool for selling your cars than advertising with Cars.com can ever be. If you’re a car dealer and you don’t have a Website, I would suggest that you get one before you get too invested in 2nd or 3rd party on-line ads.
It is possible to get lost in the crowd with Cars.com. This site has tens of thousands (if not more) vehicles listed. In most cases they will have dozens of vehicles for sale that are going to be very similar to yours. If your car doesn’t have the lowest price or the fewest miles you may be paying Cars.com to brand their website. It makes more sense to get those buyers to your website where they will be comparing the prices of your cars without all the distraction.
You will get more buyers and more repeat and referral business with proper Website management and SEO than you can with Cars.com (or Autotrader for that matter). All second party websites (cars.com, autotrader, craigslist, etc.) use your inventory listings to promote their site. You should be using your inventory to promote your own site!
Website management and SEO that will get your inventory on the first page of Google. By performing proper Website Management and SEO buyers can find your vehicles in their first Google search. I know that you would you rather have buyers comparing one of your cars with the other vehicles on your website than with one of your cars with the almost countless other vehicles on Cars.com.
Times have changed, take control of where your buyers see your cars!
For a fraction of what it costs to advertise with Cars.com we provide the SEO that will get your inventory where the buyers are, on the first page of Google.
Contact us to find out the lengths that we go to, to get your cars seen on-line.[contact-form-7 id=”35″ title=”Contact form 1″]