Industry:
Automotive
Location:
https://www.marinsoftware.com/resources/case-studies/silvercar
http://silvercar.com
  • 10x increase in bookings
  • 9% decrease in CPA
  • 97% increase in impressions

A little about Silvercar

Silvercar is an innovative rental car company that has shaken up the industry by reimagining the process. Through their mobile app, customers can painlessly select and rent from an impressive fleet of premium, silver Audi A4s. The process is simple and streamlined from reservation to return, with no lines and no paperwork. To help grow their business, Silvercar teamed up with Unique Influence, a cross-channel digital marketing consultancy based in Austin, TX. Unique Influence helps clients meet aggressive growth objectives by using a well-defined process to identify, connect with, and convert high-value customers.

Since working with Marin, the health of our paid search programs has improved tremendously. We’ve expanded our campaigns, extended our reach, and are running at a higher level than ever before.

Ryan Pitylak
CEO, Unique Influence

Getting more people behind the wheel

To get more people behind the wheel of their premium rental cars, Silvercar set aggressive booking goals. Unique Influence ramped up their paid search programs accordingly, yet it became challenging to efficiently scale campaign management and reporting without automation.

Mining Google search query reports for new keywords was time-consuming, and did not always offer a complete view of trends. Manually calculating bids also took time, and did not allow for instant reaction to competitive shifts in highly volatile auction environments. Finally, optimizing new, long-tail keywords was made difficult by the standard limited amount of data. To have full confidence in calculating the optimal bids needed to drive Silvercar’s aggressive booking goals, Unique Influence turned to an enterprise class advertising management platform.

Driving toward success

After selecting Marin Software, Unique Influence was able to scale their keyword expansion strategy using the platform’s keyword management tools. Marin does the heavy lifting by combining Google and Bing’s keyword volume estimations with converting organic and paid search query data, providing immediate insight into new revenue opportunities. Revenue-driving keywords can be added under any group and match type with a single click. Marin also highlighted queries that result in clicks but not conversions, allowing Unique Influence to negative match and pause those keywords to eliminate wasteful spend.

Marin’s powerful and patented bidding algorithm enables Unique Influence to automatically calculate optimal bids based on Silvercar’s aggressive cost per acquisition targets. For long-tail keywords, the algorithm analyzes and systematically blends performance data to minimize risk and calculate intelligent bids for keywords with limited data. Automating bids allows Unique Influence to focus on strategic projects like testing ads to identify top-performing creative. Selecting creative with the highest click-through rates drives higher ad positions, more impressions, and lower cost-per-click.

Crossing the finish line

Unique Influence put Marin Software to the test with a month-long Silvercar promotion targeting customers in the Dallas/Fort Worth market. From December 2013 to January 2014, Unique Influence achieved impressive results for Silvercar including:

  • 10x increase in bookings
  • 9% lower cost per acquisition
  • 97% increase in impressions

These results were made possible by the insights and automation provided by Marin Software. Using the platform, Unique Influence is supporting a more aggressive and confident campaign strategy across all markets. Since their initial promotion, Silvercar has maintained their optimal combination of reach and spend and continues to expand their program.