Audi's dynamic creative

The Goals

Promote a highly customizable car through personalized ad messaging

The Approach

Took advantage of seamless integration between DoubleClick Studio, DoubleClick Bid Manager and DoubleClick Campaign Manager
Targeted key audiences based on interest in Audi or intention to buy a car
Remarketed to previous site visitors with dynamic creative ads

The Results

Data-driven marketing in general led to 4x the efficiency of traditional media bookings
Google in-market segments outperformed comparable data providers for Audi’s goal of completed configurations
Dynamic creative ads delivered double the efficiency of standard ads in a controlled A/B environment

Published June 2017

Audi was preparing to launch a new highly customizable automobile, the Q2. With the car providing an unrivaled personal experience, Audi believed it was important for the accompanying marketing to be personalized too. The goal was to create a campaign that would live up to the brand’s slogan “Vorsprung durch Technik”, which translates to “Advancement through Technology”.

In order to make this aspiration a reality, the Audi marketing team needed to overcome a formidable challenge that faces many businesses today. All too often, data lives in silos, making it difficult to track the customer across touchpoints and throughout their entire journey. When technology platforms aren’t integrated, it leads to data loss, which limits an organisation’s ability to connect with the people that matter to them most.

One of the biggest challenges that we have, as I think most marketeers have at the moment, is that the data is still living in silos.
- Jason Lusty, Head of Marketing Germany, Audi AG

Audi realized that by moving to the DoubleClick full technology suite, they would be able to join up the touchpoints, gain better insights and produce more efficient and effective marketing. First, the team utilized several sources of data to enable effective targeting. For example, Floodlight tags on the Audi site enabled the creation of remarketing lists of previous site visitors, while Google in-market segments helped Audi discover new users whose online behavior showed that they were looking to make a car purchase.

By moving to Doubleclick we're able to manage and supervise all our digital marketing campaigns within one tool, without any data loss.
- Holger Dohmen, Digital Marketing Germany, Audi AG

A car configurator on the brand website was designed to help consumers create their dream automobile. This also enabled Audi to collect information about users’ tastes, which could then be used to dynamically drive ad creatives.

A user’s position in the sales funnel — from having had no contact with Audi through to having completed an actual configuration of the new Q2 — as well as audience signals about their preferences (such as model, color, rims and so forth) determined the content of the highly relevant ad that would be served to them. All this was possible thanks to the seamless integration between DoubleClick Studio (for creating ad variations), DoubleClick Bid Manager (for creating audiences and optimising bids) and DoubleClick Campaign Manager (for ad trafficking).

A dynamic approach allowed us to create more than 6000 variations of the ad. We were able to show the right message on all devices and all publishers.
- Stephanie Geiger, Marketing Communications Germany, Audi AG

These approaches helped secure outstanding results. Buying ads programmatically on average led to a conversion rate four times higher than ads bought via traditional ways. Having one system for all purchases allowed Audi to compare various sources in an “apples to apples” way. With Google in-market segments outperforming other data providers significantly, Audi was able to optimize their campaign accordingly.

In the last phase of audience qualification, using dynamic creative ads with the visitor’s individually configured car (one out of more than 6,000 combinations) delivered more than double the efficiency of standard ads. Based on these outcomes, Audi plans to continue using dynamic creative ads for retargeting activity going forward.

Audi designs, engineers, produces, markets and distributes luxury vehicles. Audi is a member of the Volkswagen Group, headquartered in Ingolstadt, Germany.

Driven by the company ethos "Progress through Technology", Audi strives for engineering excellence through innovative solutions and revolutionary design.

Media Lab uses data-driven creative to spark fresh interest in Chromecast

The Chromecast marketing team needed to raise awareness for a breakout product and the benefits of its innovative “casting” feature. They turned to Media Lab, Google’s in-house media team, and programmatic technology to plan and execute media for their unique streaming device.

Using public data from Google Trends, Media Lab uncovered what their audience wanted to see most, which allowed the team to craft compelling creative.

They leveraged the DoubleClick suite of programmatic, creative and analytics solutions to put story-driven ads in front of potential Chromecast adopters. With precise segmentation, they could target the right people at the right time for generating conversation.

The campaign paid off for Chromecast. Go inside Google Marketing to read the full results, and learn how Media Lab innovated with DoubleClick technology.