Automotive
D’Ieteren
Industry
Automotive
Location
Belgium
Working with us since
2019
The challenge
With the average person taking about 3 months before purchasing a new car, D’Ieteren is facing rather long customer journeys. This makes it harder for them to connect the initial touchpoint to the end conversion: buying a new car. Because of this, lower-funnel channels used to get most of the investment, while the impact of upper-funnel marketing was underestimated.
Our solution
- SEA
- SEO
- Dashboarding
1. Rebuild the SEA campaigns
In order to begin with a clean sheet, we started this project off with a big rebuild of the SEA campaigns of their biggest brands: Audi, Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, SEAT, SKODA, Wondercar, MyWay, Audi Approved Plus, VDFin, …
2. Shift focus from brand to generic keywords and introduce new KPIs
Soon we realized that they were spending 80% on branded keywords because they were focusing on the performance on last-click attribution for the hard conversion, buying the car.
Given the long customer journey, we introduced new KPIs that allowed them to be present on generic keywords. Because of that, the SEA campaigns were able to actually drive incremental volume rather than just intercepting existing demand generated by other channels.
3. Laying the foundation for SEO
Because of the good results in SEA, we were also asked to work on the SEO of their wide range of websites. We laid the foundation and started with in-depth keyword research, keyword mapping, setting proper KPI, and coming up with a methodology for ROI analysis. Once we fixed the basics, we trained all stakeholders, including IT, webmasters, copywriters, and the marketing team. As education is a crucial part of SEO, we are continuing to do this on a regular basis. This also includes D’Ieteren’s extensive dealer network, which we provided with toolkits with local keyword universes. Today, we still support D’Ieteren with our technical & content SEO services.
The results
There was a lasting shift in budget from branded keywords to generic keywords. This approach resulted in a huge increase in both upper-funnel and mid-funnel conversions. Within only a few weeks/months, we were able to improve the overall lead volume. Additionally, we helped them increase their organic search (SEO) traffic and conversions.