The road to success, driving brand awareness in a competitive landscape
Go Car Credit offers car finance for those who can’t get a loan from traditional lenders due to credit adversity. The industry Go Car Credit operates in is both highly competitive for organic search and strictly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The challenge
With the objectives of driving increased brand awareness and improving visibility in the SERPs, our ongoing SEO strategy primarily centred around content creation and digital PR to secure coverage and earn links.
However, building brand awareness to increase organic traffic was no easy feat, especially whilst navigating a heavily regulated industry and increasingly competitive search landscape in car finance, all set against the backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis. The challenge
We also had a modest budget to be utilised across an integrated SEO strategy. The budget needed to span Content, Digital PR and Technical SEO, which meant we needed to make this budget work hard, flexing resources and activity in line with performance against objectives.
To determine success, our integrated SEO strategy required a YoY increase in:
- Number of referring domains
- Volume of relevant rankings
- Ranking positions
- Organic traffic to the blog
Our Interpretation & Insight
We began by following our strategic approach and carried out competitor analysis including a link intersect report of key competitors to better understand where we could obtain a competitive edge. In the media, we found that red-top nationals, local, and motor publications were key areas to target to reach our audience.
One of our most useful findings, as a result of in-depth content gap analysis and keyword research, was an opportunity to expand Go Car Credit’s topical keyword visibility, specifically around car ownership and maintenance. Identifying search behaviours enabled us to truly understand how Go Car Credit could supply the needs of its target audience.
This led us to our strategy…
The Strategy
As Go Car Credit’s target audience has previously struggled with credit, creating content and campaigns that kept car finance, cost-saving and car maintenance as central themes was key.
This helped us define our strategy and identify two key areas of focus:
- Secure coverage on top-tier publications to build brand awareness and authority for the site.
- Expand informational content through new blog content creation and strengthen existing pages.
The Activity
We used informational data and our collective creativity to develop a robust SEO and content strategy that outlined how we could outperform competitors in the SERPs. We delivered a consistent strategy that answered relevant queries to improve rankings and consequently drive additional organic traffic, whilst connecting with customers on a human level.
We developed Digital PR campaigns that we knew would be of interest to the target customer and within the target media. We looked at unusual laws and corresponding fines but also at driving behaviours, as well as creating guides for driving in difficult conditions which gave us the ability to news-jack in between campaigns.
Our approach was firmly rooted in data and without sensationalism, finding a middle ground of creating stories that would secure media coverage and that toed the line with Go Car Credit’s stringent compliance process was key.
So, how did the campaign perform?
The Results
Our carefully planned approach led us to hit the mark on all of our objectives, seeing a YoY uplift across a number of performance metrics.
Digital PR
Through digital PR, we crafted stories that had an editorial interest from desk research and secured 127 pieces of coverage over the year with over 100 links including coverage from notable news outlets.
As a result, we were able to increase the volume of organic traffic and drive awareness of Go Car Credit’s product offering.
The Mirror – The Express – Daily Mail – Daily Record – The Fintech Times – Daily Star – London Loves Business – UK News Group – Liverpool Echo – The Sun
Organic Search
The number of new referring domains gained was 78% higher during Sep 22-Sep 23 when compared to the previous year. This is measured against the market leader, who only saw a 61% increase in new referring domains YoY, illustrating the exponential growth of Go Car Credit’s backlink portfolio.
The production and optimisation of content resulted in a huge increase in volume and positioning of rankings YoY:
Position 1-3 – 34% increase
Position 4-10 – 6% increase
Position 11-20 – 50% increase
New and improved content, led to these organic position gains and improvements which had a fantastic knock-on effect on organic traffic, with an increase of 4,000 organic sessions to the blog YoY during Feb-May 2023, an uplift of 95% period on period.
The team at CreativeRace truly understood the challenges we faced and were able to provide innovative solutions to organic search marketing. With an audience and strategy-first approach, our brand gained consistent coverage in mainstream media and through engaging content saw huge gains in organic visibility and traffic.
CreativeRace's expertise, enthusiasm and tenacity made the team a delight to work with!
The Award Nomination
Our collective hard work to execute the comprehensive strategy and deliver these phenomenal results has been recognised by the UK Search Awards 2023, nominating this campaign for Best Use of Search in the Automotive category.
As this campaign ticks a lot of boxes, it was also nominated for the Best Use of Search – Finance (SEO) award.
Looking For a Taste of Success?
Our intuitive approach to developing successful marketing campaigns allows us to adapt to whatever challenges we’re faced with and still deliver results. If this sounds like something your business could benefit from, why not get in contact and we can start planning your organic search strategy?
Take it from us, lightning does strike twice…