OpenX > Case Studies > How CarGurus Scaled Their Private Marketplace Deals for a 160% Revenue Increase

How CarGurus Scaled Their Private Marketplace Deals for a 160% Revenue Increase

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

America
Europe

Country

United States
Canada
United Kingdom

Product

OpenX Ad Exchange
OpenX SSP
OpenX Bidder
RealTime Guaranteed product

Tech Stack

Demand Automation
Private Marketplace

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Revenue Growth
Brand Awareness

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms

Applicable Industries

Automotive
Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Sales & Marketing
Business Operation

Use Cases

Demand Planning & Forecasting
Inventory Management

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Data Science Services

About The Customer

CarGurus is a leading online platform that provides consumers with information to make smart car shopping decisions. They are committed to finding progressive ways to monetize their platform and connect with buyers relevant to their shopping audience. As a premium brand, CarGurus views quality ads as content and sought to find a way to increase yield and platform automation while maintaining high ad quality. They operate in the US, Canada, and UK sites and have experienced massive impression growth over the past 18 months.

The Challenge

CarGurus, a leader in providing online consumers with information to make smart car shopping decisions, was facing a challenge in finding the right balance for their traditional IO business and programmatic business. They were looking for ways to maintain ad quality while increasing competition from buyers at scale. Over the past 18 months, CarGurus had experienced massive impression growth but struggled to optimize to the best yield and fill rates without a platform solution. They also had concerns about viewability and latency in ad load.

The Solution

CarGurus partnered with OpenX to evolve their stack and introduce demand automation. They started using OpenX Ad Exchange and then added OpenX SSP combined with OpenX Bidder. This combination helped drive more competition for each impression and leveled the playing field. To ensure that OpenX Bidder wouldn’t introduce any latency to the ad load, they tested the page with and without Bidder. OpenX also brought in a dedicated yield team to explore solutions, starting with CarGurus’ Private Marketplace deals. They suggested re-prioritizing PMP deals (through Bidder) to compete on every impression, including inventory typically reserved for other buys. CarGurus also became one of the first publishers to co-innovate with OpenX’s new RealTime Guaranteed product, which brings audience syncing, forecasting, and a volume guarantee to Private Marketplace deals.

Operational Impact

CarGurus experienced a 300% increase in OpenX-procured exchange revenue from December 2015 to March 2016.
They saw a 70% increase in mobile revenue overnight after implementing the OpenX solutions.
The implementation of OpenX Bidder helped drive more competition for each impression and leveled the playing field.
OpenX brought in a dedicated yield team to explore solutions, starting with CarGurus’ Private Marketplace deals.
CarGurus became one of the first publishers to co-innovate with OpenX’s new RealTime Guaranteed product, which brings audience syncing, forecasting, and a volume guarantee to Private Marketplace deals.

Quantitative Benefit