AUTOMOTIVE CASE STUDY
HOW KECG CUT COST PER LEAD AND DROVE 450,000+ IMPRESSIONS FOR AN EOFY OFFER
A growing automotive brand needed to turn a strong EOFY offer into genuine buyer interest, not just clicks, while reaching a much wider Victorian audience.
Leading Chinese Automotive Dealer Group
bjective – EOFY Offers and Increase Test Drive Bookings.
Client & Context
A GROWING BRAND, A CLEAR GOAL
Our client is a Chinese automotive brand with a growing but still relatively new presence in the Australian market. They have built strong recognition across Victoria, particularly within certain local communities. The dealership came to us through a referral from another client in our portfolio, with a clear goal of widening their audience base and building broader brand awareness across the state.
Their core audience is families and tradespeople seeking SUVs and utes that offer advanced technology and strong functionality at an accessible price point.
For this campaign, the dealership ran an EOFY offer of half price stamp duty on all vehicles sold before 30 June, backed by 7 years roadside assist and capped price servicing. With a strong incentive in place, the focus was on converting that offer into test drive bookings.
The Challenge
CLICKS WERE HIGH. LEADS WEREN'T.
The dealership’s previous campaigns were generating strong engagement, with a high click through rate, but this wasn’t translating into genuine buyer interest. Cost per lead sat at $43.61, with only 96 purchases, too few people were enquiring or booking test drives, leaving a gap between traffic and tangible results.
Brand awareness presented a further challenge. The dealership’s customer base remained concentrated within certain communities, meaning the brand simply wasn’t reaching, or being recognised by, a wider Victorian audience. For an EOFY campaign built around a strong, time-sensitive offer, both quality of leads and breadth of awareness needed to improve for the campaign to succeed.
Objectives
What success needed to look like
With the EOFY offer providing a strong incentive to act, the campaign centred on two key outcomes:
1. Improve lead quality and efficiency, targeting 100+ leads while bringing cost per lead down from the previous $43.61.
2. Extend the brand’s reach, lifting branded search volume and awareness beyond their existing customer base to bring new walk-in traffic and sales from across Victoria.
With the offer expiring 30 June, results needed to be delivered within a tight, time-sensitive window.
Strategy
THE RIGHT OFFER, THE RIGHT AUDIENCE
Our audience strategy began with expanding in-market segments while drawing on the dealership’s existing customer base to better understand who was already buying and where to find more like them. This insight shaped both targeting and creative direction, ensuring the campaign spoke directly to the people most likely to convert.
Creative centred on static ads showcasing each current model, with a strong emphasis on the half price stamp duty offer alongside the individual features of each vehicle. Once a customer clicked through, they landed on a qualifying form designed to capture key information for the sales team and drive test drive bookings, equipping the team with the information needed to follow up effectively.
A full funnel approach connected every stage of the campaign, with broader awareness activity introducing the brand and offer to new audiences, supported by lead generation creative further down the funnel to convert interest into bookings. Channel mix was led by Meta, supported by website SEO optimisation to strengthen organic visibility. AMS was integrated with the dealership’s CRM throughout, giving full visibility into lead activity and performance.
Execution
REFINED MID-CAMPAIGN, SHARPER RESULTS
The campaign ran with a budget of $2,000 across the month of June. The initial creative set featured all three vehicle models within a single ad, but halfway through the month, performance data led us to pivot the approach. We split the campaign into individual creatives for each model, ensuring each vehicle’s specific features were properly showcased rather than lost within a single, combined ad. At the same time, we introduced a direct test drive booking call to action, which had been missing from the original creative, giving customers a clear next step and strengthening the path from interest to enquiry.
Results
MORE LEADS, LOWER COST, WIDER REACH
The refined strategy delivered improvement across both cost efficiency and lead quality. Cost per lead dropped to $37.10, down from the previous $43.61, with 123 purchases generated across the month, well ahead of the original target of 100+.
Click through rate remained steady throughout, but the addition of the qualifying form made a clear difference to lead quality, attracting buyers with stronger purchase intent rather than simply increasing volume. Brand awareness also saw a significant lift, with 450,000+ impressions generated over the month, helping introduce the brand’s vehicle range and EOFY offer to a far wider Victorian audience.
Ready When You Are
WANT THIS KIND OF REACH FOR YOUR NEXT OFFER?
Tell us about your dealership and your next offer. We’ll map out what a properly targeted, properly tracked campaign looks like for you.