Car Leasing PPC Case Study

Background and Challenges

The client, a well-established car leasing company, operating in both the B2B and B2C markets, had tried PPC before. And, each time they tried it, they successfully managed to generate lots of web traffic, which didn’t convert, and a large bill from Google. Since the website had been live for over eleven years they managed to attract users organically and via their own direct sales channels.

However, the business was changing strategy, new leases were required urgently but not burning through cash on ‘tyre kickers’ (pun intended) unlikely to convert was also a big consideration.

The Solution

We’re firm believers in Single Keyword Ad Groups. Why? It’s simple really, if you are managing many campaigns, it is far simpler to deal with the masses of information AdWords presents you with on a more granular basis. This doesn’t mean we don’t run multiple keywords per Ad Group, it means that the intelligence you get from the Ad Group will be highly specific to that keyword. Here’s an example:

+vw +tiguan +lease
“vw tiguan lease”
[vw tiguan lease]

If, for instance we know that “Grey VW Tiguan Lease”, in a broad match context, underperforms in terms of CTR and conversion then we can then add the colour as a negative keyword on the Ad Group level. Of course, this may not be true of other cars, so we don’t want to restrict ourselves. Managing Ad Groups, like many people would manage campaigns delivers higher CTR’s, conversions and, crucially, also drives the cost of clicks down.

Strategically, we also took the decision not to focus on cars which could be considered as too aspirational. Many people might want to look at leasing a Range Rover Velar, but can they really afford it? We wanted to focus spend on searchers who had real intent.

The Results

Over a six-month period the cost per enquiry consistently fell each month and averaged out at £11 per enquiry. The average cost per click in this highly competitive market can sometimes be as high as £10 – £15.

Needless to say we were happy, and most importantly, our client was too.