Advancement through technology
When Audi was preparing to launch the new highly-customizable Q2 car, the famous automaker knew its marketing needed to feel equally high-end and relevant. The firm wanted to create a campaign that would live up to its brand slogan “Vorsprung durch Technik” — “Advancement through Technology.”
To turn aspiration into reality, the Audi marketing team wanted to outmaneuver a common product-launch problem: piecemeal information. All too often, information about different customer touchpoints lives in silos. That makes it difficult to develop a complete understanding of the customer’s journey. When technology platforms aren’t integrated, organizations are limited in their ability to connect with the customers that matter most.
More efficient marketing
The Audi team realized that by moving to Google Display & Video 360, they would be able to integrate information from different touchpoints, gain better insights, and produce more efficient and effective marketing. Starting with tags on the Audi site, the team was able to create remarketing audiences comprised of previous site visitors. At the same time, Google in-market segments helped Audi discover new users who were likely to be interested in buying a new car.
See the possibilities
A car configurator on Audi’s website was designed to help consumers create their dream automobile. This also enabled the company to gain insights about users’ tastes that could be used to dynamically drive ad creatives.
A person’s position in the sales funnel — from zero contact to a completed car configuration — as well as preference signals (e.g. model, color, rims, and more) helped the Audi marketing team design highly relevant advertising. All this was possible thanks to the creative tools in Display & Video 360, which enabled Audi to create multiple ad variations for different audiences, optimize bids, and track the campaign with ease.
Dynamic creative wins the day
These approaches helped Audi achieve outstanding results. Buying ads programmatically led, on average, to a conversion rate four times higher than ads bought using traditional methods. Having one system for all purchases allowed Audi to compare various sources in an “apples to apples” way. And with Google in-market segments outperforming alternatives significantly, Audi was able to optimize its campaign accordingly.
In the last phase of audience qualification, using dynamic creative ads with the visitor’s individually configured car (one out of more than 6,000 combinations) delivered more than double the efficiency of standard ads. Based on these outcomes, Audi plans to continue using dynamic creative ads going forward.
