Xtra Lease

Transportation Industry Leader Selects WebVisible, Inc. as Most Effective for Interactive Marketing Services

When it comes to transporting goods and materials of grand proportions, companies of all shapes and sizes rely on the expertise and services of XTRA Lease. Founded in 1992 when two regional companies merged into one national company – and now with 75 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada – XTRA Lease is a leading provider of semi-trailer equipment rental, leasing and sales, with a fleet of nearly 100,000 trailers including dry vans, refrigerated trailers, storage vans, flatbeds, container chassis and other specialty equipment.

In 2001, XTRA Lease became a member of the Berkshire Hathaway family of companies, headed by investor Warren Buffet. The company’s customers range from large private fleets like Walmart, UPS and Pepsi Co., to logistics companies, truckload carriers, freight transporters, local shipping operations, owner-operators and others.

For years, XTRA Lease has promoted its business through a myriad of traditional advertising media channels. As the Internet has become a more prominent tool for lead generation, however, email and search engine marketing have joined the mix. Today, XTRA Lease relies on WebVisible to help them make the maximum impact online. But that wasn’t always the case.

Remaining Vigilant of Campaign Metrics and Goals

Prior to working with WebVisible, XTRA Lease had been utilizing the search engine marketing services of an outside agency. But, as XTRA Lease marketing manager, Kelly Steinbach remembers, the service provided was not the most beneficial or profitable with regard to the company’s goals. “There were several challenges with our previous SEM program,” says Steinbach. “Campaigns were managed manually and as a result, were undermanaged – the results were far less than stellar. There wasn’t a campaign management console available and reporting consisted of rudimentary Excel spreadsheets e-mailed to us once a month. The keyword list we were working with was insufficient and the monthly ad spend was not suitable for a company of our breadth and capacity. Additionally, conversion reporting was diluted, and ROAS was non-existent. When I first joined XTRA Lease, I was unimpressed with their SEM campaign results but excited to take the campaign in a new direction.”

Driving More Business with Less Budget

Steinbach knew that in order for XTRA Lease to win amongst their competition online, they needed a new approach to SEM. After evaluating WebVisible’s services, two things stood out to Steinbach as being critical to XTRA Lease’s campaign successes after their previous experiences: First, the fact that WebVisible provided not only automated campaign management services, but a live account manager as well, and second, the WebVisible Merchant Center. “I’ve managed PPC campaigns manually before bid management tools were common, and I’ve managed campaigns via automated platforms and through agencies who used bid management tools; I knew that automation was the way to go,” says Steinbach.

“The WebVisible Merchant Center and reporting functionality is robust and the ability to see how my campaign is performing anytime was a key deciding factor,” Steinbach continued. “I use all of the activity reports on a regular basis for things like reviewing keyword performance, connection rate, ad variation stats, etc. The dashboard is awesome as it gives me a campaign performance overview in one quick snapshot, and from there I can drill down and get as granular as I need to. I use the dashboard to provide high-level campaign stats to my colleagues regularly, and the report center when I need to produce my detailed monthly reports.”

Create a Profitable Campaign

“The campaign management monthly fees were a no brainer. Other SEM agencies charge a pretty penny to manage your PPC campaigns via automated campaign management technology,” says Steinbach. “WebVisible offers a very affordable option. Plus, combined with their top-notch features and the fact that they have experience working with a hefty list of large, well-known clients made my decision an easy one.”

For XTRA Lease, strategy is of the utmost importance in their online advertising efforts. So Steinbach developed a new list of relevant keywords and catalogued them within 10 editorial groups using two dozen ad variations. WebVisible took this information and put it to work within their Geneva platform. These campaign changes have meant increased visibility for XTRA Lease across the search engines and a competitive advantage that ultimately drives bottom line revenue.

Steinbach concluded, “I am a big fan of SEM – you don’t pay to show your ad, you pay when someone is interested enough to click on your ad. With SEM, we get an unlimited reach with targeted ads that are easy to refine at a moment’s notice, and it’s all 100% trackable…and what’s trackable is optimizable. At the end of the day WebVisible has delivered what they promised.”