HomeOur WorkTop Cash For Cars
Case study · Website, Google Ads, SEO

Top Cash For Cars

Rebuilt the foundations — site, tracking and campaign structure — so every dollar could be traced to an outcome.

Google PartnerMeta Blueprint certifiedAuckland based, working NZ-wideNo lock-in contractsYour accounts stay in your name

The context

Vehicle buying is a high-volume, thin-margin category, which makes cost-per-lead discipline unusually important. It's also one of the few categories where search behaviour is genuinely structured: people search by make, model, year, condition and location, in combinations.

That structure is an opportunity. It can be covered systematically rather than guessed at — but only if the measurement can tell which combinations actually produce completed jobs.

The build, in short

  • CategoryHigh volume, thin margin — cost per lead discipline is decisive
  • Search patternMake, model, condition and location combinations
  • SiteRebuilt around a single conversion path
  • AdsRestructured to separate what converts from what merely clicks
  • MeasurementRebuilt first, so optimisation targeted real enquiries

What we did

  • Rebuilt the website around a single, clear conversion path
  • Restructured Google Ads to separate converting from non-converting demand
  • SEO foundations to reduce dependence on paid traffic over time

The approach

The number first

Average job value, margin and close rate produce what an enquiry is worth. In a thin-margin category that number is unforgiving, and it decides which searches are worth entering and which are a trap.

Honest measurement

Tracking was rebuilt so the account optimised toward real enquiries. In vehicle categories this matters more than most: enquiry volume is easy to generate and mostly worthless without qualification, and an ad platform given a loose conversion definition will reliably produce more of the wrong people.

Structure that exposes the truth

Campaigns were separated so that performance by service and by area was visible rather than averaged. That visibility is what makes cutting possible, and cutting is where most of the early gain in an account this competitive comes from.

Reduce the rent

Organic foundations were built alongside the paid work, so the business isn't renting every click indefinitely.

What we'd do next

The natural next step in a category like this is closing the loop between completed jobs and the ad platforms, so bidding optimises toward customers rather than enquiries — see Data & Measurement — and tightening the conversion path further with Conversion Engineering.

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