Black Friday seems a long time ago. And to be honest, this was something we were going to share months ago, but a little pandemic got in the way and took our eyes off the blog content ball. That said, sharing good client news is always something we like to do, now probably more than ever.
This was our first Black Friday program for Baxter Auto Group. Like so many retailers, BF is a big deal and historically Baxter, Nebraska’s largest dealership group (and 35th in the country), had fared reasonably well with previous BF programs. So with the bar being high, we knew success wasn’t going to happen the conventional way.
While we used the usual mediums of video, print and digital, we began the event by leveraging what the entire Baxter group could offer, not just individual dealerships. We also utilized more awareness media optimized for reach and frequency to drive new interest rather than leaning so heavily into the standard conversion tactics.
Despite a flat overall budget, we were able to increase impressions a whopping 409% by leaning heavily into digital video. In fact, that video drove 71% of our website visits with completion rates all well above benchmarks thanks to it being creative and engaging.
So what did all of this add up to when the rubber met the road (pun intended)? Well, overall leads grew by a massive 20% year over year while at the same time we significantly reduced the cost of each of those leads. More importantly, however, new car sales saw a huge 15% YOY uptick and used car sales jumped a massive 28% versus the previous year.
Terrific results by any measure. And because there was no incremental budget versus the prior year, it’s a great example of how a bit of smart thinking, doing things a bit differently and disrupting the status quo can have a remarkable impact.
