Bolt

The Objective

Bolt, a leading ride-hailing company from Estonia, operates in over 45 countries across Europe, Africa, Western Asia, and Latin America, serving more than 100 million customers. Following a successful test last year, Bolt has continued to run both brand and performance campaigns to drive growth. To further validate the impact of its full-funnel marketing strategy, Bolt launched a Unified Lift Study in Romania, aiming to measure the true incrementality of its efforts on ride-hailing user acquisition. This study would provide deeper insights into how brand and performance activities collectively influence consumer behaviour and drive conversions.

The Solution

Building on insights from the previous Unified Lift study, Bolt refined its approach for the second test in Romania to further assess the incremental impact of its full-funnel marketing strategy. The study aimed to measure both brand and conversion lift by exposing a unified audience to a combination of Brand and Performance campaigns.

For the Brand Lift Study (BLS) portion, Bolt adjusted its approach to better reflect its conversion cycle. The Awareness question was removed due to an already high baseline (>70%), and the Intent question was updated from “How likely are you to download Bolt in the next two weeks?” to “How likely are you to use Bolt in the next month?”—ensuring a more meaningful measure of user intent and aligning with the CLS attribution window. The campaign also placed greater emphasis on safety messaging, which was expected to drive stronger intent.

For the Conversion Lift Study (CLS) portion, Bolt continued optimising towards purchases, focusing on incrementality in ride-hailing acquisitions. The test structure ensured that treatment groups were consistently exposed across both brand and performance activities, allowing for a holistic measurement of the impact on the consumer journey.

With this refined strategy, Bolt aimed to validate the effectiveness of its full-funnel media activation while identifying key creative and messaging elements that drive both brand association and purchase intent.

The Results

The second Unified Lift study (ULS) in Romania delivered even stronger results compared to the first ULS, further validating Bolt’s full-funnel marketing approach. By refining the study structure and adjusting key brand metrics, Bolt was able to drive more impactful outcomes across both brand and performance.

Brand Lift Study (BLS) Results: - +9.2% uplift in Ad Recall (compared to +10.2% in the first ULS) - +5.9% uplift in Brand Association (new metric introduced in this ULS) - +3.7% uplift in Intent (compared to a flat result in the first ULS) - A safety-focused creative played a crucial role, driving an 11% increase in intent from a single asset, highlighting the impact of targeted messaging on user perception.

Conversion Lift Study (CLS) Results: - +15.65% relative lift in Purchases (a significant improvement from +10% in the first ULS), showcasing the increased effectiveness of Bolt’s performance strategy.

The refinements made based on learnings from the first ULS—such as adjusting the Intent question to better align with the consumer journey and focusing more on safety messaging—contributed to these improved outcomes. The second ULS demonstrated that a well-structured, full-funnel approach not only strengthens brand perception but also translates directly into higher conversion rates, reinforcing the importance of a unified media activation strategy.