Cazoo is a British online car retailer based in London, England. They make buying or selling a car a lot like ordering any other product online. 

On their website, consumers can simply and seamlessly buy, sell, finance, or lease a vehicle entirely online for delivery or collection in as little as 72 hours. That business model makes a steady flow of web traffic — and a strong search strategy — essential to survival. In fact, the role of search is laid out in the brand’s 2021 annual report.

“We rely on search engines and vehicle listings sites to help drive traffic to our website, and if we fail to appear prominently in the search results or fail to drive traffic through paid advertising, our audience may decline, and our business would be adversely affected,” cites the report. 

The report goes on to say that “if we are unable to quickly recognize and adapt our techniques to… modifications in search engine algorithms or if the effectiveness of our SEO activities is affected for any other reason, we could suffer a significant decrease in traffic to our website. Our website has experienced fluctuations in search result rankings in the past, and we anticipate similar fluctuations in the future.”

Here’s what search intelligence can do for brands like Cazoo

Cazoo isn’t alone in its need to navigate a shifting search landscape. But there’s no need to navigate in the dark. Using Adthena data to monitor competitor moves, strategic shifts, and consumer trends empowers brands to be proactive and fortify themselves against market threats.

Here’s a look at how other successful search marketers manage the very issues outlined in Cazoo’s report by using search intelligence from Adthena.

Threat #1: Maintaining “…growth of visitors to our website.”

Continual growth in traffic is a must for a web-based business like Cazoo, just like it is for low-cost airline Jet2.

Adthena helped Jet2 become number one in search and increase clickshare by 51% by benchmarking its traffic share and investment against direct competitors.

Adthena lets a brand see all the ads competitors are running in its product categories and the specific messaging that resonates most with consumers. With that data, a company like Cazoo can adapt campaigns to target the top needs of customers arriving at the SERP.

Threat #2: “Competitors may increase their search engine optimization efforts and outbid us…”

Insights into competitor activity often reside behind the Google garden wall, increasing the frustration, risk, and impact of it going unnoticed. Without alternate ways to gather search intelligence, companies like Cazoo are at the mercy of their competitors’ strategies. 

Legal and General, for example, was struggling to grow because the company couldn’t effectively segment its search market or see what rivals were doing that they weren’t. They had no idea if they even had the right players on the pitch to compete.

With Adthena insights, Legal and General discovered that there wasn’t one leader in their fragmented market space. They were also able to forecast how much traffic and how many conversions they could generate from tactical changes as well as how much spend and which search queries would get them there. 

They used those insights not only for search, but also to inform their broader marketing and business strategies. As a result, they increased their market share by 160% YoY. 

Adthena ensures everyone across your company understands the impact of competitor activity so you can strengthen your competitive position and take action.

Threat #3: “If search engines modify their algorithms in ways that are detrimental to us…”

Google makes a multitude of updates every month to its Shopping, PPC and SEO offerings. That leaves search marketers vulnerable, because even one missed update can dramatically and quickly send you plummeting from the top position. 

Recently implemented product changes, for example, limit the ability of advertisers to collect and use data. And as Google transitions all shopping ads to Performance Max campaigns, advertisers may lose the granular control and reporting transparency they need to optimize performance.

These kinds of changes make having Google-independent, first-party data more essential than ever. Marketers can fill the gap by using Adthena to track and optimize their campaigns.

Common questions marketers have regarding their Google Ads campaigns include:

  • What terms are competitors bidding on or overlooking? 
  • Who has a better offer or price than yours? 
  • Who’s poaching your branded terms? 
  • What competitors or threats are inflating CPCs?  
  • What does your audience want right now? 

Adthena’s search intelligence software provides marketers with the data that Google can’t. Our technology scrapes the SERPs up to 24 times a day so you’re never in the dark.

Search intelligence is search security

For companies like Cazoo (and their shareholders) who depend on search to connect them with new customers and growth, having robust competitive search intelligence is a powerful advantage.

Want a demo? Reach out to me at alexion.lai@adthena.com or request a demo here.