Cassens' Case Study


As a result of our work, Cassens & Sons saw a 224x return on investment during their slowest time of year

44

Cars Sold

$1,313,715.48

In Revenue

224x

Return on Total Investment

1251x

Return on Marketing Ad Spend

Cassens’ Story

The Cassens & Drive Social Media Relationship


An award-winning dealership in Glen Carbon, IL, Cassens & Sons has a proven track record of success in providing the local community with quality automobiles and superior customer service. Cassens has used traditional mediums for advertising throughout their lifetime, but had yet to become fully immersed in paid social media advertising. That’s where we came in.

Since trust looms large when it comes to major purchase decisions for consumers, we implemented a strategy that repeatedly positioned Cassens as not just the perfect place to get a great deal on a new or pre-owned automobile, but also as a reliable source of information on new vehicle options.

Our Process

Identify the Target Buyer Persona


We were able to drop customers in Cassens’ inbound funnel at a consistent rate for years. We used data from their real customers to create an artificial intelligence audience that matched the same demographic information.

Once those users visited the Cassens’ website, provided their email address, or engaged with ad content, we again captured and segmented them into new audiences. These "Primary Audiences" were continuously retargeted with ads to keep Cassens top-of-mind for consumers.

This gave potential customers an easy touchpoint with the brand. They could now see Cassen’s name and logo regularly, learn what they had to offer, and build a relationship with the brand — ultimately increasing their potential to convert into a new customer. Of the total purchases made, 89% came from Page Fans, Website Visitors, Social Engaged Users, and Email lists.

The goal for our work was obvious: sell more cars!

Create and Test Multi-Medium Content


Cassens & Sons shares a similar pain point with most dealerships — 78% of car shoppers use 3rd party sites as an online resource when shopping for a vehicle. We tested multiple creative mediums to see which one would be the most effective for driving conversions.

As we said earlier, we wanted to position Cassens as both a great place to buy a car AND a resource for information. We know from Marketing 101 that the most engaging content is valuable and educational and is accompanied by aesthetically pleasing imagery.

Facebook’s Canvas and Carousel ad mediums, coupled with traditional static ads, allowed us to test user response to informational content.

Canvas Ads Drove 15 Car Sales


Dealership websites have a tendency to provide cost values, but not values of vehicle features - and Cassens’ website was no different. Canvas ad formats are the ideal way to present this information without a website overhaul, due to the interactive nature and their ability to utilize more dynamic graphics. We canvas ads to showcase specific performance and safety features.

$457,793

In Revenue

$18.00

Ad Cost Per Purchase

224x

Return on Total Investment

28,013

Impressions

$9.64

CPM

70%

Of Audiences Viewed Canvas

17s

Average View Time

A/B Tested


In all creative mediums, we used a/b split-testing to discover content topics relevant to the Cassens audiences.

Our main tests positioned general inventories against singular focuses on their top-selling new models. The majority of purchases were driven by content that showcased the wide inventory and selection of products offered at the dealership.

Conversion by Content Topic

Match Actual Purchases with Ad Performance


The same way we used customer purchase data to create our top-of-funnel audiences, we also used data from customer purchases to draw direct correlations between marketing messages & sales.

Using Facebook's Offline Conversions tool, we matched the purchase data from Cassens & Sons' CRM with social media users that saw Cassens' ads on both Facebook & Instagram.

For every $1 Cassens spent on their advertising strategy, they received $1251.16 in return. Including all of their social media marketing costs, Cassens saw a 224x return on their marketing investment. Not to mention - it was all during their off-season from January to April!