VIN IQ Success Story: Mazda of Claremont

Digital marketing in the automotive industry is fraught with inefficiency, often characterized by an algorithmized approach that over-exposes some vehicles and fails to target the vehicles in most need of exposure, ultimately leading to marketing waste and unnecessary spend. Dealership owners and marketing managers often grapple with the need for more transparency and control over their advertising efforts, striving to optimize their budget for the best possible outcomes. Left unchecked, the situation compounds over time, as marketing budgets inflate without corresponding increases in sales or leads, resulting in slower turn than possible and more unneeded markdowns. Ultimately, leaving dealers to question the value of their efforts.

What if there was a solution that could turn this around, offering a clear path to not just seeing but understanding and optimizing your marketing efforts? Let’s see how Mazda of Claremont found this path.

The Challenge at Mazda of Claremont:

When Ram Tehrani stepped into the role of General Manager at Mazda of Claremont, he faced the task of untangling the dealership’s digital marketing efforts. His primary concern was the lack of transparency in marketing performance measurement, making it difficult to discern which campaigns and vendors were genuinely contributing to the dealership’s success. This challenge is not unique in the automotive industry, where measuring performance can often feel opaque. Leveraging VIN IQ’s free marketing analysis, customized to his dealership, Ram sought to gain actionable insights into his dealership’s marketing performance metrics. The analysis provided by VIN IQ highlighted the inefficiencies of the current approach where a disproportionate allocation of resources was resulting in marketing waste and an inflated marketing budget without corresponding returns. This initial diagnosis underscores a pervasive issue many dealerships face: the challenge of optimizing marketing spend to ensure every dollar contributes to measurable outcomes.

VIN IQ's Strategic Approach:

VIN IQ’s intervention at Mazda of Claremont began with an in-depth analysis of existing marketing efforts. The approach was twofold: enhance transparency across all marketing campaigns and streamline the allocation of the marketing budget to maximize efficiency. By leveraging their VIN level marketing performance metrics, VIN IQ was able to identify underperforming vendors and ineffective marketing campaigns, which were draining resources without delivering results:

Three key vendor issues in the marketing strategy:

• Vendor A - Driving no meaningful traffic.
• Vendor B - Driving meaningful traffic, but at way too high of a cost.
• Vendor C - Great cost and visibility, but only on a few cars.

Marketing Waste:

• A majority of the paid traffic was allocated to the same handful of cars in the inventory.
• A used Bentley and Tesla were drawing most of the paid traffic on every campaign.
• Significant paid traffic was sent to an SRP or the homepage and resulted in zero viewed VDPs.

Right away, Ram canceled Vendor A and adjusted his spend with some of his other vendors. By reallocating these marketing dollars to VIN IQ he could optimize campaigns to focus on VIN-level vehicles that required more exposure, ensuring a more equitable and efficient distribution of marketing resources.

After 60 days Ram was able to see a 23% increase in his VDP traffic from his marketing campaigns and a 43% improvement in the efficiency of his marketing spend. Just a few small changes and the help of VIN IQ’s VIN-level marketing intelligence resulted in Ram’s ability to drive more value from his existing marketing budget.

Feeling confident in VIN IQ’s performance, Ram put in a request to cancel Vendor B and reallocate those funds to another campaign with VIN IQ. Over the course of the next 60 days, Mazda of Claremont was able to see a 33% increase in VDP views from marketing campaigns and a 40% reduction in cost per VDP view.

Four months after his initial VIN IQ free marketing analysis, Ram canceled Vendor C. He continued to leverage the insights from VIN IQ to monitor and adjust his campaigns and vendors. Including running strategic campaigns with VIN IQ to focus on specific used car inventory.

By focusing on marketing performance measurement and leveraging data to guide decisions, VIN IQ transformed Mazda of Claremont’s approach from a broad, untargeted effort to a precision-targeted strategy. This shift not only curbed the unnecessary spend but also ensured that every dollar spent was an investment towards measurable and improved sales outcomes.

Key Takeaways for Dealerships:

Post-implementation and over the course of six months, Mazda of Claremont witnessed a dramatic transformation in its digital marketing efficacy. The dealership’s focused shift towards leveraging VIN IQ Reveal & VIN IQ Impact resulted in an uptick in marketing ROI:

• 40% improvement in marketing spend efficiency.
• 46% reduction in unnecessary spend by reallocating a portion of the budget towards VINs that truly needed exposure.
• 30% increase in VDP views with VIN IQ marketing campaigns.
• 18% increase in sold VINs from paid traffic.
• 14% reduction in total marketing spend. Overall reductions in Cost Per Visitor, Cost Per VDP, and Cost Per Sold.

The judicious approach, emphasizing the measurement of marketing performance, allowed for real-time adjustments and optimizations. Mazda of Claremont enjoyed improved digital marketing performance underscoring the importance of targeted, data-driven marketing strategies.

Conclusion and Call to Action:

Mazda of Claremont's success story with VIN IQ is a testament to the power of innovative, data-driven marketing strategies in the automotive industry. Dealerships looking to increase marketing performance, distribute traffic more evenly across all inventory, and reduce marketing waste are encouraged to consider how VIN IQ's VIN-level marketing intelligence could revolutionize their own digital marketing efforts.

Know more, do more with VIN IQ - Get started with your free custom marketing performance analysis.