Auto Trader invests in digital data engine

Auto Trader, the UK’s largest automotive marketplace, has implemented Looker, as part of its wider digital transformation initiative. Looker’s analytics platform provides Auto Trader with access to vital insights to deliver data-driven improvements across its business for the benefit of its employees and customers. 

“A fundamental shift in the process of buying and selling cars driven by technology, means the volume and the variety of data that we're collecting is ever-increasing.” said Edward Kent, principal developer, data engineering at Auto Trader. “With Looker, we can better manage this large volume of data and ensure that our employees and customers have access to the trusted metrics they need to make decisions and ultimately, deliver a superior buying experience for our end users.”

Since its transition from a print magazine to a fully digitised business, Auto Trader has become one of the UK’s most visited websites. In fact, over 75% of all time spent on UK classified automotive sites is spent on Auto Trader. The company’s successful transformation reflects a general trend in the automotive sector with buyers typically doing the majority of their research online rather than in-person. For automotive advertisers, this means they need access to real-time data on how their ads are performing, while car buyers need to have relevant ads served to them for cars that fit their requirements.

Auto Trader’s data team laid the groundwork for the company’s digital transformation by building out a modern, multi-cloud data architecture. At the core of Auto Trader’s architecture is Google BigQuery - its modern data warehouse for performance and scalability. By centralising its data in the cloud and deploying Looker on top, the business can now empower internal users to access and use data to make better decisions and provide external retailers with insights while also serving intelligent recommendations to its customers. 

Shortly after Looker was fully implemented, Auto Trader’s data team built performance dashboards for the sales team to help the business to have more data-led conversations with its retail customers. These valuable tools enable the sales team to analyse and visualise key performance indicators for ads, including search appearances, views, quality, and leads, while also empowering them to have better conversations and provide more value to its retail customers.

John O’Keeffe, Director of Looker EMEA Sales at Google Cloud, added: “With retailers pivoting to digital channels, Auto Trader has accelerated its digital transformation, in order to provide a best-in-class customer experience online. We’re proud to help it harness the power of data, through its multi-cloud environment, as it continues to redefine the car buying and selling process.”