What you need to know:

• CarExpert says its affiliate marketing model, backed by unbiased content and no ads is delivering a big payoff.
• Instead of linkbombing affiliates on clickbait articles, it sees 10 per cent click through rates on reviews to specific prompts like booking a test drive, finding a dealer, and downloading a brochure.
• The site has gone from nothing in April last year to 1.3 million visitors a month, and only focuses on new cars.
• Seven West Media has taken a stake in the business, reportedly investing $3 million in a bid to leverage a trove of data about new car intenders.
• Commercial Director Benn Sykes is not worried about competition from Gumtree’s parent company Adevinta, which also owns CarsGuide and AutoTrader. He suggests three sites may be overkill: “I would say they need to pick one at this point."

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Most websites that rely on affiliate marketing are simply “throwing mud at the wall” and seeing what sticks, reckons CarExpert.com.au’s Benn Sykes. Not so with the start-up new car sales publisher.

The Seven West Media-backed venture held its 2022 Upfront late last week, declaring it would be the biggest new car editorial website by the end of next year – blowing away the competition.

Since bursting onto the scene in April 2020, it has become the biggest auto-themed YouTube channel, with 146,000 followers and 1.53 million views each month. It was created by Paul Maric, Alborz Fallah and Anthony Crawford, who sold CarAdvice.com.au to Nine Entertainment for $62m in 2018. CarAdvice was folded into Drive.com.au, and Maric, Fallah and Crawford soon left, citing a “too corporate” environment at the publisher.

Now they are taking the game to their erstwhile employers – but with a different approach: An affiliate marketing model combined with quality content for a high value audience. Instead of charging users to read reviews of new cars, the site charges car manufacturers for the number of people who read the review and click through to specific native links. There is no sponsored content, no advertorials, and no ads.  

“The commercial model was pretty simple: Get the audience there and get them back to the manufacturer as quickly and easily as possible,” Sykes, the start-up’s Commercial Director, said. He worked at CarAdvice for eight years before joining Maric, Fallah and Crawford in the new venture.

“It is a version of an affiliate model. It is slightly different, in that most affiliate models are honestly just throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks. We like to hyper-contextualise things just that little bit further.”

Sykes gave an example of one competitor, Drive.com.au, which wrote an article about the meaning of the Hyundai vehicle number plates in the Netflix TV show Squid Game.

“That’s really of no value to a consumer. But it rates really well on Facebook, and I’m sure does well on some of the affiliate sites that they have, and they wrap ads around it,” he said.

“But the consumer gets no value out of the article, and Hyundai gets no value out of putting the ads there.”

Affiliate with a supercharger

CarExpert is paid the same amount whether a user fills out a form, books a test drive, buys a car, or simply bounces away.

“But, like everybody, we’re held accountable to what they do. So if I’m sending 1,000 clicks to Toyota, Toyota want to make sure that those 1,000 clicks, at least the fair majority of them, are doing something. I’m still held to the same accord that display advertising is, but we’re able to do more with less,” Sykes said.

“I don’t need the high volume of impressions to deliver out those clicks, because I’ve got a highly contextualised audience, site and content. It works overdrive. Our click through rate, to give you some understanding, is roughly at about 10 per cent.”

Major news publishers are investing heavily in affiliate marketing, after the recent success of sites like The New York Times’ WireCutter. News Corp Australia’s Executive Chairman Michael Miller told Mi3 the company was looking to reduce its reliance on traditional advertising through subscriptions and e-commerce. As well as charging a commission for referrals, WireCutter is so popular with consumers it now charges a subscription. 

Seven West Media announced a strategic partnership with CarExpert at its 2022 Upfront, which gives its 7RediQ platform access to data on viewers looking to buy a new car – a highly prized, affluent audience.

Seven has reportedly invested $3m in CarExpert, which is hoping to supercharge its growth through the partnership and ultimately go public through an Initial Public Offering.

Cutting through car sales traffic

CarExpert enters a traffic jam of a sector. CarSales.com.au is a listed company that has been a key player in the classifieds and used car market since 1997. Drive is owned by Nine and has also has a strong brand presence. Both claim more than 3 million unique Australian visits each month. CarsGuide is one of three pillars of Norwegian firm Adevinta’s classified business in Australia, along with Gumtree and AutoTrader, with the parent company aiming to leverage its vast marketplace data with advertisers.

“I have an awful lot of respect for the team at CarsGuide. I think, editorially, they’re the closest to doing what we do. But, you have three consumer facing brands out there in CarsGuide, Gumtree and Autotrader, and that can get a little convoluted,” Syke said.

“I would say they kind of need to pick one at this point.”

CarsGuide is more focused on used cars than new cars, Sykes points out, as there’s a larger market there.

“There are huge opportunities for Adevinta and the data play, but when you look below the surface a bit more and you understand the average listing price… the consumer they’re talking to is much further away from purchasing a new car than what we’re used to.”

Likewise, despite the crowd, he said none of its competitors have linked price data, review information, and vehicle specifications in one place well.

“That gives us an opportunity. If we can create all of that in one area and just ask for people to log in to find it, fantastic,” he said.

“There are more makes and models sold in Australia per capita than anywhere else in the world. Australia is a very small marketplace, and it’s a test bed for Asian manufacturers on other western cultures.”

Experience entres

As well as a website with hundreds of in-depth reviews, CarExpert is getting physical: Earlier this year they launched an ‘Experience Centre’ at Sydney’s Westfield Warringah Mall. During a 12-week pilot, the firm showed 32,000 people through dozens of cars, collecting data about their decision-making process – effectively a giant, ongoing focus group. In 2022, another Experience Centre will launch in Melbourne.

“It’s an interactive billboard that you get to ask questions of an have them answered,” Sykes said. “It’s a consideration play, an awareness play, and the insights and analytics don’t just necessarily tell you why people don’t like your vehicle – but also why they do.”

Which, as manufacturers roll out electric vehicles – and plot direct to consumer sales models – could prove highly valuable.