Online freight marketplace Truckit triples revenue and grows marketplace GMV by 400%
Discovery
Australia's largest online freight marketplace
When we started talking with Truckit one of the key things that stood out was that they were bootstrapped, revenue generating and profitable. Now, the term profit in the tech space seems to have come back in fashion recently but this was very uncommon of the times, especially for a marketplace. A business model that is notoriously difficult to build and scale. Rob had very ambitious goals to scale up the marketplace and the conversations and scope of work we planned out together focused around how we can drive consistent month over month growth in revenue and marketplace GMV (Gross Market Value). Through the discovery process with Truckit we uncovered that outside of SEO, Google Ads was the driving force for demand generation for the marketplace. Now I want to provide a quick shout out to Rob here as even to this date he is one of the only founders that we have met that was able to scale up a Google Ads account to the size he had on his own without any outside help. It’s very rare that we meet founders who are as dangerous at Google Ads as Rob. With that being said, through a Google Ads Performance Review of his account we uncovered massive opportunities for scale. As is often the case with any marketplace we collaborate with, the most significant challenge was comprehending the intricacies of how supply and demand interrelate and their impact on our paid advertising initiatives.
The Partnership
Rob made it clear from the start of the partnership that he was looking for advice and consultancy beyond performance marketing. One of the deciding factors in moving forward with farsiight was our deep expertise and understanding of marketplace businesses. He saw great value in having a partner onboard who he could soundboard business problems with. Here’s Truckits’ Founder and CEO Rob’s two cents on how things kicked off – “They’re good people. When I made the decision, it was more about the people than knowing their ability. The two founders—who we originally engaged—are top people. They were aligned with my perspectives beyond the PPC campaigns. Their team has been motivated about growing their own business as well, so they’ve been a good fit.” Beyond the shared interests in marketplaces and working together to grow Truckit there was an immediate cultural connection between Rob and our team. Rob was quick to execute as were we and both sides valued open and honest communication which allowed everyone to solve problems faster.
The Process
Upon auditing the Google Ads account, we uncovered a significant opportunity that would allow Rob to scale more profitably. The account was running a basic structure, with majority of ad spend running through a single campaign and little control over where budget was being distributed. Truckit's versatility in serving so many categories within freight and logistics presented a vast scope for expansion. As part of our onboarding process, we conducted a thorough analysis of each category to determine the average transaction value and set specific targets at the category level. We realised that not all categories carry equal weight. For example, the transaction value for transporting heavy machinery differs significantly from that of moving a motorbike. Consequently, we devised a tailored strategy that factors in the unique needs of each category.
Here are a sample of the other tasks we carried out over the course of our three year engagement with Truckit: - Frequent testing of ad copy to find a balance between high CTR (for scaling) and high ROAS. We found while some assets were impactful at increasing the volume of traffic, it conversely impacted conversion rate and subsequently ROAS. - Granular retargeting to advertise unique messaging at the category level based on how recently they visited the site (7, 14, 21, 30 days) - Regular Automated bidding experiments - We worked with the developers to roll out landing page experiments to increase post-click conversion rate
Working with Truckit for several years taught us the importance of critically analysing performance trends and looking beyond the ad platforms. The marketplace had numerous variables and moving parts that could change daily, leading to fluctuations in the ad campaign's performance. Additionally, external factors like the weather, COVID, school holidays, and many others had a similar effect.
The Performance
Collaborating with a dynamic and enthusiastic leader like Rob, who worked tirelessly to expand organic channels and provide us with greater capacity to scale paid initiatives, enabled us to achieve remarkable performance together.
+%
Year or Year Growth in Revenue
+%
Year on Year Average Increase in ROAS
Meet the Team
There might be two i’s in farsiight but there is no i in team. To produce the best outcomes possible for our brands we work as an integrated team of specialists.
The team loved working with Rob given that he was local to Brisbane. We’d often meet face-to-face to discuss marketplace insights, performance, strategy and key next steps. There was never a dull moment working on this account, and that’s what the team loved most about working on Truckit.
Thiago Pires
Senior Performance Manager
Josh Somerville
Co-Founder
Arianna Cimei
Creative Designer
What Truckit had to say about the outcome
They’re good people. When I made the decision, it was more about the people than knowing their ability. The two founders—who we originally engaged—are top people. They were aligned with my perspectives beyond the PPC campaigns. Their team has been motivated about growing their own business as well, so they’ve been a good fit.
Robert Russell
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