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Brief
Dales Holiday Cottages, part of The Hoseasons Group, provides cottage holidays in 700+ properties in Northern England and Scotland. Dales Holiday Cottages contacted The Black Hole to find out whether Forensic PPC could deliver improvements to their existing PPC campaign. It did.
A Forensic PPC audit identified a number of areas in which their account was not delivering its full potential. Our Google Adwords qualified search marketers analysed past performance of the account and current market conditions, and we suggested:
- Our Forensic Matrix approach could increase sales by at least 30% whilst simultaneously reducing cost of acquisition
- Own-brand and non-brand keywords should be split into separate campaigns to provide greater transparency in reporting
- The entire cottage portfolio together with related towns and villages should be fully represented to maximise visibility
- The Scotland Cottages and Dales Holiday Cottages accounts should be separated for budget control and reporting transparency
A plan was put in place for a dedicated team to rebuild and restructure their account, ensuring we maintained volume at what was a critical time for bookings. Our track record of success with this kind of project provided the comfort that Dales Holiday Cottages needed.
Strategy/Execution
Forensic PPC is not simply a traffic focused approach. It combines marketing and response techniques with advanced search management to deliver the most profitable sales. In Forensic PPC we:
- Focus on the whole customer journey, from initial thought to purchase
- Work harder to minimise unnecessary clicks, analysing every penny for its return and its role in the buying cycle
- Invest time to ensure the most cost effective match types are successful drivers of maximum conversions
- Utilise our in-house response copywriters to maximise click through rates
- Leverage new innovations in search marketing to bring in cost effective sales
- Recognise the opportunities of Yahoo!, Bing and other smaller networks in driving further sales
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We really got under the skin of the Dales Holiday Cottages and their customers. We needed to understand the process of selecting and booking a cottage holiday. Only then could we find pockets of fantastic value and additional sales in their pay-per-click activity.
Like all marketing activity, PPC must start with customer insight. This insight influences the choice of keyword. We work on those terms most likely to drive profitable and cost-effective sales, not by just creating endless lists of loosely related keywords and creating them into random campaigns.
Before utilising any keyword we considered how it related to:
- The customer
- The competition
- The cost per click
- Its volume potential
Keywords were allocated to campaigns based on those four criteria. This account structure is known as our Forensic Matrix Approach, and enabled us to have a tight yet flexible control of budget. It also ensured all performing keywords had maximum visibility and meant we could apply tightly targeted ad copy to maximise response. This restructure was fundamental to achieving the most cost effective sales. At the same time we wanted to drive more bookings. We found cost effective volume by:
- Expanding all keyword lists throughout the account to provide quality visibility and representation
- Creating a process to add new properties to the portfolio into the PPC account with relevant keywords and specific ads
- Rolling out the accounts fully into Yahoo! and Bing
- Using our expertise to drive cost effective sales from the Google Content Network.
At The Black Hole, we believe in complete transparency and from day one provided Dales Holiday Cottages with direct access to their account. This allowed them to see the changes we made and progress of the restructure. The Client could also run their own reports for the first time. Our structure and reporting also allowed Dales Holiday Cottages to understand how their budget was being spent across own-brand and non-brand terms. These weekly reports are accompanied by updates on the optimisation work completed and plans for the coming period.
When adding properties new to the portfolio, The Black Hole created fully bespoke ad groups for all 700+ cottages with unique ads for each cottage. We believe in updates in hours not days, meaning cottage owners could see property advertised on Google, Yahoo! and Bing only hours after signing with Dales Holiday Cottages.
Results
Our Forensic Matrix structure found hidden gems of keywords and gave them enough budget to flourish. This has driven down cost of acquisition by 37% and the expanded account has meant that volume also increased by 39%.
Dales Holiday Cottage’s key trading month is February. During this month our Forensic Approach to PPC:
- Reduced cost per acquisition year on year by 65%
- Improved impression volume tenfold
- Reduced cost per click by 20%
Dales Holiday Cottages now have full representation of over 700 cottages, together with managed placements across key websites to drive additional highly targeted traffic.
Our Forensic PPC approach ensured that Dales Holiday Cottages were shown in more quality search results. This drove more visitors, more likely to buy. And they did!
“The Black Hole’s approach to pay-per-click is simple and refreshing. They understand our customers completely, they’re completly open with what they’re doing and they’re driven by results. Not only does this inspire confidence, it also makes them so easy to work with. They’ve already surpassed our expectations and we’re seeing great results”.
Sarah Brewer, Marketing Manager, Dales Holiday Cottages
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