The challenge
With 137 dealer franchises in the UK and a competitive market comprising of other manufacturers, aggregates and press sites, CPCs in the Google auction were inefficient and costly. Furthermore, 137 different PPC accounts and strategies also meant that the Mazda brand message was being diluted, creating a poor and confusing customer journey.
The solution
Launched in unison with their dealer program, Adthena enabled Mazda to align dealer accounts to their own strategy and monitor a defined set of keywords to be used by the network. This enabled all parties to improve efficiencies, reducing the cost of the auction and improving conversion rates for the whole network.
Additionally, Mazda used competitor groups to separate the dealerships from other competitors which allowed them to focus their brand strategy versus their dealer program.
“Working closely with Adthena and our whole dealer network on such a large scale has really drawn efficiencies in our PPC account. We’ve gained a more holistic, transparent view of our whole market and we use the tool to arm ourselves when having conversations with the dealer network so we can educate them and improve efficiencies in their own accounts.”
Engaging their dealer network to reduce costs and increase leads
Year on year cost reduction
The dealer programme saw overall cost savings for Mazda of 31.3%, and in the last three months this rose to 38%. This reduction allowed Mazda to reinvest their budget in other search terms to improve their reach.
Using the Whole Market View to reduce competition
At the start of their dealer program, 42% of franchises were bidding on prohibited keywords. Using Adthena, Mazda were able to monitor network activity and, after 8 months, prohibited bidding reduced to just 1%, proving engagement in the program and significantly reducing costs for everyone.
Strategic search term targeting
Adthena’s machine learning algorithm gave Mazda the ability to monitor 170k keywords. They used this data to optimise their PPC accounts and search terms to the conversion level, meaning they know which keywords have a higher likelihood to convert to a hard lead, resulting in a lot less wastage on spend.
Actionable insight into competitor testing strategies
Mazda review changes to competitor’s ad copy and how this affects their CPCs and performance. They use this insight to learn from their competitor’s tests and be reactive with their own strategy, improving performance and minimising spend.
Remaining number 1 in results
Top Ads data enabled Mazda to remain in top position for their priority keywords by adjusting their bidding strategy in reaction to their competitors. For low priority keywords they set budget caps to avoid wasting budget.
