Increasing website traffic by 1,300% while maintaining efficiency to catapult digital automotive startup brand’s growth.

Objective

To increase brand engagement and qualified website traffic through strategic, targeted TV campaigns while driving down-funnel actions to local dealerships across the country.

Web Visits Increased (after first 7 weeks)

+ 1 %

Scaled budget due to success

1 X

Surpassed CPV goal

1 %

Situation Overview

The client, a relatively unknown digital automotive marketplace brand, aimed to increase brand visibility and drive traffic to their website to funnel leads to dealerships to increase car sales with the implementation of a national TV campaign
Previous advertising channels included SEO, public relations, and local radio, which were having little impact on brand awareness and customer acquisition

Strategic Summary

Icon Media Direct implemented a three-pronged data-driven approach to develop a targeted media strategy to effectively reach in-market car buyers. The plan expanded reach and increased their customer base by efficiently integrating Linear TV into the media mix.

Consumer Research: In-depth analysis of in-market car buyers, identifying media properties and dayparts with the highest composition and index for the target audience
Competitive and Adjacent Brand Analysis: Evaluated media strategies of competitive automotive marketplace brands and automotive brands to understand media investments over time to garner insights on effective placements and identify white space opportunities
Proprietary Insights Database: Leveraged Icon Media Direct’s proprietary insights database to identify media properties and dayparts that had historically driven effective responses from the car buying demographic

Client needed to show results quickly, as previous efforts prior to engaging with Icon Media Direct, had not moved the needle. Icon Media Direct instituted a rigorous process of continuous campaign monitoring and weekly, granular optimizations to meet client’s key KPIs of efficient website visits and brand engagement. Prior to the campaign launch, Icon provided consultation on creative optimizations to strengthen responsive elements based on historical results across hundreds of campaigns.

Outcome

Within the first week of the campaign, TV media plan proved to be three times more effective than radio for cost per visitor
Based on efficient initial results, campaign quickly scaled after first two weeks maintaining CPV (cost per visitor) results within goal and scaled budget 5x
Over the first seven weeks, website visitors surged by 1,300%
The campaign surpassed the cost per visitor goal by 73%
Achieved a cost per visit below $1.50 for the duration of the first seven weeks
- By 2019, Truecar represented 5% of domestic car sales in the US

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