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KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, KIA Sportage, campaign visual

KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv

Search ads on competitor and dealer queries, remarketing and Instagram with real stock: how we helped an official KIA dealer reach buyers who were still choosing a brand.

KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv came to us almost at the same time as Mercedes-Benz and Jeep. Three brands, one city and a similar approach to social media. But people bought these cars in very different ways, so each project needed its own promotion architecture.

Mercedes sold a dream and status. A KIA buyer compared models, prices and brands, decided faster and often did not yet know which showroom to visit. That is why search ads and remarketing became the core of the KIA project: be first where people compare, and bring them back when they leave to think it over.

Instagram’s role in this system was trust and presence. Posts stayed corporate and polished, built on official advertising photos of the cars. Stories worked closer to sales: they showed real cars in stock, talked about the models, invited people to the showroom and kept followers engaged with quizzes.

Search Ads and Remarketing for an Official KIA Dealer

Client: KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, an official KIA dealer in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Industry: automotive, volume segment.
Our work: Google search ads, remarketing, Instagram content, support for dealership events, targeted ads.

The Task: A Brand People Compare

KIA buyers behave differently from premium buyers. They compare models, prices and brands, they decide faster, and they rarely arrive already convinced. The best-selling models were the ones with the clearest value: the very affordable Rio, the Optima and the Sportage. The task was to reach people at the moment they were choosing, not only those who already knew they wanted a KIA.

KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, Instagram feed
KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, Instagram feed
KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, Instagram feed

The Strategy: Be There While the Buyer Decides

For Mercedes-Benz UkrAvto Kharkiv, a dealership of the same group, we built a strategy around the brand's heritage and emotion. For KIA we did almost the opposite. The work was built around the moment of choice: the model, the price, what was actually in stock and how to get to the showroom. The channels were arranged as one path: search ads caught people who were comparing, the website gave them the details, remarketing brought back those who left to think it over, and Instagram kept the dealer visible with real cars and real events.

KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, Instagram feed
KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, Instagram feed

Search Ads: Catching Buyers Who Were Still Choosing

Google search ads became the strongest channel of the project. We ran campaigns on the dealer's own name and on queries about competing brands and dealers, a standard practice in automotive search advertising. People who were still unsure which brand to choose saw a clear offer for a specific KIA model and came to the dealer's website to compare. The dealer was consistently satisfied with what search advertising brought in.

KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, Instagram feed
KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, Instagram feed

Remarketing: Bringing Back Those Who Left to Think

A car is rarely bought on the first visit. Many visitors looked at a model, left and kept thinking. Remarketing banners picked them up again with the models and offers they had already seen, so that when they returned to the decision, the dealer was the first name in front of them.

KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, Instagram feed
KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, Instagram feed

Instagram: Official News and Real Cars in Stock

Most published posts were based on KIA's official press releases about new models and updates. Stories did a different job: they showed real photographs of the cars available at the dealership and ran quizzes that kept followers engaged. We also supported the dealership's offline events, so that the account reflected what was actually happening in the showroom. Targeted ads were used only minimally: for this brand, Instagram worked roughly as it did for Mercedes, while search ads carried most of the sales effect.

KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, post design
KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, post design
KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, post design
KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, post design

Same Type of Client, Opposite Strategy

Seen next to the Mercedes-Benz UkrAvto Kharkiv case, this project shows why we do not copy one scheme from client to client. Both were official dealers of the same group in the same city. The premium brand needed a story about the dream; the volume brand needed to be present at the moment of comparison. Same industry, same city, two different systems.

How this communication fits into everything else a dealership runs, from inventory and CRM to service and the next purchase, we describe in the article The Customer Sees a Car Catalog. The Business Runs a Lifecycle System.

KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, post design
KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, post design

Results

  • KIA sold three to four times more easily than the premium brand.
  • Search ads were the strongest sales channel and brought buyers who were still choosing a brand to the dealer's website.
  • Remarketing returned visitors who had left to think about their purchase.
  • Instagram contributed to sales roughly as it did for Mercedes-Benz, with minimal targeted advertising.
KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, post design
KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv, post design

We do not publish exact figures for this project: we no longer have access to the original reports, and we would rather not quote numbers from memory. The conclusions above are based on our experience of the work and the dealer's feedback.

KIA UkrAvto Kharkiv social media case