Search Engine Marketing Resources: M-Digital & Ford Case Study

M-Digital and Ford Case Study

How Weboptimiser helped M-Digital launch the new Ford Connect van

The client

The interactive arm of global marketing giant Mindshare, M-Digital is one of the UK's leading media agencies, famed for its pioneering approach to interactive technologies, including ground breaking online product launches. Its client, Ford, is one of the longest-established, best-loved and most successful automotive brands in the world. Ford has two web sites, each with a distinct purpose and format. While Ford.co.uk is the core consumer site, Fordjourney.com has transactional capabilities and customers can specify and purchase a vehicle online, with delivery, service and support organised via Ford's terrestrial dealer network.

The challenge

Search optimisation had been identified as an effective way of raising Ford's online profile, boosting levels of qualified traffic, enhancing the user experience and generating new sales opportunities. However, with their hard-to-index, Flash-centric formats, efforts to make the sites more search engine-friendly had enjoyed only limited success. With competitors increasingly encroaching on Ford's online market share, M-Digital turned to Weboptimiser.

The brief

M-Digital's brief to Weboptimiser was two-fold. The first, immediate priority was to develop and implement an optimisation strategy that would increase sales opportunities across Ford's product range. The second was to support the launch of the new Ford Connect by creating online visibility for the new vehicle in advance of the television advertising campaign.

The solution

Weboptimiser's first task was to conduct web intelligence research to create a comprehensive picture of Ford's online positioning, performance and potential, identify and assess competitive activity and, most importantly, find out what the online target audience were asking for on search engines. Several pertinent facts came to light during this research, which formed the basis of the rest of the optimisation campaign. For example, Weboptimiser found that 'Transit' had become a generic term for mid-sized vans, such as the Connect.

Weboptimiser then created a network of 6 search term-specific micro-sites, which focussed on Ford models, in line with the findings of the web intelligence. These micro-sites formed a network around the two home sites, which were themselves interconnected, to gather traffic from the search engines and lead users to the specific content they requested.

The result

Thanks to the optimisation campaign, when a web user inputs any Ford van-related term on any search engine, a Ford van site will appear in a prominent position. The new Ford Connect van, as well as the rest of the Ford product range and Ford's dealer network, enjoys a high online profile and, as a result, the qualified visitors necessary to maximise the results of the overall product launch campaign.

For more information about Weboptimiser's search engine marketing services, either email or call Joshua on +44 (0) 20 7953 7199.