Roadmapping 140% Revenue Growth for Ironman 4x4 America

Preface

Logical Position proudly clinched a Gold Stevie Award in the esteemed Marketing Campaign of the Year – Automotive – Vehicles category, recognizing our outstanding efforts as showcased in this case study.

Ironman 4×4 America is a subsidiary of Australian automotive manufacturer of aftermarket shocks, suspensions, lift-kits, and ancillary accessories like racks and tents. With products engineered to endure some of the most rugged terrain on the planet, the company has won favor with heavy-duty vehicle enthusiasts, security companies, and governmental military divisions all across the world. However, their brand in North America had lagged behind their industry reputation across Europe and AMEA, signaling an opportunity for the business to occupy additional market share.

Key Metrics

140%

Revenue Growth Year-Over-Year

25.5%

Increase in ROAS

89.5%

Increase in Conversion Rate

Leveraging the Partnership

Prior to purchasing the distribution rights to Ironman 4×4 America, co-owner and CEO, Luke Schnacke, worked with LP as the head of global marketing for a European sportswear outfitter. From that experience, Schnacke understood the growth potential of a well-executed e-commerce strategy and used those insights in the pursuit of his next business opportunity. He was drawn to Ironman as an outdoor enthusiast and saw massive potential for the brand with LP as his go-to marketing agency. So in 2019, he acquired the distribution rights from the Australian manufacturer and quit his day job.

“Logical Position has been instrumental to our success as a business. Consistently meeting and exceeding sales and conversion goals that specifically align with our inventory and fulfillment targets. When it comes to cross-channel campaign management, with respect to digital marketing, the team at LP has no problem taking the wheel and navigating new territories.”

— Luke Schnacke, CEO of Ironman 4×4 America

Business Challenge

When the current owners acquired the North American brand rights, Ironman 4×4 generated a meager $250K in annual sales revenue. The current ownership, equipped with a keen understanding of the eCommerce landscape, acquired the business with the intention of revitalizing their direct-to-consumer sales channels and capitalizing on the booming automotive accessories market in the Americas.

Building the Brand

At the time, the brand was underrepresented and the business needed to make a sizable investment in reliable product inventory. But first, they needed to benchmark sales metrics and establish attainable growth targets alongside the long term goals. So they leveraged Logical Position (LP) to develop a strategy to sustainably grow brand awareness specifically for Ironman 4×4 America. Together we determined an initial goal of 2.5x return on ad spend (ROAS) as the minimum viable target and our team got to work testing various creative assets to find what resonated with their audience. The results opened the door to a full-funnel omnichannel campaign across social, search, SEO, and email marketing.

Getting Started

The original objective was simple: revamp the website from a user experience perspective and build an online presence from the bottom of the funnel up. We optimized the site for conversions to decrease cart abandonments and drive purchases. We used historical data to segment campaigns and allocated ad-spend to top performers to populate new SKUs in the Shopping feed and target buyers more likely to convert.

Low Funnel Acquisition

By starting with existing demand we were able to capitalize on the least expensive acquisition cost and funnel that marketing revenue back into the supply side of the business. This provided revenue to launch new product categories and expand the offering with cross-sell opportunities.

Land and Expand

Our “land and expand” strategy stabilized revenue so we could afford to build brand awareness and drive traffic to the site. Next, our team targeted prospects higher up the sales funnel on YouTube with impressive overland videos featuring the top vehicles in the industry using Ironman products.

Doing More With Less

By the start of 2022, Covid stimulus money was waning and peak search volume for Ironman products had hit its apex the previous year in March of 2021. Nevertheless, sitewide revenue was up 23.43% by year-end despite a 19% decrease in sitewide traffic (and 33.8% from PPC). Looking back at the last two years, those numbers have swelled in period over period comparisons.

Product Upsells

Our team focused paid media acquisition on higher-price point items to grow average order value and bolster returns. Then used the additional revenue to launch SEO and Email Marketing services under LP management to solidify a full-funnel omnichannel approach.

The following campaign buckets achieved the corresponding objectives:

• Search and Shopping—defend branded search terms and dominate the Shopping feed
• Audience Campaigns—grow brand awareness via YouTube and Gmail
• Brick and Mortar—geo-based campaigns to drive foot traffic with convenient access to product installations

Tips to Achieve Similar Results

• Aligned interest and behavior-based look-alike audiences on Meta with Google to introduce the brand to new people.
• New product promotions to drive awareness
• Location-based campaigns in partnership with Toyota dealerships

Using contacts from branded search terms we targeted lookalike audiences in prospecting campaigns on search and social. Our SEO strategy ensured brand longevity with hyper-relevant keywords while galvanizing site authority through a backlink strategy to send additional signals to search engines and expand our overall web presence. Last but not least, email marketing shored up repeat purchases and cross-sell opportunities.

The partnership between Ironman 4×4 America and LP has been the ultimate catalyst in this success story. By trusting the process and continually working through solutions, we’ve been able to sustain success for the business and continue propelling the brand to new heights both on and off digital platforms.