Auto Trader is preparing to promote its new monthly price search tool with a multimillion pound advertising campaign which gets underway on Christmas Day.

The new functionality, which is free to retailers until April 1, has been developed in partnership with Codeweavers and allows car buyers the chance to search for their next car based on their ideal monthly budget.

Auto Trader said that the new format had been designed to help retailers attract more buyers and increase their finance penetration by promoting their own finance offers earlier in the buying journey.

Retailers have the option to feature finance deals from their own preferred lenders, or if a retailer chooses not to promote their own finance, they can display finance options from Auto Trader partner Zuto.

This will mean that more than 300,000 cars on Auto Trader’s marketplace will now feature finance options.

Jason Biffin, Auto Trader’s retailer and consumer product director, said: “After months of comprehensive testing we’re thrilled to be taking the next step in creating a complete finance solution for retailers and consumers.

“Retailers regularly tell us that they’re missing out to high-street or specialist lenders. Today, we’re arming them with a competitive advantage; the opportunity to engage with car buyers at the very beginning of their car buying journey, not at the end of it.”

Auto Trader’s multimillion pound advertising campaign, which will launch on Christmas Day and run until April 2018, features TV adverts which celebrate the “life events that trigger a next car purchase”, the online car listings specialist said in a statement.

Running across TV, cinema, radio, and online, the campaign is expected to reach 41.5 million UK adults, helping to increase awareness of retailers’ finance and all its benefits.