Circle K Local SEO & Marketing Campaign Case Study

Circle K

Circle K Local SEO & Marketing Campaign Case Study

Circle K is one of the largest convenience store and gas station companies in the world, with stores throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The Circle K company comprises of many brands, including Mac's, Couche-Tard, Kangaroo Express, On the Run, Holiday Stationstores, Flash Foods, Corner Store, and more.

Marketing Bangkok was hired to manage Circle K's first ever Local SEO campaign for all of the Circle K North American stores. The campaign involved several important tasks, including the management of the local Search Engine Optimization for over 7,300 individual stores and each store’s data throughout the internet. Prior to hiring Marketing Bangkok, Circle K had no previous coordinated SEO campaign and a very fragmented online presence.

Marketing Bangkok’s Responsibilities
  • Develop a Search Engine Optimization marketing strategy that would work best for their company and various brands.
  • Oversee the execution of our on-site Search Engine Optimization plan for their network of websites that includes the corporate and store locator websites.
  • Execute local SEO strategy to improve rankings and search performance.
  • Manage the data for over 7,300 individual stores on Google My Business and on other platforms such as Facebook, Bing, Foursquare, and Yelp.
  • Optimize the listing information of over 7,300 businesses and increase their search visibility.
  • Monitor and fix data inaccuracies and errors across the web for individual locations.
  • Manage the online reviews left by customers on Circle K Google My Business locations.

 

The Results

The campaign kicked off in September 2017, and by January 2018 we already started recording great year-on-year growth from our efforts.

The below screenshot shows the clicks to CircleK.com from Google Search within Google Search Console (a tool provided by Google to monitor and manage your website on Google Search). From January 2018 - June 2018, you can see the significant increase of clicks growing each month.

To respect our client’s privacy, specific numbers and figures have been hidden.

 

The campaign throughout 2018 was a huge success. We were able to optimize and get the most online engagement and web traffic to Circle K locations that they’d ever had. Heading into 2019, the second year of the campaign, we knew it was going to be a challenge to improve upon the impressive results we generated in 2018.

The below screenshot looks at the first quarter of 2019 and compares it to the same period in 2018 within Google Search Console. Looking at January 2019 - March 2019 compared to January 2018 - March 2018, there was a 48% increase in clicks from Google Search to the CircleK.com website. The dotted line represents 2018, and the solid line represents 2019. This shows that we were able to continue online growth even in the second year of the campaign.

To respect our client’s privacy, specific numbers and figures have been hidden.

 

Google My Business Results

Not only were there more clicks from Google Search to the CircleK.com website, but there was a huge increase in engagement with each Google My Business location. The most important factor in any local SEO campaign is the performance of the locations on Google My Business. Google My Business is the platform where businesses location data is managed. When users perform localized searches on Google or Google Maps, data from Google My Business will be shown to them.

The following metrics are tracked within Google My Business, and the date range for the comparison is January 1, 2017 – June 30, 2017 (pre-campaign) vs January 1, 2018 - June 30, 2018 (9 months into the SEO campaign).

circle k google map

150%

Increase in visibility on Google Maps

circle k google search

130%

Increase in visibility on Google Search

circle k monitor

105%

Increase in website visits

circle k google search

250,000+

More phone calls

circle k google search

500,000+

More requests for directions on Google Maps locations.

How was Marketing Bangkok able to achieve such amazing results?

Marketing Bangkok may be a small agency from Bangkok, but with over 10 years of experience working on countless campaigns, both locally and internationally, we have built a deep pool of experience in online marketing. Starting back in 2009, Search Engine Optimization has been our core service and what we most pride ourselves on being the authority in. Not just any agency can manage the local SEO campaign for over 7,300+ locations, internationally. However, utilizing our skills and experience, we were able to execute the perfect SEO campaign, with amazing measurable results.

To work on such a large scale, we used our own custom-developed proprietary web application, Local Listings Manager. This web application communicates with dozens of API's like Google My Business, Bing Places, and Facebook, to name a few. It gives us the ability to manage thousands of individual locations from within one platform while monitoring for data inaccuracies and other issues.

Local Listings Manager web application, used to manage and optimize multiple locations online.

 

One of the first steps we took when starting the campaign was to work with the Circle K IT team to fix and optimize their existing websites and store locators. The store locator acts as the landing page for every location. Part of this process was to make sure that correct information was being displayed and correct schema was being used to identify things like addresses and phone numbers. We also explained other major SEO ranking factors to the client’s IT team to help with the overall on-site SEO.

 

Once the foundation of a well-optimized store locator was in place, the next step was to verify the location data. This was a lengthy process, as Circle K's location data was fragmented at the time; some locations were missing an online presence while others had incorrect information. Working with the Circle K team, we were able to get every store online, with correct information. Using Local Listings Manager, we are able to then take a dynamic location feed from Circle K to compare their master location feed to our Google My Business and other online business listing data. When data discrepancies are found, we are able to push updates out to all the locations.

Local Listings Manager data accuracy and verification check.

 

Conclusion

Circle K's local Search Engine Optimization marketing campaign has been a very rewarding experience for the Marketing Bangkok team. With thousands of man-hours in planning and executing the campaign, we were able to achieve amazing results and help Circle K see the benefits and potential of online marketing. The campaign has allowed us to once again prove our agency’s expertise in local marketing and Search Engine Optimization on a global scale.

Client testimonial

Our partnership with Marketing Bangkok started in 2017. We were looking for a partner who could help us define our SEO strategy. Over the past two years, the team has put in place a robust strategy to maximize the visibility of our 8,000 stores across North America. The results so far have been impressive. In addition to it, the team always puts the client’s needs first and it’s a real pleasure collaborating with them. They have become an extension of our team.

Marie-Christine N.
Manager Global Brands, Circle K