Local Dealership Drives Online and Offline Conversions for Memorial Day Sale
Overview
Local Dealership Advertises Memorial Day Weekend Sale
In April 2021, an automotive dealer in Florida wanted to raise awareness for their upcoming Memorial Day sales event. Their key goals were to drive online conversions in the form of searches on their website and to increase foot traffic to their dealership during the two weeks leading up to Memorial Day weekend.
Their agency had recently selected a new programmatic provider to increase campaign performance for their dealerships. They decided to partner with Simpl.fi to leverage robust CTV targeting and attribution capabilities. The agency, dealership, and Simpli.fi worked together to design a custom strategy using Addressable Geo-Fencing, Geo-Fencing, Keyword Search Retargeting, and Site Retargeting with both display and CTV ads.
Location-Based Targeting and Foot Traffic Attribution
First, the agency used Simpli.fi’s Addressable Audience Curation tool to build a custom household-level audience in real-time based on location data and by choosing from more than 700 demographic variables. The team curated a list of 250,500 households containing someone who was likely to be in the market for a car in the Tampa DMA. Simpli.fi’s Addressable Geo- Fencing solution used GPS data paired with plat lines to match each address to the exact physical location, shape, and size of the property. The system then automatically built a target fence around each property to serve CTV ads on large-screen devices within each household.
Additionally, the team deployed Geo-Fencing with Conversion Zones to drive physical visits to the dealership. Simpli.fi drew target fences around 15 of the closest competitor dealerships to capture users who visited those locations based on precise smartphone GPS data. With Simpli.fi’s variable recency settings, the advertiser could target potential customers with ads for up to 30 days after they visited a competitor lot. Simpli.fi’s cross-device matching allowed the advertiser to serve display ads not only on the users’ mobile devices, but on tablet and desktop as well.
Finally, the team drew a Conversion Zone around the advertiser’s dealership to measure the number of users who visited the lot in person after having been delivered an ad. This allowed the agency to report on individual dealership visits attributable to the Addressable Geo-Fencing or Geo-Fencing campaigns.
Online Behavioral Targeting and Attribution
The advertiser also wanted to reach users who indicated an interest in purchasing a car based on their online behavior. Site Retargeting allowed them to serve display ads to users who had visited their website. Additionally, with Keyword Search Retargeting, the agency implemented more than 4,300 keywords, including new or used cars, various manufacturer brand names, and many more to serve CTV ads and display ads to users who were actively searching for those terms online.
The agency implemented Simpli.fi’s Prospecting Dynamic Creative for Auto solution via the Search Retargeting tactic. This enabled the dealer to serve personalized ads to users based on relevant keywords they searched for to reach users at the top of the sales funnel. Additionally, VIN-level reporting allowed the team to track advertising performance of each individual vehicle, including impressions and clicks. Simpli.fi’s automated feed allowed the agency to quickly set up the campaign with no integration required, and also automatically removed vehicles from the feed once they left the dealer’s inventory.
Granular Conversion Reporting
The dealership was thrilled with the results of the two-week campaign. Overall, the Cost Per Action for both online and offline conversions was only $15.95, a very successful figure given the average purchase value for a vehicle. The agency used Simpli.fi’s granular reporting to track 98 in-person visits to the dealership and 235 online conversions, including 120 searches for new cars and 115 for used vehicles.