+25% marketing ROI across nine countries
Company Overview
Company Name
OLX Autos
Company Size
10,000+ employees
Location
Amsterdam, Netherlands (based in UK with global travel)
Lines of Business
Online Classifieds, Automotive Marketplace, B2B and D2C
Context
OLX Autos was a global online automotive business operating across nine countries under three brands: OLX Autos in most markets, OttoPlus in Turkey, and 321Sprzedane.pl in Poland. The core model was buying vehicles from consumers and dealers, certifying them, and reselling direct to consumers. In India and Indonesia, the business also operated the OLX Classifieds marketplace, where dealers could buy and sell directly on the platform. Marketing was fully decentralised, fragmented across brands and markets. Brand architecture was unclear and inconsistent. Performance marketing effectiveness and efficiency were both low, and there was no reliable way to connect marketing spend to commercial outcomes. At the same time, the business was planning rapid expansion into new markets. The CEO brought me in to transform and optimise marketing globally, review the brand architecture, and build the capabilities to support expansion with maximum effectiveness and efficiency.
Background
I joined as Chief Marketing Officer in September 2022, reporting directly to the CEO. The original brief was broad: transform a fragmented, inconsistent marketing operation into a high-performing global function while enabling rapid international expansion. Four months into my appointment, the company owners decided to sell the business. My brief shifted fundamentally. The focus moved from expansion to rapidly improving marketing effectiveness and efficiency to maximise the value of the company ahead of sale. I was then asked to stay on as part of the executive team that led the transaction. We ended up breaking the company apart and selling it market by market, which ultimately meant my role ceased to exist in October 2023.
Actions Taken
Actions Taken: This engagement touched strategy, brand, growth marketing, operating models, and talent. I completed a full review of the OLX Autos brand architecture across the three brands and nine markets, and made recommendations for changes to the existing brand architecture strategy. I reorganised the marketing function and reduced the workforce by 30%, removing duplication and inefficiency across the three brands and nine markets. I completely re-engineered how we measured marketing effectiveness and return on investment, with an initial focus on performance marketing. I established a centre of excellence for performance marketing, standardised the sales funnel, standardised all definitions, standardised and centralised reporting, and built a connection between online sales and offline sales so we could measure true ROI for the first time.
I then implemented new policies and solutions to eliminate fraud, particularly in affiliate and display channels. With those foundations in place, we could fully optimise performance marketing investment across all markets. Critically, this new ROI measurement capability also transformed our purchasing strategy. For the first time, we could see the true profit on every car relative to our marketing investment. We could identify which vehicles sold quickly at higher margins and which required disproportionate marketing spend to shift. This changed the nature and composition of the cars we bought, reshaping our portfolio and fundamentally redirecting where we put our marketing investment.
We completed significant conversion rate optimisation on both the front and back of site. The core OLX Autos model was straightforward: we bought vehicles from consumers and dealers, reviewed and repaired them, provided certification, and sold them direct to consumers. In India and Indonesia, we also operated the full OLX Classifieds business alongside Autos, which added a marketplace dimension where dealers could buy and sell directly on the platform. Marketing had to serve both models effectively in those markets, which added significant complexity.
The biggest improvements came in India and Indonesia, with a significant uplift in cost effectiveness in Mexico.
Results
Marketing ROI improved by 25% within 12 months. Costs were reduced by 30% across an operation turning over approximately £1 billion, without sacrificing growth. The marketing function went from fragmented across three brands and nine countries to centralised, standardised, and commercially accountable. The efficiency and effectiveness improvements contributed directly to the value of the business ahead of its market-by-market sale. I remained as part of the executive leadership team throughout the sale process.