Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) Automotive Case Study Success

Our automotive client aimed to connect with customers in the competitive certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicle market, focusing on quality site traffic. The main challenge was the delayed arrival of monthly financing terms and offers, which could take 5-7 days to turn around for their clients each month. This lag hindered their ability to update ads with timely offers, resulting in a decrease in the number of highly qualified leads.

To reach highly qualified leads in the market for CPO vehicles, KORTX implemented several key strategies:

1. Display Advertising with Dynamic Creative: Enabled fast, real-time modifications of ad elements such as images, CTA text, and financing terms. New offers were updated instantly, maximizing the ad’s live time with more personalized and relevant offers.
2. Geo-Targeting: Focused on users in the market for CPO vehicles, utilizing dynamic display elements that changed based on the user’s location. Ads for nearby dealerships were shown across 4 key regions (Midwest, Northeast, South, and West) using targeted zip code lists.
3. Optimization Through Site Tagging: Transitioned the core KPI from traditional CTR (click-through rate) to site actions. Tags on the site helped refine audience targeting and improve engagement metrics.

Our real-time creative updates saved the advertiser up to three extra months per year by eliminating manual creative production. We also shifted from focusing on vanity metrics like CTR to optimizing for relevant site actions and tracking CPA. Even with fewer clicks, we targeted users who were more likely to convert after seeing the banner.

This resulted in 481,896 site actions, and the CPA improved year-over-year by $0.26, surpassing the client’s benchmark of $0.73 for CPO site actions.