How Targeted SEO Helped Increase Lots For Sale By 38% For Wotton Auction Rooms
B2C • Hospitality • SEO • PPC
By the numbers.
%
Lots per sale
%
Additional quarterly lots
%
Click through rate
LOCALiQ’s targeted Google Ads strategy and ongoing optimisation helped Wotton Auction Rooms move beyond print‑only advertising, attract more vendors and buyers, and turn digital visibility into busier catalogues and sustained growth with consistently strong PPC performance with cost per lead at around £13.
The business.
Wotton Auction Rooms is a traditional auction house based in Gloucestershire, with a history stretching back to 1885. It has traded as Wotton Auction Rooms since 1991 and operates from converted church and Sunday school buildings in the Cotswolds, giving the business a distinctive character and local presence.
The team runs busy monthly sales offering “a bit of everything” – from large brown furniture and decorative antiques to jewellery, toys, and specialist lots – acting as an agent between vendors and buyers and facilitating all sales. With vendors coming from many different avenues, including antiques sellers, estate sales, people downsizing and walk‑ins, and buyers ranging from local collectors to international bidders, the business relies on a steady flow on both sides of the market to keep its sale rooms full and its catalogues rich.
When every sale depends on the right vendors and bidders finding you, you need your auction house to appear the moment people search for somewhere trusted to sell – or to discover – their next lot.
Challenges.
Historically, Wotton Auction Rooms relied heavily on print advertising and word of mouth. Ads in local newspapers kept them visible and, on the rare occasions they didn’t appear, regulars would check in to see if the auction house was open that month.
However, with high footfall and many new faces, print alone made it difficult to accurately track how many people saw a specific advert or which customers were visiting as a direct result. The team needed a joined‑up process that would help them shape strategy by showing which items and sales were most appealing to customers.
At the same time, they knew many potential clients – especially those dealing with estates, downsizing or valuable collections – were turning to search engines with very specific needs such as “auction house Cotswolds”, “sell jewellery at auction” or “auction toys and dolls”. Wotton Auction Rooms needed to ensure that when those searches happened, they appeared at the top, with a measurable way to see which audiences were engaging and which keywords were working.
“They understood the business, they understood what we were trying to achieve, and I think that’s the big thing for us. The support and understanding from the team was an absolute joy.”
Liz Maisey
Financial Controller and Company Accountant, Wotton Auction Rooms
Moving beyond print to measurable digital demand
Wotton Auction Rooms chose to partner with LOCALiQ around 2020, at a moment when the team recognised they needed to move beyond relying on print and gut feel alone. Liz, the Financial Controller and Company Accountant, and the person on the team who looked after marketing, had become increasingly aware that digital marketing offered something print could not: the ability to see who was searching, who was clicking, when interest peaked and where potential clients were located.
They had also seen other auction houses using digital advertising and recognised it as an area with real growth potential.
Building a tightly targeted Google Ads strategy
LOCALiQ built a tightly focused PPC strategy using Google Ads. The goal was simple but powerful: make sure that when someone searched online for auction services – whether “auction house near me”, “auction dolls and toys” or probate‑related terms – Wotton Auction Rooms appeared as a sponsored result at the right time, in the right locations.
Geographic targeting was carefully designed around a realistic, profitable catchment area: close enough that collection and delivery of items made commercial sense, while still broad enough to include affluent Cotswold towns and areas where people might be dealing with estate sales or downsizing.
Continuous optimisation instead of constant overhauls
The campaign structure evolved over time, but the core strategy remained stable. The LOCALiQ team initially built a strong foundation and then continued to optimise and grow the campaigns – tightening keywords, refining ads and audiences, and making small, high‑impact tweaks each month.
Instead of repeated overhauls, LOCALiQ focused on continuous optimisation, letting historical data work in their favour and turning the campaigns into a highly efficient engine of enquiries.
Regular reviews aligned with the auction calendar
Regular meetings were a critical part of the approach. Liz and the LOCALiQ team used monthly catch‑ups to review performance, align campaigns with upcoming sales – for example, seasonal garden auctions – and ensure the data matched what they were seeing in the auction room. This created a clear feedback loop between marketing activity and what was happening on the sale days.
%
Keyword growth
%
Cost per lead reduction
%
Click through rate
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Busier catalogues and a steady stream of consignments
The clearest impact has been in the auction house itself. Before working with LOCALiQ, Wotton Auction Rooms typically catalogued around 1,300–1,400 lots in their main sales. Today, those core sales have grown to around 1,800 lots, with additional quarterly auctions adding another 500–600 lots on top.
The phones “do not stop ringing”, and the team is consistently busy with new consignments and enquiries – a pattern that stands in stark contrast to some neighbouring auction houses that have struggled or closed in recent years. For Liz and the directors, this difference feels tangible: when people in their catchment area search for somewhere to sell or buy, Wotton Auction Rooms is there – visible and easy to contact.
Clearer insight and greater confidence in planning
Digital advertising has also transformed how confidently the business can plan. Instead of relying on the assumed reach of a newspaper advert, Liz can now see when calls peak, where enquiries originate and which search terms bring people to the door.
This has confirmed some long‑held instincts about their audiences and what appeals, while putting hard numbers behind those insights. That data has made it easier to justify ongoing investment and adjust focus based on what is working best.
Strong PPC performance supporting long‑term growth
The campaign metrics reinforce that story. Over the last 12 months, Google Ads has delivered consistently strong results, with recent periods showing cost per lead around £13 and click‑through rates of roughly 20%, sustained month after month.
For Wotton Auction Rooms, that means a steady, high‑quality flow of people calling, clicking and booking valuations – not just locally, but from sellers and buyers across the UK and abroad, who then join their global online auctions.
A trusted long‑term partnership
Perhaps most importantly, the relationship has become a genuine partnership. Liz highlights the way LOCALiQ’s client services team took time to understand the nuances of an auction house, the balance between vendors and buyers, the importance of probate work, and the practicalities of geography, and then built campaigns around that reality.
Knowing that experts are keeping their finger on the pulse of the account allows the Wotton team to focus on what they do best: running successful sales, looking after clients and growing a business that has now thrived through both local and global change.
Services provided
- Google Ads strategy and management focused on auction‑specific search intent
- Geographic targeting aligned to a realistic, profitable catchment area
- Ongoing campaign optimisation by dedicated PPC specialists
- Regular performance reviews and strategic planning aligned to key sales
- Continuous behind‑the‑scenes monitoring and refinement
Key results
- Growth in core sale size from around 1,300–1,400 to approximately 1,800 lots per monthly sale, plus additional around 600 extra lot with quarterly auctions
- Consistently strong PPC performance, including around £13 cost per lead and roughly 20% click‑through rates in recent periods
- A sustained five‑year partnership, with digital now seen as critical to ongoing visibility and growth
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