Mode Rentals
How a NZ Car Rental company achieved over NZ$222K
worth of Bookings in just 6 Months
total leads across all platforms
overall ad spend
average cost per conversion
Overview
Coming to the table with virtually no paid-media footprint, our client—a boutique New Zealand car-rental specialist—needed to establish rapid online visibility and drive immediate bookings. They serve both domestic and international travelers through a streamlined booking platform, transparent pricing, and around-the-clock support, positioning themselves as a modern, hassle-free alternative to legacy rental services. Their diverse fleet—from compact city cars to rugged SUVs—caters equally to urban explorers and outdoor adventurers.
Operating in a highly competitive market dominated by well-funded incumbents, they face pronounced summer peaks followed by steep off-season declines and strong brand loyalty to established players. To overcome these structural challenges, our team needed to move quickly and cost-efficiently, ensuring sustained revenue growth through every season.
Goals
At launch, the company faced several challenges in saturated markets. Despite offering a high-quality service, they struggled with low brand visibility and were consistently outranked on search engines by dominant rental chains. Paid traffic was expensive, particularly during peak tourist seasons, and generic searches yielded low conversion rates due to weak user intent.
Additionally, their limited marketing budget created pressure to ensure every dollar spent returned measurable value. The business needed to avoid costly trial-and-error and go straight to what worked.
Their core objective was clear: increase online bookings and revenue without exceeding a tight ad spend. This meant acquiring high-intent users at scale while keeping the cost per acquisition low. Secondary goals included improving return on ad spend (ROAS), boosting brand presence in competitive search auctions, and driving performance consistency even during low-demand periods.
Approach
We started by dissecting the New Zealand car-rental market and the client’s booking funnel to uncover the most impactful moments for Google Ads. From there, we built a lean account structured around awareness, consideration, and conversion: a Performance Max campaign for broad-interest reach, targeted Search campaigns for airport and regional intent, and tightly segmented Search for ready-to-book users.
Rather than relying on automated Dynamic Search, we crafted precise keyword ad groups to maintain full control over messaging. We layered in remarketing to re-engage non-converters with timely offers and clear value propositions, and we ran weekly creative sprints—A/B testing headlines, extensions, and calls to action—to keep ads fresh and relevant.
Campaign health was monitored continuously, with underperforming keywords paused and budgets shifted toward the best-performing segments, while automated rules adjusted bids in real time. Finally, we leveraged Google’s automated bidding strategies to drive conversions and ROAS efficiently, allowing the client to scale smartly without wasted spending.
Results
Within six months, Mode Rentals had gone from a relative unknown to a credible player in New Zealand’s car rental market, delivering results rivaling even the largest incumbents.
Key Outcomes:
- 342.97 conversions generated from a cold start
- NZ$222,297 in total conversion value, with firm revenue attribution
- 9.8X ROAS on NZ$22,853.05 ad spend, showing nearly NZ$10 in return for every NZ$1 spent
- 4.84% conversion rate—outperforming the 1–2% industry norm
- 4.73% click-through rate (CTR) and NZ$2.33 average CPC, both exceeding channel benchmarks
- NZ$66.63 cost per conversion, staying well below the NZ$80 target threshold
These figures held steady even through seasonal traffic dips, confirming the strategy’s sustainability and precision. The client was able to achieve meaningful growth without inflating spending, proving that with data-led segmentation, ongoing optimizations, and purposeful execution, a startup can outmaneuver even the biggest competitors in a crowded space.
