Supporting you with the March 26 plate change
March 2026 marks the first new car registrations of the year and the launch of the new 26 number plate — one of the most important moments in the automotive calendar.
To help you capitalise on what is consistently the busiest period for new car demand, we’ve once again launched a marketing campaign to coincide with the plate change. The campaign is designed to maximise awareness, increase traffic to our new vehicle pages, and connect high-intent buyers with your stock.
With over 2 million potential buyers actively searching for their next new vehicle on Autotrader every month, our priority is clear: spotlight vehicles that are in stock and available now to in-market buyers. By reinforcing availability and immediacy, we give consumers confidence that they can secure the car they want, when they want it — while driving quality traffic to your adverts and delivering meaningful engagement.
Homepage Takeover’s
Throughout Plate Change, we’ll be showcasing our hero creatives prominently across the Autotrader homepage, as well as our new car, new van, new bike and leasing landing pages.
With 2.7 million daily visitors coming to the platform, this high-impact placement is designed to channel engaged, high-intent audiences directly to your new vehicle listings — maximising visibility at the most commercially significant moment in the calendar.
How we’re bringing more buyers to your adverts
Throughout the plate change month, we’ll engage millions of consumers via email, spotlighting in-stock vehicles and directing high-intent buyers to our new vehicle and leasing pages. This will be supported by impactful homepage takeovers with this activity creating a seamless journey from initial browsing through to consideration of your new car listings, capturing demand at its most valuable moment.
Though this isn’t a one-off burst, the March 26 plate change campaign forms part of a sustained programme of activity designed to keep Autotrader front of mind when consumers start thinking about their next vehicle. This activity sits alongside our wider brand initiatives and our ever-expanding portfolio of strategic partnerships. Collectively, these channels allow us to reach millions of consumers, consistently increasing visibility for your stock and driving performance at every stage of the buying journey.
Our ‘It’s time for Autotrader’ campaign launched in October 2025 as a multi-million-pound brand awareness initiative targeting 25–34-year-olds, following research that showed lower familiarity with Autotrader among this audience.
We’ve recently launched a campaign that delivers a fully integrated, multi-channel strategy designed to meet this group where they are — spanning social-first activity, strategic PR partnerships, and collaborations with content creators and influencers to drive relevance, engagement and cultural impact.
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Our new partnership with the Guardian connects us with this target audience. In total, we’ve reached 3.2 million 25–44-year-old readers with children under 18, a prime family car buying audience.
We’ve reached these consumers through:
A dedicated brand hub
Branded editorial content
An interactive “find your next family car” quiz
Positioning Autotrader as the trusted starting point for family car decisions by embedding ourselves in trusted environments.
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Our audio and creator partnerships extend our reach into everyday moments - commutes, school runs and downtime, ensuring we’re consistently present in buyers’ lives.
Since November, our always-on creator strategy has delivered:
66 million impressions
45 million engagements
We’ve also launched several more podcast partnerships in February focusing on the 25–34-year-old family audience. These podcasts are expected to generate 1.3 million impressions, reinforcing awareness of Autotrader so that when the buying moment arrives, we’re already top of mind.
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We partnered with SpudBros to host their first-ever drive-thru experience, designed to drive awareness of Autotrader and our valuations tool among a younger demographic.
To promote the event, we parked a car filled with potatoes outside Selfridges in Manchester, encouraging social audiences to guess how many were inside to win exclusive prizes.
The results:
230+ pieces of press coverage
Thousands reached via user-generated content
Individual social posts reaching up to 200,000 views
This activation generated buzz, cultural relevance and meaningful engagement with emerging car buyers.
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To increase awareness of Autotrader as the first place to turn when looking for a new car, we’re launching a social-first campaign that puts real people front and centre.
The campaign will encourage the public to generate content from their Instagram accounts sharing the moment they realised ‘it’s time’ for Autotrader.
With one lucky entrant being eligible to win a brand-new electric car!
We'll be working with creators using influencer led content to kick-start the competition and spread awareness.
The collective impact for your business
Individually, each channel and campaign plays a role. Together, they create scale.
From January to March:
85% of UK adults were reached at least three times through our ‘It’s time for’ brand activity
We’ll engage millions of consumers via email – driving them directly to your new car listings
We’ll reach millions of consumers throughout a range of demographics across social media, driving a larger, more diverse audience directly towards your stock.
And crucially:
We now have 6x more monthly active app users than our nearest competitor with January delivering record-breaking app usage
This sustained investment drives stronger audience reach, increased buyer intent and greater visibility for your stock. Because when we build demand at every stage of the journey - from early awareness to active search - your adverts benefit from a larger, more engaged and more ready-to-act audience.
How to capitalise on the increased consumer activity
Advertising brand new vehicles isn’t just about getting stock online. It’s about visibility, credibility, and creating confidence in buyers before they ever step onto your forecourt.
On Autotrader, the retailers who consistently outperform their competitors aren’t necessarily the ones with the most stock - they’re the ones who merchandise their vehicles properly.
So, what does that look like in practice? Check out our guide to advertising brand-new vehicles to find out how you can own the plate change.