How CarData Drives Better Leads with Digital Marketing
John Domsey: Hi, my names John Domsey. Im the President of CarData Consultants Inc. And we use Search Engine People for our marketing requirements. Were very pleased with the relationship with sear with SEP, as we call them, Search Engine People.
What is CarData?
John Domsey: CarData is a leading edge business service. The business service is vehicle reimbursement. A decade ago, there was a big shift. Companies started to look at the expense and liability of the company cars that they would provide to their salespeople, and they were looking for an alternative. The service we provide is vehicle reimbursement. And vehicle reimbursement is that option. Our service is IRS compliant, its CRA compliant, and it provides precise measurement and reimbursement for drivers wherever they are driving, based on the local expenses that they would incur.
How Has SEP Improved CarData's Digital Marketing Efforts?
John Domsey: Five years ago, our ad word spend was increasing to four times, but no difference in the number of leads we were receiving. That just was not sustainable, so we ended up locating SEP. One of the first things that Search Engine People did was to look at our spend and realize that it was over the top. The second thing they did was look at our placement and recognize that we were not having any organic placement. So they refined both programs, and within three months we were getting organic placement, and our pay per click program had was 25% of what it used to be. Since that time, we worked with Search Engine People on many other projects, writing blogs, landing pages, remarketing ads, all with good success.
Most recently, Search Engine People, SEP, has helped us rewrite our website, a lengthy project but with very good success. Now, our spend is still the same on the overall program, both organically and with pay per click, but our leads have actually improved in quality, which is a tremendous benefit when youre looking to see how you can increase things. And to find out that the website and its content can have that impact was very, very helpful.
Describe Your Experience Working with Search Engine People
John Domsey: They know social media. They know digital media. Theyre all very experienced which has helped us out enormously, and the big plus: their customer focus. And they look at our spend as though it was their spend. If they see us getting out of line, they want to do everything to reign it back in. If they see the leads are dropping off, they want our leads to go back up. So its a strong partnership/relationship working with the team at SEP.
About CarData
Situation
Over the years CarData tested various marketing programs and business development channels in an effort to generate qualified leads. The channels included trade shows, direct mail and other traditional forms of marketing; however, the results did not meet with their expectations.
Prior to partnering with Search Engine People, CarData tried Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC) directly through Adwords. The early results were promising, with a steadily increasing lead count. However, the cost of Adwords Campaigns kept on increase while conversion rates and lead quality remained the same.
Solution
In an effort to maximize conversions while also minimizing program costs, CarData charged Search Engine People with the task of managing their PPC program and reining in the skyrocketing Adwords spend costs. Beginning with the keyword strategy SEP researched and reworked the keywords, targeting those with higher purchase intent, and lower bid amount.
Upon the success of this initial project, the CarData team then decided to redesign and rewrite their website content. This decision was not merely based on an aesthetic want, but rather with the intention of capitalizing on the increased influx of traffic through the implementation of more strategic conversion points.
Results
Since launching these new SEP-managed Adwords campaigns CarData's campaign costs have dropped nearly 75%, while lead quality has continued to improve. The website's redesign and rewrite has resulted in CarDATA.com's more prominent and more frequent appearance on SERPs, with over 90% more traffic derived from organic search.
Since it's inception, CarData has continued to test new marketing channels, methodically adding effective tactics to increase their online presence, generate new leads and find new customers.