Pain Points 6 - Marketing channels
July 30, 2025
Better manage online marketing channels
Dealers manage several online marketing channels at once ensuring consistency for each vehicle on every portal including price and vehicle description. Remaining in control is time consuming. never-ending and costly.
An in-depth analysis by Autofinity looked at the cost of tasks required to maintain a vehicle’s marketing online. The time taken per week for each vehicle to accomplish all tasks was 142 minutes (two hours and 22 minutes,) at a rate of £13 per hour, that’s a conservative cost of £30.77 per car per week. Thus, a stock holding of 2,000 vehicles cost £40,300 in initial setup costs. With an average 45 days in stock and a turn rate of 8.11, those figures translate to an eye-watering £326,877.78.
By utilising automation through Autofinity’s ViHUB, which undertakes much of the heavy lifting with a single update in the platform automatically amending integrated marketplaces without any further manual input, costs reduce dramatically. ViHub aggregates information on each vehicle in dealership and group inventory and acts as a single depository which feeds online marketing channels including classified directories, the dealer group’s own and the OEM’s website.
The potential savings are an incredible £26, 433.33 on the initial marketing setup equivalent to £214,403.70 per year (based on a stock holding of 2,000 vehicles). By integrating systems and automating updates, dealers can potentially save £12.78 per vehicle per week in ongoing costs to maintain its marketing presence online – more than £25,000 for a stock holding of 2,000 vehicles which translates to a group-wide monthly stock management saving of £110.788.89 or £1,329,466.67 per year.
By aggregating data from multiple sources to create a single silo of accurate information, as well as cost and time savings, Autofinity’s ViHUB ensures vehicles advertised on all integrated marketing sites such as Auto Trader, Motorway and carwow is accurate and reliable.
Inconsistencies such as marketing the same vehicle at different prices on multiple platforms are avoided whilst a vehicle’s status, such as if it has been reserved, a deposit has been paid, it has been sold or a test drive is booked, are immediately apparent.
Meanwhile, integration with Auto Trader Connect provides two key advantages of real-time updates and instant market information thanks to Auto Trader’s pricing system.
Real-time updates mean Auto Trader adverts go live instantaneously whilst any changes such as a price adjustment are immediately live instead of relying on timed feeds. Auto Trader’s price indicator rates a car’s price as low, great good, fair or high with this information immediately accessible.
Where a vehicle’s price sits in comparison to like-for-like vehicles on Auto Trader’s database enables adjustments to be made before the vehicle is put live for sale on all classified sites. It also reduces the number of platforms a dealer needs to access to ensure a vehicle is priced to market. Meanwhile, any new uploads or amendments to vehicle information is live on the website instantaneously.
The ViHUB dashboard colour codes the vehicles in line with Auto Trader’s price indicator so vehicles that are priced too high or too low are easily identifiable.
ViHUB with extensive integrations, automated updates and Auto Trader Connect connectivity transforms online marketing tasks freeing up time for dealer staff, avoiding inconsistencies, delivering efficiencies and saving money.
