Classified advertising website Motors.co.uk is getting a massive multi-million pound TV campaign this year that will put the brand in front of UK households.

Bought by global automotive giant Manheim in 2012, Motors has had its five year growth plan approved and will kick off with monthly seven-figure marketing spend for every month of this year.

It has had two TV commercials made encouraging consumers to overcome the 'carfuffle' of finding their next car through its website with 'smart-search' functionality that allows the user to effectively qualify themselves and be presented with multi-brand cars that suit.

It has developed this functionality in response to Google intelligence that only 17% of car buyers know what make and model they want when they start searching.

The campaign starts on January 16 with a prime-time evening slot on ITV, and will be broadcast across 110 channels this year including BT Sport, Channel 4, Dave and  Sky Sports, including a spot during the Chelsea vs Manchester United match on January 19.

Andy Coulthurst, Motors.co.uk managing director, said the number of cars advertised on the website now stands at 265,000, some 120,000 higher than before it was bought by Manheim, and it is currently the market leader for cars aged up to three years old with 130,000 being marketed.

"We have a critical level of stock. We've got the inventory and now we're going after the audience," he said. "The proposal is to make Motors a household name."

It currently has 4,900 dealers on its books, and since August has been growing by an average of 250 dealers per month, said Coulthurst.

He said Manheim's parent, Cox Enterprises, has successfully built the market leading classified advertising brand Autotrader.com in the USA (not connected to the UK's Autotrader.co.uk owned by Trader Media Group) which gives Motors confidence of success.

The new website includes a 'What's Mine Worth' function to enable consumers to get a value for their existing car from We Want Any Car. Its primary aim is to generate a trade-in vehicle lead for local dealers who can then engage with that customer.

Another function, Night Owl, covers advertising dealers for out-of-business-hours enquiries, by prompting the browsing prospective customer to fill in a detailed, templated email that is sent to the dealer as a hard lead.

At present Motors.co.uk receives 2.1m monthly unique users, while overall market leader Autotrader.co.uk receives 5.1m (Source: Comscore, October 2013)