Global Culture & Community Award: Trader Interactive

Have you ever wondered what makes a Microsoft Advertising Celebrated Partner special? How they utilize Microsoft Advertising to drive business and reach new customers? Or what their company culture and vision look like? We caught up with Trader Interactive, our Global Culture & Community Award winner and September 2022 Celebrated Partner, to get an inside look at the amazing work that earned them this exclusive title in the first place!

What are the Microsoft Advertising Partner Celebration Global Awards?

The Microsoft Advertising Partner Celebration Global Awards is a bi-annual recognition program for our Partner tier members that aims to recognize outstanding, creative, and effective work by our Partners. This program was expanded globally to all enrolled Partner tier members in September 2022 and highlights exceptional work across three awards.

You could be a Celebrated Partner, too! Apply to enroll in the Microsoft Advertising Partner Program for a chance to become a Celebrated Partner during our next round of nominations starting April 3, 2023.

We had the opportunity to interview the Chief People Officer at Trader Interactive, Deadrick D. (D.D.) Baker. Trader Interactive is our September 2022 Microsoft Advertising Celebrated Partner and Global Culture & Community Award winner.

Q: Tell us a little about Trader Interactive—history, current size, audience, and business objectives

A: Trader Interactive connects buyers, sellers, and renters in the powersports, recreational vehicle, aircraft, marine, commercial vehicle, and heavy equipment industries through a broad portfolio of marketplaces that reach over 13 million monthly unique visitors. Linked by a widely recognized family of “Trader” trademarks dating back several decades, the company’s brands include lifestyle vehicle marketplaces Cycle Trader, RV Trader, ATV Trader, PWC Trader, Snowmobile Trader, Boatline, Aero Trader, and Trade-A-Plane, as well as commercial vehicle and equipment marketplaces Commercial Truck Trader, Equipment Trader, NextTruck, Rock & Dirt, and Tradequip.

Trader Interactive offers unique tools and insights to help dealers more effectively run and grow their businesses, including exclusive insights from our TraderTraxx platform and market share data from our brand Statistical Surveys Inc., and powers thousands of dealership websites via our brands Commercial Web Services and RV Web Services.

Q: What is Trader Interactive’s vision, mission, or specialization?

A: Trader Interactive is a company with a little over 350 employees, all driven by the mission of working as one team to transform lifestyles and livelihoods through innovative digital solutions that seamlessly connect people to vehicles for work and play. This mission is what pushes us towards our vision to pioneer digital solutions that empower our clients to reach consumers searching for their next vehicle or service. Of course, none of this would be possible without the core set of values that shape our business policies and define how we interact with our customers and our employees. These values are to focus on the customer, work as one team, drive innovation, act with integrity, and build value.

Q: What impact on your business have you been able to drive with Microsoft Advertising?

A: Microsoft Advertising is an integral part of our paid search engine marketing across all our brands. It has driven customers to our sites and encouraged them to engage with both our dealers and our private listing agents. As a direct result of this, we’ve expanded our reach and have been able to meet the needs of our dealer customers in a marketplace that’s constantly shifting even through unprecedented global changes.

Q: What are your favorite tools or features within Microsoft Advertising and why?

A: Far and away our favorite tool within Microsoft Advertising is the Daily Budget Settings. We’ve never seen a platform with such accuracy. We’re able to set whatever spend we’d like, and Microsoft Advertising turns each of the campaigns off when they hit their limits. It’s been the ultimate “set it and forget it” feature.

Another feature we’ve found extremely useful is the rules. With rules, our team can plan tests or strategy shifts far in advance, and Microsoft Advertising will execute those plans on whatever day and at whichever hour they like. This is especially useful when the first or last day of the month falls on a weekend. It just works, and because it works, we don’t need to log in on a weekend or a day off to make those changes.

Q: What’s your greatest success with Microsoft Advertising so far?

A: Our biggest win to date with Microsoft Advertising was when we increased our traffic by double digits. This demonstrated almost immediately that Microsoft Advertising was a resource we could use when we needed it, allowing us to grow and to increase our profits when our other sources of traffic were reaching their limits.

Q: How do you see your relationship progressing with Microsoft Advertising and why?

A: As our company grows and adds new websites to its collection, our paid search efforts with Microsoft Advertising will be increasingly important when we require visitors and traffic before those new sites have been discovered. Microsoft Advertising allows us to be confident that traffic will be coming when we need it. That confidence allows us to safely grow and fulfill commitments to our customers regardless of the newness of a site or the seasonality of our customers’ products.

Q: Have you had any positive experiences or working relationships with people who work within Microsoft Advertising or Microsoft Advertising Support?

A: We have absolutely had positive experiences with the staff at Microsoft Advertising. Recently our Microsoft Advertising representative walked two of our employees through a long-standing problem with one of our accounts. Because of his help, we’re now able to track the correct outcomes and to allow Microsoft Advertising’s automation to optimize for that result for us.

Additionally, when our manager was responsible for having one of our accounts switched over to invoicing, the Microsoft Advertising Support person took ownership of the issue for him and asked him very specific questions so that he could provide correct information and get the switch completed in a timely manner. We truly appreciated this representative's help with an issue that was outside of our area of expertise.

Q: How does your company embody the Global Culture & Community Award?

A: After Trader Interactive decided to transition to a remote-first workplace, it was important to ensure that the community aspect of our company was not lost in the long-distance connection. With this goal in mind, we expanded our efforts to create a fun and supportive work environment. Now, more effectively than ever, our employees are celebrated, and their hard work is recognized by supervisors and peers daily through our RING platform.

Here, our employees are encouraged to recognize, inspire, and notice each other, while growing together. Ensuring that individual contributions to our One Team, One Dream vision, are being seen. In addition to this, when our company saw a gap in its diversity and inclusion efforts, a DEI council was formed. This group has provided resources, training, and workshops to further educate and inspire our employees. With this, our recruiting team set out to diversify our tech department by bringing on new female innovators to the technology team.

We know that community extends farther than our home offices, and in this spirit, Trader Interactive launched its annual fundraiser in support of United Way. An effort to not only get employees engaged by giving to the community financially, but also by taking a step into their community through volunteer efforts. This campaign offers a unique opportunity for funds to be allocated to an employee's local community, wherever they are located, and we’re proud to say that this year we raised more funds than ever! Through these efforts and many more, our company culture has flourished. We are proud to say our workforce is inclusive, educational, and committed to our community, all working together to achieve one dream, as one team.

Q: How has Microsoft Advertising been able to help your company reach greater inclusion and diversity goals?

A: Through being chosen for the Global Culture & Community Award alone, we’ve been reminded of how important our efforts truly are. This accolade does not, however, mean we’ve crossed the finish line, rather it has indicated that our work has only begun as we continually strive to make our workplace diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

Thank you to D.D. Baker and the team at Trader Interactive for showing us how their continuous drive for diversity, equity, and inclusion helps improve the rapidly changing digital marketplace for customers and businesses alike!

Don’t miss out on our other Partner Celebration Global Award Winner spotlights—1UP Digital and Wriggle Marketing—or your next chance to become a Celebrated Partner during our next round of nominations starting April 3, 2023.

If you haven’t enrolled in the Microsoft Advertising Partner Program yet, make sure that you apply at microsoftadvertisingpartners.com so you’re eligible for the next round.

If you’re an enrolled Partner, stay connected with us and up to speed on all things Partner-related by joining the Microsoft Advertising Partner Community on LinkedIn.

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