A Brief History of Company

Mavis is the largest U.S. automotive service company specializing in tires and vehicle maintenance.

• Overview: Founded in 1972—with roots going back to 1949—Mavis Discount Tire has grown into one of the largest independent tire dealers and automotive service providers in the U.S.

• Services: Offers a full range of services including tire sales, installation, brake repair, alignments, suspension, shocks, struts, oil changes, battery replacement, exhaust work.

• Locations & Brands: Operating around 1,200 locations across the Northeast, Midwest, and South, it runs multiple brands such as Mavis Discount Tire, Express Oil Change, Brakes Plus, Midas, Town Fair Tire, Tuffy, Action Gator, Jack Williams, and STS Tire

Marketing Evolution

Mavis, historically known for its dominance in PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, was investing millions annually to drive online visibility and customer acquisition. While this performance-driven strategy had served the company well, leadership recognized the need to diversify its marketing mix and build a more sustainable, long-term acquisition engine. That’s when I was brought in to lead the development of Mavis’s SEO channel from the ground up.

At the same time, Mavis was undergoing a significant brand evolution. The company rebranded from MavisTire to simply Mavis, signaling a move toward a more unified and modern identity. This rebrand coincided with the acquisitions of NTB  and Tire Kingdom, with a goal of consolidating all retail and digital assets under one cohesive brand ecosystem.

Beyond SEO, Mavis began building out additional in-house marketing capabilities—including programmatic advertising, email marketing —aimed at improving omnichannel performance and reducing reliance on third-party agencies. The company’s shift toward a more balanced, integrated marketing strategy represents a pivotal moment in its growth story, blending performance marketing with long-term brand building and customer retention strategies.

Traditionally, tire buyers were conditioned to walk into local shops to make a purchase or get service. Mavis, long known for its strong in-store presence and heavy investment in PPC, recognized a fundamental shift: consumers were becoming increasingly comfortable making automotive-related decisions online. The company set an ambitious goal—to drive more online reservations and ultimately increase car count at its physical locations through a seamless digital experience.

Business Goals

At Mavis the focus shifted toward building a sustainable, owned media strategy to complement its paid media dominance. The company brought me in to lead the creation of an organic acquisition engine from scratch. It was clear early on that this would require not just ranking for the right keywords, but building an ecosystem.

One of the clearest indicators of success in the retail space was our ability to significantly improve the LTV-to-CAC ratio (Customer Lifetime Value to Acquisition Cost). While much of the industry was focused on one-time transactions, it was important to understand that a single tire purchase or oil change often marked the beginning of a multi-year service lifecycle.

At the time I joined the team, there had been minimal recent investment in SEO or digital infrastructure beyond paid channels. However, everyone was aware that organic traffic acquisition could drive down CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) both in the medium and long term—and potentially even in the short term with the right execution.

After assessing the opportunity, I outlined the following key goals:

• Reduce acquisition costs by ranking for high-intent, local, and category-defining keywords.

• Build authority and trust across different stages of the buying journey.

• Use Programmatic SEO and Local SEO, driving higher repeat visit rates and stronger brand affinity.

Ultimately, programatic SEO to be one of the most cost-efficient acquisition channels. It allowed us to build long-term brand equity, reduce dependency on paid media, and scale growth with stronger margins—validating our decision to invest in owned media as a strategic pillar alongside PPC, email, and direct mail.

KPIs – The Long Game

While short-term wins in digital channels were important, long-term success was measured by sustainable performance improvements across comparable stores (comp stores). The strategy prioritized metrics that reflected not only customer acquisition, but also retention, operational efficiency, and the ability to scale revenue without relying solely on paid media.

Key Long-Term KPIs:

• Comparable Store Growth: By improving online reservation funnels, local SEO, and email-driven return visits year-over-year revenue increases across comp stores, even in flat demand cycles.

• Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): Through upsells, cross-sells, and lifecycle marketing,  average revenue per customer while reducing churn, especially within high-margin service categories.

• Customer Retention & Repeat Visits: Email nurture programs, timely service reminders, and post-service follow-ups led to higher retention rates and shorter return cycles, directly contributing to same-store sales growth.

• Digital-to-In-Store Conversion Rate: A critical KPI was the rate at which online engagements converted into actual store visits—supporting our goal of driving incremental car count per location.

