A New Lease Online

GOOGLE ADWORDS SUCCESS PROFILE
AdWords | Anayltics
A New Lease Online
Swapalease spends 50% of its advertising budget on Google
AdWords, combining it with Analytics to maintain a year-onyear growth rate of 25%.
Who they are
Swapalease
www.swapalease.com
 Cincinnati, Ohio
 26 employees
 Online lease transfer marketplace
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As heirs to Cincinnati’s largest automotive group, the Joseph brothers come from a
long line of car connoisseurs. Back in 1999, Richard and Ron Jr. had their hands
full running their family’s Cincinnati-based network of dealerships, but they still
jumped into action when a flash of inspiration hit them. “The idea of Swapalease
was born on the showroom floor,” says Scot Hall, executive vice president of
operations for Swapalease. “Many people coming into dealerships are trapped in a
lease, so they can’t buy a new car that day. Richard and Ron knew they could sell
more cars if only people could transfer their leases – and the Internet phenomenon
was just beginning to take off.” The Josephs decided to follow their instincts and
launched Swapalease.com.
What they needed
To drive traffic to their site
To reach a nationwide audience in
a cost-effective way
 To track signups
 To evaluate the effectiveness of
their website
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What they did
Began with Google AdWords in 2002
Tested out both general and
specific keywords
 Added Google Analytics tracking to
their website in 2006
 Used conversion tracking and Analytics
to monitor signups
 Used Analytics to monitor visitor
behavior at various stages of the
conversion cycle
 Allocated 50% of their marketing
budget to AdWords

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What they accomplished
Wider presence: Now reach
customers throughout the United
States and Canada
 Effective website: Optimized site to
reduce drop-offs and boost conversions
 Increased revenue: Year-on-year growth
of at least 25%

Lease transfers have been around as long as leases themselves, but usually occurred
between friends, family members, and neighbors. “Before Swapalease, there was no
marketplace concentrating on consumer-to-consumer,” Scot explains. “Swapalease
connects people looking to transfer their leases with interested individuals, making
sure the transaction occurs within the official guidelines of the leasing company. In
2005, we added a second service that allows dealers to advertise so people can find
the best lease offers available.”
On the highway
“When Swapalease.com first went live, we basically flipped the switch one evening
and figured that business would start rolling in,” Scot recalls. “But we didn’t get any
customers for several days – nobody knew what we did or that we even existed.”
With their backgrounds in car sales, the Swapalease team first turned to traditional
automotive marketing channels such as billboards, print advertising, and radio
spots. “Budget was a big concern,” says Scot. “Billboards are very expensive and
it’s hard to evaluate their effectiveness, so after our initial splash in Cincinnati
we were wary of using the same approach throughout the country. While we were
© 2008 Google Inc. All rights reserved. Google and the Google logo are trademarks of Google Inc.
All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
GOOGLE ADWORDS SUCCESS PROFILE
About Google AdWords
Google AdWords™ is a performancebased advertising program that enables
businesses large and small to advertise
on Google and its network of partner
websites. Hundreds of thousands of
businesses worldwide use AdWords for
text, image, and video ads priced on
a cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-perimpression (CPM) basis. Built on an
auction-based system, AdWords is a
highly quantifiable and cost-effective way
to reach potential customers.
working on a new strategy, we noticed that much of our traffic was coming from
the organic search results on Google.com. That’s why we signed up for Google
AdWords™ in 2002. All of a sudden, we could achieve the wide presence we wanted
by targeting consumers throughout the United States and Canada.”
Keeping track
After opening an AdWords account, the Swapalease team began using conversion
tracking, a free feature that gathers conversion data for their ads and keywords. “Since
consumers pay a one-time fee to place a lease listing, our primary revenue stream is
derived from the signup side of the equation,” Scot says. “Through conversion tracking,
AdWords shows us how effective our campaigns are in terms of both traffic and
signups. It was easy to set up – we just installed some code on our website.”
For more information, visit
http://adwords.google.com
About Google Analytics
Google Analytics™ is a free, powerful web
analytics tool. It precisely tracks visitors,
referrals, search engine performance,
email promotions, and even offline
initiatives. Featuring visually enhanced
reports, Analytics helps users focus
their marketing resources, improve site
navigation, and achieve a higher ROI. It
measures the success of both AdWords
and non-AdWords advertising campaigns,
revealing which ads and keywords convert
the best. For more information, visit
For more information, visit
http://www.google.com/analytics
“AdWords is a very cost-effective way to reach a geographically
widespread audience. It’s like having a billboard in every major city.”
Scot Hall, executive vice president of operations for Swapalease
“The tracking aspect helps us improve our approach on a regular basis,” adds
Jenny, director of marketing for Swapalease. “Some of our AdWords campaigns
are divided into makes and models of cars. Others are highly specific and relate
directly to the transfer of leases, so that’s where we see the highest clickthrough and
conversion rates. As a result, we allocate more of our budget to those keywords.”
In 2006, the Swapalease signed up for Google Analytics™, a free tool that provides
comprehensive information about how visitors reach and navigate Swapalease.com.
“With Analytics, we can continue to track signups, but we can also track the entire
conversion funnel,” Scot explains. “We’ve set up a number of different goals in that
funnel, so we can see how far people get on the site and where they drop off. The
idea is to ensure that the site makes sense and that it’s easy for people to use.”
Swapalease has made a number of significant changes to its website based on data
from Google Analytics and regularly experiments with different page formats.
Virtual billboards
These days, Swapalease has between 7,000 and 9,000 lease offers at any given
time, and transfers vehicles at a faster pace than ever before. The company still
relies partly on traditional advertising but allocates roughly 50 percent of its
marketing budget to Google AdWords.
“AdWords is a very cost-effective way to reach a geographically widespread
audience,” says Scot. “Anyone with an Internet connection can find our website.
It’s like having a billboard in every major city – exactly what we couldn’t accomplish
offline. Over the past three years, we’ve experienced year-on-year growth of at least
25 percent. Our AdWords activities have been critical in the development of our
business, while Analytics has taught us how to get the most out of our budget. We’ve
come a long way from the showroom floor, and Google has helped us get there.”
© 2008 Google Inc. All rights reserved. Google and the Google logo are trademarks of Google Inc.
All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.