PCI — 56% INCREASE IN WINNING BIDDER SPEND
Refined targeting to reach a more qualified audience and eliminated wasted ad spend for an Online Auction Company.
From unclear marketing impact to measurable revenue growth and improved margins.
The Challenge
PCI, an online auction company, needed to understand — and improve — the relationship between marketing investment and auction performance. Like many middle market companies, marketing was essential but impossible to measure, making confident spend allocation and clear ROI nearly out of reach.
The Situation
Marketing was operating without clear attribution to business outcomes. The result: limited visibility into what was driving bidder behavior, inefficient allocation of resources, and leadership uncertainty about marketing’s true impact. The opportunity wasn’t just better marketing — it was a better system for connecting communications directly to revenue.
The Approach
Wakeen & Company stepped in as PCI’s strategic communications partner — serving as the integrator across strategy, execution, and measurement. We conducted deep operational discovery across budgeting, workflows, and performance metrics. We defined KPIs for marketing tactics tied directly to auction outcomes, implemented tracking systems to connect communications activity to bidder behavior, and built and executed an integrated strategy across web, Meta, email, PPC, and SEO. Throughout, we provided ongoing strategic oversight aligned to long-term growth goals.
The Result
With intentional monitoring and clear measurement, communications became a driver of business performance:
- Winning bidder spend increased by an average of 56% year-over-year
- Cost per new registered bidder decreased by 20%
- Average winning bid per item reached an all-time high
- Total marketing spend decreased month-over-month
The Bottom Line
What was once viewed as a cost center became a measurable contributor to revenue growth and efficiency.
