2023 was a year of records for CarExpert.com.au and the leading new car website is signalling its intentions to drive further growth as it heads toward IPO.
The business, approaching the end of its fourth year of operations, believes it has changed the automotive landscape in 2023, setting and breaking records along the way. Among its triumphs, the brand can now lay claim to being the most frequented new car site in Australia, according to industry tracker, Similarweb.
The site has more than doubled its monthly visits and unique audience over 2023, achieving a leading share versus other comparable entities as its monthly visits climbed 139% and unique audience 157% vs December 2022. CarExpert finished 2023 atop the industry rankings with Similarweb’s Q4 figures (Oct-Dec 2023) indicating more visits and a greater monthly unique visitor count than other sites in its category.
“We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved in such a short amount of time”, says founder, Alborz Fallah. “When we started out four years ago, we had the ambition to be the leading online player for new cars. Being able to achieve this inside four years is a credit to the team and proof that we’re no longer just a challenger – we are a leader in the new car space”.
Beyond its website, the brand’s video presence on both YouTube and traditional television have also hit all-time-highs.
On YouTube, the brand’s circa 4m views in December represented almost triple the views of its nearest rival while its subscriber count surged past 400,000 subscribers – more than 30% higher than the next biggest. Meanwhile, CarExpert’s partnership with top-rating lifestyle program Better ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾s & Gardens has seen its video content extended into primetime Friday night TV and add more than 5.3m cumulative viewers to its audience over 2023.
Building on the mantra that “content sells cars”, CarExpert has just announced the addition of two big changes to their product stable.
From Feb 1, CarExpert will adjust their new car lead subscription to a Pay-Per-Accepted-lead model and launch a Quality Guarantee along with it. This will see its dealer partners equipped with higher quality leads and a 4-part assurance that every lead is mobile phone verified, ready to buy and has provided an indication on whether finance and/or trade are required.
In addition to this quality guarantee, CarExpert says its unique model will continue to afford dealers the power to ‘accept’ or ‘decline’ a lead, only paying for those they accept. In this way, dealers can ensure they are not paying for leads they are already working with or which are otherwise undesired.
“Through continuous development, we have been able to build a new car lead source for dealers who, to date, have had limited options other than the dominant provider who charges for every single lead, regardless of whether it’s a quality lead,” CarExpert CEO Damon Rielly commented.
“At CarExpert, we guarantee that our leads meet a series of qualifiers before we pass them to a dealer, and we continue to be the only player operating an Australian-based call centre to further qualify and serve new car buyers who enquire through CarExpert.com.au”.
So far, we’ve seen over 400 new car dealerships partner with CarExpert in recognition of the fact that our content has delivered tens of thousands of quality leads to our partners last year, and this is the next logical progression,” Rielly said.
Not only is CarExpert making welcomed changes to preexisting products, the business is also expanding into new avenues by launching its ‘Sell My Car’ product powered by industry vehicle pricing leader, AutoGrab. The service offers a free instant car valuation to assist customers with the sale of their car and help dealers acquire quality, pre-owned stock.
“Free onsite car valuations are no groundbreaking feat, but when it is built with the dealer in mind, it becomes quite a different product; a product that creates a really easy and hassle-free pathway for buyers to acquire prospective stock with no obligation to purchase,” said Rielly.
“Other options in this space are forcing the sale on the dealer end with no freedom to negotiate, whereas with CarExpert’s Sell My Car product, dealers have more liberty when agreeing to purchase a prospective vehicle. If the buyer and seller don’t agree on the price, then they can move on, it’s a win-win,” Rielly finishes.
CarExpert partnered with data-driven intelligence company and fellow high-growth startup AutoGrab to launch the Sell My Car product, a partnership that founder and CEO of AutoGrab, Daniel Werzberger, describes as “incredibly exciting”.
“Utilising Autograb’s market leading vehicle pricing data, CarExpert’s audience will now be able to access free valuations to sell their existing vehicle as part of their new car purchase journey,” Werzberger said.
