Our client is a major multi-brand dealership group operating in Rosario, Córdoba and Buenos Aires. It runs more than 15 active Meta Ads and Google Ads accounts simultaneously — one per brand and commercial line, across new cars, used cars and savings plans — plus in-house SEO on 5 of the group's domains.
The engagement covered eight months of reporting, from October 2025 to May 2026. It started with a broken measurement infrastructure and ended by scaling demand on two platforms at once, then cutting spend without giving up a single quality lead.
- In 8 months, Meta Ads leads multiplied by 8.3 (from 1,134 to 9,439) while cost per lead dropped 57%.
- With demand already scaled on both platforms, spend fell 33% without cost per lead climbing back up.
- The group's in-house SEO moved average Google position from 13.6 to 7.5 across its best months, adding traffic that does not depend on paid media.
The challenge: four simultaneous workstreams
In October, several of the group's brands had no conversion tagging, others had security policies (CSP) blocking tracking altogether, and several billing accounts were frozen. Before optimising any channel, measurement had to work.
With that front resolved, three more remained across the eight months: scaling lead generation on Meta Ads and Google Ads at the same time, brand by brand, to feed more than 15 commercial accounts; sustaining that demand on a monthly budget that had to decline steadily from March without sacrificing commercial flow; and building organic positioning across the group's 5 sites, so a growing share of demand would not depend on ad spend.
- Technical stabilisation — Fixing tagging, security headers, billing accounts and Search Console in October: the groundwork required before optimising any channel.
- Meta Ads — Full campaign rebuild, integration with WhatsApp Business and Kommo, and continuous cost-per-lead optimisation from October onward.
- Google Ads — Scaling with an intent focus: growing spend while prioritising Search over Display to capture high purchase intent.
- SEO — Ongoing positioning work across the group's 5 domains, improving average position and CTR to win traffic that does not depend on ads.
Meta Ads: scaling and getting more efficient at the same time
Between October and January, the group's consolidated Meta Ads account —its highest-volume channel— was the only one with clean data from the start: while Google Ads was fixing its measurement problems, Meta was already scaling with improving efficiency month over month.
Leads went from 1,134 in October to 9,439 in January — 732% growth. Over the same period, cost per lead fell 57%, from $13,936 to $6,044 (ARS). December marked the period's all-time peak, with 15,172 leads at a $7,192 CPL.
Google Ads: the cost of scaling demand
November was the first month with reliable measurement across the whole Google Ads account. Between November and February, leads grew 39%, from 2,942 to 4,100, while spend rose 87% (from $7.6M to $14.2M ARS) — a controlled 34% increase in cost per lead to sustain the growth.
December was the midpoint: $8.64M invested and 2,934 leads at a $2,946 CPL — the account was already scaling steadily before February.
Less spend, more efficiency — and SEO in parallel
With demand already scaled on both platforms, the focus between March and May shifted to efficiency across the group's consolidated account. Total ad spend fell 33%, from $128.8M to $85.9M (ARS), and cost per lead did not merely hold: it improved 7.4%, from $10,729 to $9,939. Those three months generated 30,768 leads. This was not stability — it was sustained improvement: every month the budget went down, cost per lead went down too, thanks to reallocation between brands and continuous optimisation of the Search/Display mix.
In parallel, the group's in-house SEO delivered consistent results: average Google position improved from 13.6 to 7.5 in the period's best months, with CTR peaks above 50% on some "used car" searches and position gains across several of the group's brands.
Over eight months of joint work, the group rebuilt its measurement infrastructure, scaled Meta Ads by multiplying leads 8.3× while cost per lead dropped 57%, scaled Google Ads at a controlled cost to then sustain a three-month efficiency phase, and added an organic traffic source that no longer depends on paid media.
The numbers, end to end
|
Metric |
Before |
After |
|---|---|---|
|
Meta Ads leads (Oct → Jan) |
1,134 |
9,439 (+732%) |
|
Cost per lead, Meta Ads |
$13,936 |
$6,044 (-57%) |
|
Google Ads leads (Nov → Feb) |
2,942 |
4,100 (+39%) |
|
Total spend (Mar → May) |
$128.8M |
$85.9M (-33%) |
The same pattern repeats on both platforms: first you scale demand, then you make it efficient. Meta Ads closed both stages at once; Google Ads laid the groundwork to do it between March and May.