Pistonheads on Autotrader.

[Phil74]

Pointless thread but just went for a browse on AT and noticed that they are comparing the amount of ads they have with the amount of ads on PH and Ebay. Anyone else noticed this? Just seems a bit odd to me, comparing a dedicated ad site to a news and forum site with a classifieds section.
Mods feel free to delete, move or lock as appropriate.

[DonkeyApple]

Free promotion for PH really.

[750turbo]

Phil74 said:

Pointless thread but just went for a browse on AT and noticed that they are comparing the amount of ads they have with the amount of ads on PH and Ebay. Anyone else noticed this? Just seems a bit odd to me, comparing a dedicated ad site to a news and forum site with a classifieds section.
Mods feel free to delete, move or lock as appropriate.

Cannot see it myself, can you stick in a Screen Dump?

[Gooly]

DonkeyApple said:

Free promotion for PH really.

+1 those looking for a car who haven't heard of PH will go to it if they want to widen their search, maybe spot a car, visit the website later on, become a regular, some time in the future think hey this is a great site I'm gonna sell my car on it's classifieds.

I know, because that's what I did a while back, not from AT but another website which I forgot now.

[Garlick]

750turbo said:

Cannot see it myself, can you stick in a Screen Dump?

Yes please

[Alfa numeric]

Garlick said:

750turbo said:

Cannot see it myself, can you stick in a Screen Dump?

Yes please

It must be nice to be recognised by the competition!

ETA- that mentions buyers rather than sellers, so may not be what the OP means.

Edited by Alfa numeric on Thursday 3rd January 16:40

[DaveH23]

Why would you advertise the fact you have more adverts - surely the ammount of cars sold via your site would be more benefical.

[Phil74]

Alfa numeric said:

It must be nice to be recognised by the competition!

Thanks for saving me having to work out how to do that. For those that can't see it on AT, just refresh the browser and it will eventually come up as the middle ad at the top. One of those that changes each time you visit the page or something.

[Krikkit]

DaveH23 said:

Why would you advertise the fact you have more adverts - surely the ammount of cars sold via your site would be more benefical.

Not sure it's that easy to decide how many cars are sold through PH etc.

[Comfortably Dumb]

I think you're under estimating the size of ph's classifieds business and traffic. I'd wager a virtual beer that the classifieds get more unique hits a month than the news/forums combined.

[camshafted]

They're not saying they've got three times as many ads, I think they're saying they've got three times as many readers / viewers to entice people to advertise with them.

[Phil74]

camshafted said:

They're not saying they've got three times as many ads, I think they're saying they've got three times as many readers / viewers to entice people to advertise with them.

It appears that I may have completely NOT read the ad on AT at all.

[750turbo]

Phil74 said:

Thanks for saving me having to work out how to do that. For those that can't see it on AT, just refresh the browser and it will eventually come up as the middle ad at the top. One of those that changes each time you visit the page or something.

Ah right! I have Adblock installed, so do not get this. Saying that, if I disable adblock, Ghostery goes MENTAL!

[StottyZr]

Gooly said:

DonkeyApple said:

Free promotion for PH really.

+1 those looking for a car who haven't heard of PH will go to it if they want to widen their search, maybe spot a car, visit the website later on, become a regular, some time in the future think hey this is a great site I'm gonna sell my car on it's classifieds.

I know, because that's what I did a while back, not from AT but another website which I forgot now.

Sounds about right to me. Garlick I think you owe AT some advertising money.

[DonkeyApple]

Gooly said:

DonkeyApple said:

Free promotion for PH really.

+1 those looking for a car who haven't heard of PH will go to it if they want to widen their search, maybe spot a car, visit the website later on, become a regular, some time in the future think hey this is a great site I'm gonna sell my car on it's classifieds.

I know, because that's what I did a while back, not from AT but another website which I forgot now.

It does seem baffling. Everyone has heard of AT so all they are doing is suggesting that their traffic also checks out PH. And if that person actually likes cars or is some Daily Mail addicted maniac they'll stay.

[camshafted]

It's ratings figures though, just like The Sun will say they have twice as many readers as The Mirror or ITV has twice the viewers as Channel 4. Advertisers will want their product put in front of the most people possible so bragging you've got three times as many users should hopefully attract people's cash.

[CHIEF]

PH should counter this and slap on its homepage 'We're x amount cheaper than Autotrader' I'd imagine people coming from AT website and viewing PH out of curiosity would be interested if they could then compare the costs.

Bit of an own goal by Autotrader if you ask me.

[DonkeyApple]

camshafted said:

It's ratings figures though, just like The Sun will say they have twice as many readers as The Mirror or ITV has twice the viewers as Channel 4. Advertisers will want their product put in front of the most people possible so bragging you've got three times as many users should hopefully attract people's cash.

True, that's the exact mechanism but it relies on the visitor knowing both parties and then being reassured that they've arrived at the better one.

I suspect in this instance that mechanism doesn't work as most people visiting AT wont have heard of PH. As such they must be giving PH some traffic.

Maybe PH is far larger than I am giving it credit for but I'd be surprised seeing as every bloke knows AT but few PH in my experience.