Strategy & Approach

To achieve these goals, we implemented a full-funnel paid media strategy that utilized programmatic display, paid social, and paid search to drive new membership conversions efficiently. Our approach started by leveraging programmatic display advertising and Meta’s ad ecosystem to generate awareness and introduce potential customers to Super Star Car Wash. A key component of this strategy was the use of “Free Car Wash” coupons in both programmatic display and Meta ads. These promotions required a mobile opt-in, where prospects would immediately receive an SMS message with their unique free car wash coupon, ensuring seamless user engagement and lead generation.

To ensure we were truly reaching first-time customers, we implemented a sophisticated audience targeting and exclusion strategy. Through automated list imports and pixel audience building, we systematically excluded all previous free car wash opt-ins from seeing these ads, ensuring that only new prospects were exposed to the promotion. Additionally, existing members were excluded from this campaign to maintain customer expectations and focus acquisition efforts exclusively on new users.

Once a prospect claimed a free car wash online and redeemed it in-store, they were automatically moved down our targeting funnel through a matchback process. At this stage, they transitioned from a first-time visitor to a high-priority audience segment, where they were retargeted with membership ads. This structured approach ensured that individuals experienced the service firsthand before receiving messaging about becoming a monthly member, significantly increasing conversion likelihood.

In Paid Search, we further refined our acquisition strategy with geographic bid multipliers. Our campaign dynamically adjusted bid strategies based on proximity to a Super Star Car Wash location at the time of search, ensuring that the closer a user was, the higher the bid priority—maximizing visibility for the most conversion-ready customers.

Additionally, we incorporated automated weather-based bidding in partnership with AccuWeather. Since consumer intent for car washes fluctuates based on weather conditions, our system automatically paused ads in regions experiencing inclement weather (rain, snow, high winds, dust storms) and resumed them once conditions improved. This eliminated wasted impressions in low-intent periods, ensuring that our ad spend was allocated efficiently.

Finally, we took regional segmentation a step further by breaking down each of the four states into smaller geographic zones, allowing for more localized and precise campaign management. This approach enabled better budget allocation and performance tracking, ensuring that marketing dollars were invested where they had the highest impact.

Through this highly structured and data-driven strategy, we created a seamless, multi-step journey from initial awareness to membership acquisition, continuously refining our approach based on real-time performance insights.