Part of the Auto Trader Group, Vanarama stands as a lauded provider of personal and commercial vehicle leasing solutions. Originating in 2004 with a humble team of three, the brand has evolved into a powerhouse with over 230 employees, renowned for offering unrivalled deals across an extensive vehicle range. With a commitment to excellence, Vanarama excels in delivering award-winning customer service and an exceptional online customer experience.

Campaign Highlights

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The Brief

Initially, Vanarama approached us with the objective of launching a Digital PR campaign aimed at diversifying their backlink portfolio and establishing competitive parity with other prominent leasing companies through the acquisition of topically relevant links.

Fast forward two years, following the resounding success of our link-building initiatives – notably, the Apple Car campaign that garnered a staggering 1,200 backlinks on its own – Vanarama sought a comprehensive approach that would address all facets of SEO to thrive in the fiercely competitive leasing industry. Thus, in May 2022, we expanded the campaign to encompass Content and Technical SEO strategies while sustaining our Digital PR endeavours to drive exponential outcomes.

Our Approach

1.

Tailored strategy

Each campaign commences with the crafting of a bespoke strategy tailored to the client’s objectives. In Vanarama’s case, our SEO journey commenced with a meticulous focus on onsite optimisation and content enrichment for pivotal landing pages, encompassing 268 model pages and the ‘Cheap Car Leasing’ hub.

2.

Seamless URL migration

Ensuring a seamless transition, we executed a meticulous URL migration process, guaranteeing the seamless redirection of all legacy pages to their respective counterparts without detrimental impacts on organic traffic. Concurrently, we adopted an inventive approach to link building, orchestrating a fusion of reactive digital PR initiatives and hero campaigns targeting pertinent automotive, tech, and national publications.

3.

Targeted audience insights

As Vanarama’s campaign gained momentum and yielded promising results, our team delved into comprehensive audience research, uncovering the challenges faced by customers transitioning to electric vehicles. Leveraging these insights, we curated informative guide content and optimised EV model pages to provide tailored solutions to these challenges, thereby enhancing user engagement and relevance.

The Results

Through a bespoke strategy tailored to address Vanarama’s customer pain points, we achieved remarkable milestones, catapulting the client to page one visibility for numerous pertinent and popular search terms. This strategic triumph resulted in a notable surge in website traffic and conversions, bolstering Vanarama’s online presence and fostering a seamless customer experience conducive to business growth.

Our prowess in link acquisition surpassed expectations, propelled by inventive hero digital PR campaigns that broke new ground and targeted diverse domains to enhance brand recognition and augment online visibility.

Moreover, Vanarama’s search engine standings witnessed significant enhancements across various keyword phrases:

  1. Commanding page one ranking for the fiercely competitive keyword ‘car leasing,’ soaring from position 16 to 8 within a mere 5-month span. This ascent, amidst an average of 165,000 monthly searches in the UK, represents a remarkable +40-place surge in just 2 years.
  2. Securing page one standings for ‘cheap car leasing’ (with 14,800 monthly UK searches), showcasing a commendable +37-place advancement over 2 years.
  3. Dominating with 368 ‘model + lease’ keywords on page one, marking an extraordinary escalation from 57—an astounding +546% surge in 3 months.
  4. Elevating rankings for ‘car lease’ (165,000 monthly UK searches) from position 17 to 10 in a swift 5-month timeframe.
  5. Excelling in rankings for ‘car lease deals’ (90,500 monthly UK searches), advancing from position 15 to 10 within 5 months.
  6. Significantly enhancing positions for ‘electric car lease’ (40,500 monthly UK searches) and ‘electric car lease deals’ (9,900 monthly UK searches), ascending from positions 20 and 21, respectively, within a 2-year timeframe.

The Highlights

  • Ranked page 1 for multiple, relevant keywords
  • 454 links generated in 2022
  • Over 3,000 links built since the campaign started

We’ve been repeatedly impressed with the UpShift approach and team from day one. They’re highly knowledgeable, proactive, creative and do what they say they’re going to do. We also have a great relationship with the team, which goes a long way. They’ve been instrumental to our digital growth and we look forward to continued success together.

Paul Cable, Chief Marketing Officer Vanarama

An Impressive Grid

Our business has a track record of generating outstanding results for automotive brands spanning back to 2014, with previous and current clients including some of the industry’s leading dealerships, leasing brokers, and manufacturers.

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