Mercedes-Benz Turkey needed to engage with commercial van customers who are ready to move quickly in making purchases, but its existing infrastructure for following up on leads caused significant delays. Finding a fast, effective communications channel to help generate leads and get them on the road as new van-owners became essential.
Mercedes-Benz Turkey needed to engage with commercial van customers who are ready to move quickly in making purchases, but its existing infrastructure for following up on leads caused significant delays. Finding a fast, effective communications channel to help generate leads and get them on the road as new van-owners became essential.
As a household automotive brand, Mercedes-Benz Turkey offers a range of vehicle types. By the time a customer in Turkey reaches out to inquire about a commercial van, they’re usually ready to purchase. Moving that customer from an interested party to a new owner of a Sprinter, Vito, or V-Class van required Mercedes-Benz Turkey to consider the fastest ways of attracting leads and getting them to take the keys.
The company used digital campaigns in their social media properties to entice customers behind the wheel, but the existing infrastructure for lead development involved filling out online forms and waiting for call center agents to follow-up. The whole process could take up to two days, too long for customers ready to hit the road on the same day. To help improve time to qualify leads and conversion rates, the company needed an accelerated way to communicate with customers.
Mercedes-Benz Turkey chose WhatsApp Business Platform because it is already one of the most widely used communications channels across Turkey. Through WhatsApp, customers can engage directly and instantly to get the latest details about buying commercial vans.
The platform offers the desired flexibility to develop hybrid workflows involving multiple channels, intelligent bots, and real-life agents, so with partner ZZG Tech they created customized workflows to capture data around three distinct campaigns over one month. The business-as-usual campaign, the company’s current approach to lead generation; the ads that click to WhatsApp campaign that relied on direct WhatsApp engagements; and the combined business-as-usual + ads that click to WhatsApp campaign assessing how both approaches work in tandem. Mercedes Turkey’s media agency, OMD Turkey was also a crucial partner in capturing measurement activations.
Through the highly adaptable WhatsApp integrations with the Conversions API (CAPI)—designed to securely bridge marketing data—the company established clear, reliable connections between marketing events and campaigns with customer actions. By leveraging WhatsApp Business Platform to support its campaigns, Mercedes-Benz realized the combined campaign was the most successful, with 63 percent of customers taking the next steps toward a purchase. The combined campaign with WhatsApp also yielded over 300 new leads and more than 100 qualified leads.
Digital Marketing Coordinator
“Integrating WhatsApp Business Platform into our traditional marketing and sales channels lets us meet customers’ needs for fast, direct communication,” says Nergis Sevinc, Digital Marketing Coordinator.
Through the combined campaign, Mercedes-Benz tested six ads oriented around distinct customer appeals, such as vehicle capabilities and overall customer journey. Between its dynamic messaging, ease of use for customers, and powerful automation, the business-as-usual + ads that click to WhatsApp approach cultivated 93 percent more incremental conversions compared to the company’s traditional business as usual model and created the greatest overall campaign awareness in customers. Adopting the hybrid model with WhatsApp Business Platform also provided the lowest cost of conversion.
With the customized workflows, Mercedes-Benz can use the integrations with WhatsApp to refine its targeting and tailor its outreach to specific audiences, while maintaining faster conversions. In one month, the ads that click to WhatsApp campaign contributed to the sales of five Vito vans, and Mercedes-Benz is increasing its focus on the Sprinter vans to better align with its current sales goals. ZZG Tech partnered to enable the customization through the WhatsApp Business Platform which allowed Mercedes-Benz to become the first automotive client in the region to optimize their WhatsApp lead generation spend to improve ROI, by tracking and optimizing for dealer outcomes using the Conversion API.
Based on its success in getting more vans on the roadway, Mercedes-Benz Turkey wants to expand the use of WhatsApp Business Platform to support more channels across more dealerships. The company is already exploring the reply buttons feature on WhatsApp to effectively direct customer questions about prospective vehicles. As Mercedes-Benz Turkey accelerates its use of WhatsApp Business Platform, the road to more lead generation and better customer relationships remains open.
“With WhatsApp Business Platform, we've enabled more impactful support, improved responsiveness, and gotten more people behind the wheel of our elite commercial vans,” says Serhat Yaka, Communications Team Manager.
The virtual assistant offers Information on specific pricing and payment terms about the Vito
