UpShift won Best Pan European Campaign at the European Search Awards 2026 for our work with BYD!
Part of the team went to Porto to receive it. The recognition meant a lot to the small, agile team who earned a global manufacturer’s trust and delivered audience-focused content and technical SEO execution at scale for multiple markets, without adding to internal teams’ workloads. From invisible to unavoidable, we made BYD become Europe’s most credible new EV challenger brand.
The Challenge: Invisible in Five Markets
BYD is the world’s largest EV manufacturer. But entering Europe in 2024, they had zero brand awareness and no SEO fundamentals in place.
More critically, their infrastructure was fragmented. Multiple domains and subfolders across different languages and regions. Multiple teams in multiple regions had varying workloads and priorities. There was no unified strategy. China HQ priorities came first. European SEO improvements fell behind.
The task was clear: build visibility for BYD across five European markets (UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy) and capture demand before competitors did. The timeline was tight. The stakes were high.
What Most Brands Get Wrong
When brands enter new markets, they don’t exist yet in anyone’s mind. Since most manufacturers rely on branded traffic – around 96%, on average – this was a challenge for BYD.
73% of EV buyers enter the market undecided on which brand to choose. 90% of people loyal to one brand still consider at least one other. One in four EV searches are unbranded. These are the searches that matter.
BYD’s opportunity wasn’t to rank for “BYD SUV” or “BYD EV.” It was to become visible for “electric car,” “small EV,” “how much does an electric car cost,” “EV charging times”. The research that happens before anyone has decided on a brand.
By the time buyers were ready to choose, BYD needed to already be there.
How We Did It
Three key areas of work drove the results.
Layer 1: Fix the Technical Foundation
Infrastructure issues were preventing users from finding the right site. They were landing on wrong domains, wrong languages, landing pages that weren’t even sales pages. That had to be fixed before anything else mattered.
Layer 2: Content for First-Time EV Buyers
We created educational content about electric cars, not brand messaging. Content about charging, costs, reliability. Material that helped people understand EVs before they’d decided on a brand.
Layer 3: One Framework Across Five Markets
We built a consistent strategy adapted locally based on market research. Each country had different search behaviour, competitors and buyer preferences. We didn’t duplicate work. We scaled principles.
The Results: From Invisible to Challenger
Against the Original Targets
We set three growth objectives for Q4 2025:
- Increase organic test drives by a specific target
- Grow organic sessions by 20%
- Achieve top rankings for target keywords
We exceeded all three.
Organic test drives: 65% increase above target.
Organic sessions: 53% increase above target.
Keyword rankings: 91% of target branded keywords in positions 1-3. 60% of target non-brand keywords on page 1.
Year-over-Year Growth
By Q4 2025, BYD had been live for a year. The growth across markets showed the framework worked everywhere.
Germany: +122%
Italy: +103%
UK: +98%
Spain: +85%
France: +40%
Not one market underperformed. All five grew. The framework scaled.
The Visibility Shift
When BYD started, they were invisible. Buried behind every established competitor.
Within a year, they reached top positions for brand keywords. Competing directly with established leaders.
Non-brand visibility moved from completely absent in category research to page one prominence.
Branded clicks increased 52%. Non-branded clicks increased 356%.
From invisible to unavoidable. That’s what the award recognised.
Why This Campaign Wins
Small team. Big results. No large agency resources. But we earned trust and delivered at global scale.
We didn’t just execute. We became BYD’s strategic partner. When they needed CMS access, we earned it. When new teams came in, we trained them. When friction happened, we built processes to reduce it.
We proved that market entry requires a different strategy – not necessarily brand awareness first, but category research instead. Build visibility before brand preference forms. By the time they’re ready to decide, they’ve already seen you.
BYD’s team said it best: “UpShift is a vital part of BYD’s digital operations. They’re not just an external agency, but a trusted and valued strategic partner.”
What This Means for Your Market Entry
If you’re entering new markets, the competitive window is narrow. First movers in category research visibility capture demand before later entrants. Later movers compete on price.
The strategy is simple. Research the unbranded demand in your market. Build content that answers those questions. Fix the technical foundation so users find the right site. Scale across regions with one framework adapted for local conditions.
The results speak for themselves. BYD proved it works. And they’re not the only ones who can win with this approach.
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