Background
For thrill seekers and hobbyists going off the beaten path, the first choice for offroading accessories is Ironman 4×4. The Australian manufacturer has leveraged the rugged Outback to stress-test their products and build consumer trust in more than 120 countries globally.
Key Metrics
600%
Increase in Transactions in 2020 vs 2019
712%
Increase in New Website Users
$6.70
Back for Every $1 Spent on PPC Advertising
$1.4 million
Made from PPC in the first 9 months
What Strategy Was Used?
Ironman 4×4 America experienced tremendous growth when they opened up their North American subsidiary. To capitalize, the company partnered with Logical Position (LP) to manage their digital marketing efforts. Ironman 4×4 needed a 2.5x return-on-ad-spend to justify broadening their brand awareness. Our team started by building out paid search and shopping campaigns. Since the Ironman 4×4 brand has become well known worldwide, we differentiated our campaigns on Google Ads by trademarked search terms (such as “Ironman 4×4”) and non-trademarked search terms (such as “off-roading equipment”), which allowed our team to keep new acquisitions separate from lifetime value customers.
Next up, our team built out Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns for all the pages on Ironman’s website, as well as a second DSA campaign targeting Ironman’s specific category pages. As Ironman’s sales started to increase, our partnership became more collaborative and unconventional. Ironman began experimenting with a variety of sales strategies, and our team assisted by switching up the ad copy in our trademark campaigns to reflect the different sales— which helps ensure relevancy for consumers. Ironman 4×4 sends our paid search team a sheet of products that they want to focus on selling each month, which allows us to push and pull budgets accordingly. Our strategy has also broadened to include paid display campaigns— including remarketing, prospecting, YouTube ads, and Gmail sponsored promotions—which helps us pull in consumers lower in the sales funnel who haven’t made a purchase yet.
“Logical Position has been instrumental to our success in digital marketing. Consistently meeting and exceeding sales and conversion goals that specifically align with our inventory and fulfillment targets. When it comes to digital ads, the team at LP has no problem taking the wheel and showing us how to navigate the digital off-road.”
-Luke Schnacke, CEO of Ironman
The onset of the COVID-19 in March 2020 brought tremendous uncertainty in an industry not deemed essential. Luckily, our team pivoted quickly to discover new avenues for growth. By shifting budget from automobile suspension kits, to outdoor camping accessories like tents, awnings, and fridges, we were able to capture customers looking to social distance in the great outdoors. More than helping people get outside, we helped Ironman bring new consumers into the brand.
How Did BigCommerce Make An Impact?
We recommended the BigCommerce platform to Ironman early in the onboarding process for a few different reasons. First, it’s simple to integrate with our in-house feed management platform—FeedLogic. This enables our team to make necessary account tweaks in real time. Breaking down the data is vital to build out a winning site and evaluate campaign success, which wouldn’t be possible without the platform support from BigCommerce.
If our team had had to integrate FeedLogic with Ironman’s website without BigCommerce, it would’ve meant a lengthy custom integration and more opportunities for error with our data feed team. With BigCommerce, our team relied on FeedLogic integrating with their website, which streamlined the process and enabled our team to continue producing results for the client.
Finally, after reviewing the data, our paid search team encouraged Ironman to add more product recommendations, in order to increase transaction value. The BigCommerce platform made this customization simple thanks to their easily accessible integrations right out of the box.
What Were The Results?
Ironman 4×4 America has far surpassed their initial goal of 2.5x return-on-ad-spend. This year to date, they’ve achieved a 6.7x return on ad spend—that’s $6.70 back for every $1 spent on advertising. In that same time, we’ve increased our ad spend by 583%, driving an 887% increase in revenue. Last year, Ironman grossed $143,000 in sales from paid search. Year to date, that number has increased to $1.4 million from just $180,000 spent on paid search ads. Transactions in 2020 are up more than 600% to 2,888 compared to 429 in the same time period the year prior.
Similarly, LP surpassed Ironman’s brand awareness goals with a 712% increase in new users on the website this year, totalling over 430,000 individuals.
All of this success in the midst of COVID-19 validated our partnership with Ironman. Shifting our strategy to focus on camping products proved to be a calculated risk, and since July 1st, we’ve increased spend on our Tents and Awnings campaign by $4,800—and increased revenue there by $71,000, an increase of over 1,000%! With Logical Position’s help, Ironman 4×4 America was able to weather the pandemic and capture opportunities in all 50 states—helping more enthusiasts get outside and keep themselves safe. In this time of uncertainty, one thing is certain: together with BigCommerce, LP can still produce results.
