A luxury golf resort that includes 4 golf courses and 3 golf resorts based in California effectively used search marketing as a dominant tactic to increase bookings and lower overall cost per bookings to their golf resort. Since we didn’t have an unlimited budget to work with, we used the resort’s historical data to target the campaign to the top 10 markets with the highest bookings rate that are most likely to stay at the resort for a weekend getaway and also reach a new customer segment – “bucket-listers.”. The most successful campaign was the “Stay & Play” campaign that was targeted to male golfers and included 2 rounds of golf, 2-night stay, and a $200 resort credit. The “Stay & Spa” campaign was also generated some great results targeted to females which included 2 spa services, 2-night stay, and a $200 resort credit. Other campaigns that performed very well included the “Father’s Day” campaign and the “Dads & Grads” campaign that made for a great graduation gift and an unforgettable father-son weekend. We used a booking incentive with deadlines to encourage bookings, promo codes and dedicated 800 #s to track call volume, and online tracking codes to track overall campaign effectiveness. Using the following tactics, we were able to effectively lower the overall cost per click, increase both call rate and book rate, and lower overall cost per acquisition without increasing advertising spend.
Search Marketing Strategy
Keyword Research
Ongoing research allowed us to focus on longer, more specific keyword phrases designed not to bring in just any visitor but exactly the right visitors that would convert.
Bid Management
We controled ad spend by integrating with analytics to focus on conversions, ROI, and earnings elasticity instead of just looking at cost per click.
A/B Ad Copy Testing
We created several different ads and experimented by testing various offers, benefits and call-to-actions. Then we ran multiple ads head-to-head to see which ones performed the best. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Conversion Rate Optimization
Continually optimizied ad copy and landing pages to raise conversion rate and increase profits without raising advertising spend.