This long-game, comp store-focused approach ensured that digital efforts translated into sustainable brick-and-mortar success, aligning with Mavis’s broader strategy of brand unification and omnichannel expansion.

Driving Local Leads and Conversions

One of our primary KPIs was to get more car count—specifically, measuring how effectively our digital presence was converting website visitors into high-intent service appointments at nearby Mavis locations.

Key conversion actions, including:

• Online appointment bookings for services like tire installation, oil changes, and alignments

• Click-to-call interactions from mobile users seeking immediate service

While some customers were comfortable booking services online, many still preferred to speak with a store advisor—especially when unsure about tire sizes, service scope, or bundled offers. Our strategy focused on optimizing both self-service and assisted-service pathways to reduce friction and boost conversions.

Identifying Who to Target

With our primary and secondary KPIs defined—ranging from online reservations to increased car count at physical locations— by building a detailed understanding of the customer segments most likely to convert through digital channels.

Fortunately, Mavis had access to a wealth of first-party data, including historical POS transactions, customer profiles, service history, and insights from years of high-volume PPC campaigns. This data allowed us to confidently segment and prioritize our target audience based on vehicle type, service frequency, geography, and purchasing behavior.

Unlike big-ticket or discretionary purchases, tire and automotive services are often need-based and time-sensitive, driven by factors like weather changes, vehicle safety concerns, or routine maintenance schedules. However, the motivation and behavior behind each visit varied significantly by persona.

Local Search Optimization

Local visibility was one of the most underutilized growth levers when I joined the team. Despite Mavis having hundreds of physical locations, there had been minimal investment in location pages/local SEO, leaving significant opportunity untapped in “near me” and location-based searches—high-intent queries that could drive immediate foot traffic and online reservations.

Key Initiatives:

• Location Page Overhaul:  Pages were optimized for local keywords (e.g., “tire shop in City + State”) and structured with schema markup to improve indexing and relevance in local SERPs.

• Google Business Profile Optimization:  Mavis Google Business Profile (GBP) ecosystem— data, updating categories, localized photos, activating service menus, and regularly posting updates and offers. This helped improve map pack visibility and engagement.

• Mobile UX & Speed Optimization: Recognizing that the majority of local search traffic comes from mobile, it was prioritized mobile-first design principles and reduced load times on location pages.

Site Speed and Technical SEO

Slow-loading pages can tank conversions.

 Important tasks

• Enabling browser caching

• Using a CDN for faster load times

• Removing bloated JavaScript

• Compressing large images

• Minifying CSS and JS files

• Consolidating files using sprites and cleaner code practices

The result: a faster, more accessible site that improved both UX and search engine rankings.

Strategic Site Architecture

We restructured the Mavis website using a pyramidal architecture designed to improve both user experience and search engine visibility. This streamlined structure made it easier for shoppers to find the right products and services quickly—while also ensuring that key conversion pages received maximum SEO authority.

This approach delivered several strategic benefits:

• Improved crawl efficiency, allowing search engines to index service and location pages more effectively

• Enhanced internal linking between educational content (e.g., “How to Choose the Right Tires”) and high-converting pages like product listings, installation services, and appointment booking

• Directed SEO equity (“link juice”) to the most valuable pages, including tire category pages, local store pages, and service bundles

• Simplified the information hierarchy, making it easier to map user journeys, report on performance, and track conversions at both national and local levels

Email Capture & Lead Nurturing

Lifecycle Email Series: An automated email sequence was launched, tailored to key stages of the customer lifecycle—first-time visitors, recent purchasers, and lapsed customers. The content focused on service education, timely reminders, and personalized offers.

• Service Reminders & Upsell Campaigns: Leveraging customer history and vehicle data, triggered targeted emails for tire rotations, oil changes, alignments, and seasonal maintenance—helping to drive timely visits and improve retention.

  Local Store Campaigns: Geo-targeted campaigns promoted location-specific deals and events, reinforcing local relevance and driving incremental traffic to nearby stores.

  Segmentation & Personalization: Custom audience segments based on service history, purchase frequency, and geographic location, enabling more relevant messaging and improved open and click-through rates.

Thank You

For reading my story at online  ecommerce tire store and for putting up with my sneakily inserted puns.

I hope I have triggered some ideas for you to act upon within your own business or a business you help. If you have any questions at all. Please feel free to reach out to me.