For 15 years the Gumtree brand has been helping Australians buy and sell goods in a simple and convenient way. Whether it's an old toaster you no longer need or a room in Sydney, the classifieds site is where the country goes for all its consumer and rental needs.

However, as popular as Gumtree has become over the years there's always room for improvement. Wanting to keep pace with modernisation and, in particular, the mobile revolution, Gumtree embarked on a new marketing drive at the close of 2015 and, so far, it appears to be paying dividends.

Gumtree Blooming in Australia

"Seed Blog" (CC BY 2.0) by USDAgov

At this time, Gumtree Australia’s daily visits are only 500,000 under what eBay Australia receives. This surge in popularity can be attributed to a change of tact by the marketing department.

Running with the slogan "Buy. Sell. Win.", Gumtree Australia has injected a human element into its main site and it's a change that's working well. Indeed, for the car enthusiast, the recent surge of popularity has seen the number of Gumtree car listings grow in recent months.

That figure is more than six times the number of cars currently listed on Autotrader.com.au. In fact, a brief look at the site's homepage shows that Autotrader has just over 30,000 cars listed for sale at the time of writing.

Moreover, when you look further into the stats, SimilarWeb estimates Autotrader's monthly traffic flow at 85,000 users (although the site itself states it has 200,000 monthly visitors) which is a far cry from the 22 million it lists for Gumtree Australia.

Of course, the automotive section of Gumtree will only make a small percentage of this number; however, it doesn't alter the fact that anyone wanting to sell a car on Gumtree will have a potential audience of millions.

The Power of Free Listings

"Sell" (CC BY 2.0) by GotCredit

So how has Gumtree, a general listings site, managed to surpass a company dedicated to selling cars? While there's no doubt the recent marketing campaign designed to bring a more human element to the site has helped increase traffic, the biggest advantage Gumtree has is its freemium style business model.

Like modern mobile games where you can play for free but pay for add-ons, Gumtree allows the majority of sellers to list items for free. Basically, if you're a casual seller with a single item you won't be charged for your listing. This dynamic has allowed Gumtree to build up a huge database of items (because everyone likes to list for free) and that in turn has created a huge flow of daily traffic.

For those in the car trade or selling more than one vehicle, Gumtree has managed to integrate a premium product into a freemium model. hat's helped create a greater flow of traffic than would have been possible if it had simply charged people to list their cars.

Although this strategy is far from unique, it's one that's certainly had a positive impact on Gumtree's current status in the car selling market. Professional traders now realise they're getting access to millions of buyers for a small fee, while casual sellers can list their item without taking a hit to their bottom-line.

Indeed, in 2016 it's likely this recent growth will continue as Gumtree slips its marketing efforts into fifth gear.