Ace Tyres' Google My Business Optimisation

Company Profile

Ace Tyres & Auto Services, based in Ravenhall Victoria, is a family owned, fully-independent tyre dealer that offers reliable service, sound advice, and affordable pricing. Before May of 2019 Ace Tyres had little online presence except for a handful of listings on directory sites and a poorly drafted Telstra made website. Despite a lack of digital marketing on their part Ace Tyres was still successful. Like a lot of Australian SMB owners Alex Zlapanovski has brilliant knowledge in his field, solid relationships with current customers, a great reputation locally, and gets most of his work through word of mouth. All of these were contributing factors to Ace Tyres being a successful business despite little online advertising.

Digital Marketing Goals

Understandably Alex was hesitant to utilise our services when we scouted him as he had previously not ventured deep into digital marketing and had some success without using any online strategies. So we made things simple. We gave him an offer he couldn't refuse. Premium digital marketing services for a one-time fee of $299 with emphasis on bringing him customers. This came in the shape of an optimisation of his already existing Google My Business listing. Our primary objective was to produce real customers on Alex’s small investment to highlight the returns that can be made by investing in your online presence.

Developing a strategy

Before we were granted access to the Ace Tyres & Auto Services listing we went to work quickly identifying the best variation of keywords utilised by local competitors and other best in class practices employed by successful tyre shops and mechanics across Australia. As is visible from the current view of Caroline Springs, the competitiveness of tyre and auto shops is incredibly high:

During this first phase we also gathered a large amount of content for Alex’s listing from all the existing sources. While there was a lot of useable content we frequently encountered areas where material was lacking. In order to fill these gaps we conferred with Alex to retrieve the information. Once we had access to the listing we got to work.

As with all our listings optimisation begins with a review of the core business information and updating it where necessary. The key here is to create a single consistent source and then apply that across all your profiles, this allows Google to pull through your reviews from other platforms and gives you a rankings boost. Using the research previously done we adjusted the service categories for ranking purposes. We changed the meta-data, again using information we’d gathered during the research stage. We then began the process of uploading media content in an optimised manner and finally we added a variety of FAQs, a review, services, products, available brands, and social media links. All of which are designed to be positive ranking indicators.

Utilising the variety of tools at our disposable we went about optimising the listing in our patented manner. Once the optimisation was complete we notified Alex through email and via a call from his account manager, we made recommendations on how best the listing could be utlised post-optimisation. Alex, understanding the value of the Google My Business toolset, continues to make posts, upload media, answer questions and respond to reviews. This isn't necessary but certainly helps in the long-term and we can quite easily provide that service for customers for an additional fee.

Tracking Campaign Progress

As Ace Tyres had an existing listing prior to optimisation we have some data from before our services were employed. The following graphs compare traffic and actions from their first month and their most recent month.

You can see that there has been a huge upturn in traffic and actions on the Ace Tyres listing. Some of these multipliers reach double digits. If we move from traffic figures to ranking we can see that the listing achieved ranking in the coveted ‘local pack’. Given the competitiveness of the industry in that area this is no small feat and is likely a huge driving factor for the traffic on the listing as discussed here.

We can also see the origin of a variety of customers. For instance, despite specialising in auto services and tyres Ace received inquiries from the following:

Results

You can see from the above charts that there was an exponential increase in the traffic and actions taken on Ace Tyres’ listing. Given that the objective of this listing optimisation was to return substantial business via a digital medium, it’s safe to say this was a success. With the system’s insights we’re able to tell Alex what days he’s received calls/direction requests from the listing as well as when the listing has resulted in traffic being directed to his site. From the data gathered we noticed that there wasn’t a great conversion rate on his website (he was losing customers because of the poor design). We fixed this by creating a new website for Alex as the end point for Ace Tyres & Auto Services . As this case study is designed to explore the worth of the Google My Business optimisation product we won’t be looking into our website products however if you’d like to read more you can have a look here.

One of the pieces of data we didn’t have prior to optimisation is the customers ranking for discovery via keywords.

Conclusions

Ace Tyres was a prime candidate for optimisation. They knew exactly what their customers were looking for and needed us to help them be found for it. Not only was Alex good at what he did but he was also keen to assist us where necessary. Interaction and communication between us and our clients is key to achieving their advertising goals. The product itself was perfect due to the restrictions in Alex’s budget and time. The traffic that the listing brought then allowed Alex to invest in a website with us which now works in tandem with his listing allowing it to deliver even greater results. If you’re interested in having your listing optimised simply click here or get in touch with us. You can use our contact us form or call us on (02) 9011 7923