Building a Branded Ad Experience at mobile.de: Brand Page & Entry Points

Overview

mobile.de is Germany's largest online vehicle marketplace. Advertising is one of the biggest revenue drivers of mobile.de, but users had developed banner blindness and frustration with ad density. At the same time, OEMs (e.g., BMW, Skoda) struggled to showcase new models and brand identity through traditional banner ads. I led the UX for a new brand advertising experience, introducing a dedicated Brand Page and strategically placed entry points, designed to balance user needs with advertiser goals and improve overall engagement.

Role & Team

I was the product designer of the Advertising team, in addition to supporting my existing team, as they didn’t have their own dedicated designer yet. The team consisted of a front-end developer, a back end developer, an iOS and an Android developer, a product manager and a data analyst.

Timeline

April - September 2024

 

My Contribution

I led the end-to-end UX for the MVP of the Brand Page, from ideation to rollout. This included concept development, prototyping, and iterative user testing. I integrated research insights to refine the experience and finalized the design across platforms.

In addition, I defined and optimized the entry points to the Brand Page through stakeholder collaboration and rapid exploration, improving discoverability and alignment with OEM goals.

 

Main objectives

  • Define and execute the MVP for a dedicated Brand Page experience.

  • Understand user behavior and expectations on the Brand Page, as well as OEM advertising goals.

  • Create relevant entry points to the brand page and deliver the promised amount of monthly users for our first OEM partner, SKODA.


 

The Brand Page drove a ~25% increase in leads for SKODA certified listings
and a ~10% increase in referrals to the SKODA configurator.
Entry points exceeded traffic targets by ~30%, delivering strong visibility and engagement.

Understanding user and business needs

Concept exploration

We started with concept exploration. I created low-fi wireframes based on competitor research to discuss user and business needs with our Product Manager, determine necessary sections, and start aligning on the initial brand page layout.

 
 


Empathy Mapping

A key challenge in building the brand page was balancing OEM needs with user needs, ensuring a dedicated space for OEMs to connect with customers while keeping the page helpful and not overly promotional for users.

To understand the OEM needs, we held an empathy mapping session with mobile.de's OEM account managers, who had the most insights.

 
 


Key Learnings

  • OEMs biggest need in general was high quality traffic to their website via the brand page for test drives or configurator of their newest models. Our first partner SKODA’s main goal from the Brand page was to drive configurations of their newest model Elroq.

  • OEMs wanted to promote their newest models and get leads on them, either on mobile.de or on their website.

  • They were interested in getting leads on the OEM certified listings at mobile.de from the car dealers they had partnerships with.

 



User Testing

Once we had a better understanding of OEM / brand needs after the empathy session, we now wanted to understand user needs and expectations. In order to do this we ran a moderated usability test with 5 desktop users, using a prototype based on aligned wireframes. I integrated key insights from empathy mapping to reflect the OEM needs in the prototype:

  • A section/slot where the OEM could promote their test drives or configurators of newest models, with a CTA directing the user to the respective section on their website.

  • Up to 3 sections to promote their newest models.

  • A section dedicated to showcasing the OEM certified vehicles from the partnered dealerships on mobile.de.

 


Testing Findings

  • Not all sections were found helpful by users. The most helpful ones were certified listings and the newest models of the brand.

  • Some users didn’t understand what the “certified listings” were. Most users expected to see certified listings close to them and not the ones across whole Germany.

  • The brand page’s main value was perceived as seeing the newest models of the brand on mobile.de.

 

Finalising the Brand Page

SKODA, a member of the Volkswagen Group, was our first partner for the Brand Page. The insights from the user tests and final discussions with SKODA regarding their specific needs guided our iterations, shaping the final design for launch.

Their primary objective for the Brand Page was to improve configurations of their latest model, Skoda Elroq. To support this, the first promotional slot was dedicated to this goal, with a CTA directing the users to SKODA’s configurator.

 
 



Because some users were unclear about the meaning of "OEM certified vehicles," we included a brief explanation highlighting their benefits in the certified vehicles section. As most users expected to see certified listings nearby, we added a postal code field to help them locate options in their area.

 
 



Since not all sections were found helpful by users, we removed those that were also not crucial for OEM needs, such as the statistics section (e.g. high satisfaction score and number of saved searches) and the reviews section.

 
 
 


Creating entry points to the Brand Page

Once the brand page design was ready, we focused on building relevant entry points across the search funnel to support users and drive the promised traffic to our first partner, SKODA.

We explored entry points on the search results page, where users can see the vehicle offerings of the brand model they search for. The banner ads on our production search results page were traditional banner ads, displayed on top of the search results, with content not necessarily being relevant to the search criteria.

 



We tested two variations against the production banner ad: Variation A, placed above search results just like the banner ad on production and Variation B, placed between search results: the third and fourth vehicle offering. Both entry points were targeted to users searching for Skoda or similar brands to ensure relevance.

 
 

Variation A outperformed the production banner with a 10%
higher click-through rate, and beat Variation B
by 5%, validating its improved visibility and relevance.



The results showed users engaged more with ads relevant to their search, compared to the banner ads we had on production. Larger ads received more clicks than those placed between results.

We also tested the vehicle info page as an entry point to the brand page. This again was targeted to to ensure relevance to the user's search, meaning it wasn’t displayed for each vehicle info page, but only on the vehicle info pages of Skoda and similar brands.

 
 

The variation with the Skoda Brand Page entry point
achieved a 6% higher click-through rate than the control banner,
indicating stronger user engagement.

 

Next Steps

The MVP launch for SKODA was successful, and additional brand pages for Hyundai, BMW, and Volkswagen are underway. We’ll continue to optimize entry points by iterating on existing placements and exploring new surfaces like the Homepage and Favorites. Our next phase will follow a similar cycle of design, A/B testing, and iteration to improve discoverability and drive higher CTR.

 
 
 

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© Esin Ozcan 2025