Rebuilt Around Pet Parents
How Mars Petcare grew search traffic by 219% by rebuilding its strategy around pet parents
+219%
search traffic YoY
+15% share of voice
leapfrogging Purina in total SoV
2.52 NSV ROI
versus a Mars media average of 1.69 across all touchpoints
About Company
Mars Petcare is one of the world's leading pet food producers, operating a portfolio of well-known sub-brands across Europe.
Company size
Enterprise
Industry
Consumer Goods & FMCG
Brainlabs featured services
Content
CRO
SEO
Paid Search
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Speak to a BrainlabberThe challenge
By 2024, Mars Petcare's search activity had stalled across Europe.
Performance was declining, the consumer journey was inconsistent across brands, and their identity in search was muddled. They were operating through fragmented brand activity rather than a unified portfolio-led strategy, which meant missing pet parents at the moments that mattered most. Mars set an ambitious goal: integrate holistic search at scale across Europe, grow search sessions by 50% year on year, improve NSV efficiency, and generate deeper consumer insights to strengthen the entire digital ecosystem.
Key friction points:
- Fragmented brand activity with no unified portfolio-led search strategy
- Inconsistent consumer journey across sub-brands weakening overall search identity
- No clear definition of site versus retailer roles, creating overlap and missed opportunity
- Search performance declining at a time when pet-parent behaviour was increasingly digital
Our approach
1. Mapping the full pet-parent journey at scale
We rebuilt Mars' search strategy from the ground up, starting with behaviour. Analysing over 16 billion digital signals from search and social demand across the full pet-parent journey, we identified key pain points and mapped content and campaigns to meet needs at every stage. We also defined clear swimlanes between Mars and its retail partners, enabling retailers to win transactional terms while Mars owned longer-tail conversational terms and engaged pet parents earlier in the journey.
2. Implementing precision targeting and account structure
We introduced D'Artagnan account structures and launched PMax across the portfolio, delivering an NSV ROI of 2.52 against a Mars media average of 1.69 in H2 2024. The unified, portfolio-led approach replaced fragmented brand activity with a scalable system built around real consumer behaviour.
3. Scaling content and preparing for AI search
We used Brainbriefs to improve content creation efficiency, delivering 425 pieces of content across four markets, an 85% increase year on year, while reducing content timelines fivefold. Consistent technical website health ensured new content performed from day one. We also began preparing Mars for the AI search frontier, securing early wins in AI Overviews and developing an AI-ready search measurement framework.
We rebuilt Mars' search strategy from the ground up, starting with behaviour. Analysing over 16 billion digital signals from search and social demand across the full pet-parent journey, we identified key pain points and mapped content and campaigns to meet needs at every stage. We also defined clear swimlanes between Mars and its retail partners, enabling retailers to win transactional terms while Mars owned longer-tail conversational terms and engaged pet parents earlier in the journey.
2. Implementing precision targeting and account structure
We introduced D'Artagnan account structures and launched PMax across the portfolio, delivering an NSV ROI of 2.52 against a Mars media average of 1.69 in H2 2024. The unified, portfolio-led approach replaced fragmented brand activity with a scalable system built around real consumer behaviour.
3. Scaling content and preparing for AI search
We used Brainbriefs to improve content creation efficiency, delivering 425 pieces of content across four markets, an 85% increase year on year, while reducing content timelines fivefold. Consistent technical website health ensured new content performed from day one. We also began preparing Mars for the AI search frontier, securing early wins in AI Overviews and developing an AI-ready search measurement framework.
The results
Mars Petcare didn't just hit its 50% search growth target, it blew past it. The performance was also the reason Brainlabs was the only agency to retain any Mars business outside of Publicis following a competitive pitch.
Since working with Brainlabs:
Since working with Brainlabs:
- 219% increase in search traffic year on year, more than four times the original growth target
- 15% increase in share of voice, overtaking Purina in total SoV
- 1.5x the Mars media average in NSV ROI, at 2.52 versus a benchmark of 1.69
- 425 pieces of content delivered across four markets, at 85% more volume and five times the speed
+219%
search traffic YoY
+15% share of voice
leapfrogging Purina in total SoV
2.52 NSV ROI
versus a Mars media average of 1.69 across all touchpoints
