MIAMI – AutoLeadStar, a complete marketing automation platform designed for dealers, recently announced their automated paid ads solution, Acquire, helped Walser Automotive Group pivot quickly by identifying and targeting the right buyers during the pandemic, significantly decreasing their cost per lead and increasing leads by 33 percent. 

Without automation we would never have been able to maintain or exceed our pre COVID-19 performance.

When Walser first implemented Acquire in February 2020, the automated system allotted 12% of the group’s ad spend to social media. However, as the market drastically changed due to COVID and the government lockdown, people began spending more time on social platforms. Recognizing this shift, Acquire used machine learning to instantly identify, target, and reassess where in-market buyers were spending their time and increased the ad budget across social channels to 26% in April and May. As a result, the auto group’s cost per lead decreased from over $50 in February and March to $36 in April and May, while simultaneously bringing down the group’s costs per click.

“Without automation we would never have been able to maintain or exceed our pre COVID-19 performance. AutoLeadStar has given us the opportunity to react fast and deploy campaigns instantly. A team of 10 people couldn’t do what Acquire can do in seconds,” said Matthew Muhlenkort, SEM Analyst of Walser Automotive Group. 

Acquire, powered by artificial intelligence, leverages thousands of data points to strategically place ads on search engines, social media, and internet websites. Dealerships set an overall budget for Acquire, and the machine will decide where to allocate the budget based on performance and audience optimization. This gives Acquire the flexibility of pushing budget changes to search, display, and social in real time.

“Throughout the government lock-down Acquire was able to automatically shift and allocate Walser Automotive’s ad budget to where it would be most effective,” said Aharon Horwitz, CEO of AutoLeadStar. “As we move into the next half of 2020, our team is predicting a dramatic restart for automotive and progressive groups like Walser will be the clear-cut winners as they invest in technology rather than traditional account services.”