One thing many people don’t know about Dealerslink is that it has a little brother – MotorCloud was launched in 2019, largely inspired by the data we gathered through the development of the Dealerslink analytics. To understand the genesis of MotorCloud, you must also understand the story of Dealerslink.
About two-thirds of the way through the development of the Dealerslink analytics system, I realized something important: The real value of our data isn’t for car dealers. It’s for customers. When customers are shopping for vehicles online, they’re segmented into these pay-to-play silos of the traditional online vehicle classified sites. When you visit them as a consumer, you only see the listings that are paid for by dealers. So, these sites don’t include all the cars. They don’t show the whole automotive market model. The idea we developed for MotorCloud was to offer the complete model for the consumer.
The premise for MotorCloud is simple: an open search engine for consumers based on data, not how much dealers are paying for listings. Instead of prioritizing listings that dealers are paying for, MotorCloud shows every listing, combined into one search engine.
But there’s a twist.
MotorCloud also creates a superior billing model for the dealer. After talking to a number of our dealer partners, we realized that many felt they weren’t getting much value out of subscription services (many are paying for a subscription to the most popular auto sites). Our idea was to change that, building MotorCloud around the Google pay-per-click ad model. In other words, with MotorCloud, dealers can now deposit a fixed sum of money, and only get charged when a customer actually engages with their vehicles, or a call or lead is delivered.
So how does Dealerslink relate to MotorCloud?
Like Dealerslink, the MotorCloud model is based on transparency and efficiency. Whether you’re a customer or a dealer, MotorCloud gives you a full view of the market, helping you to maximize your profitability and find exactly what you’re looking for. The same goes for Dealerslink, which is aimed at giving dealers a transparent, data-driven view of the market to boost their profitability. While MotorCloud has grown more gradually than Dealerslink, I’m confident that both brands will continue to help each other grow within the coming years. Especially with the tricks we’ve got up our sleeve for NADA 2022 in Las Vegas. Stay tuned for some exciting news from both our brands!