PPC - What kind of investment delivers a 1323% ROI?
Latitude was shortlisted for the Best Use of Search Marketing category at the Interactive Marketing and Advertising Awards for 2005. Our nomination was based on the results we’ve produced for Britannia Hotels through paid search. Here’s a detailed case study of exactly what we needed to achieve for Britannia, and how we exceeded all targets to produce an ROI of 1323 per cent (no, that’s not a typo!).
Summary of objectives and results
1. Increase online bookings by 20% year on year
The 3 month campaign produced a 43.7% year on year increase. Objective exceeded.
2. Produce a 1000% return on investment
This was considered at the outset to be an exceptionally tough target. A ROI of 1323% was actually achieved. Objective exceeded.
3. Increase brand awareness as measured by website visits
162,677 unique visits were recorded during the 3 month trial, this was 12.5% higher than expected. Objective exceeded.
4. Achieve a specified/target cost per click
The average cost per click for the campaign was 12.5% below target. This saving allowed the Britannia site to achieve an additional 24,400 click-throughs. Objective exceeded.
The campaign has since been extended into 2006, and figures for the April – June period reflect revenues from Latitude’s campaign delivering 9% above target figures.
Background
Britannia Hotels is Britain’s leading privately owned hotel group and operates across the UK, with 28 hotels and approximately 4,000 employees, providing value for money, flexibility and superior accommodation for all travellers. The organisation’s portfolio of hotels includes the Adelphi Hotel, in Liverpool, Sachas Hotel, in Manchester, Bosworth Hall in Warwickshire and the International Hotel near London’s Canary Wharf.
Since the hotel and leisure industry embraced the internet, causing a shift in business strategy, Britannia Hotels has been at the cutting edge of technology, working in partnership with Latitude to drive online investment.
In 2004, Latitude took over the management of Britannia Hotel’s search engine marketing campaign with instant success.
Within the first months, tracking software had been built into the project and additional URL’s created to support regional hotel searches. This served to optimise performance and by 2005, the campaign was delivering greater than expected results and an excellent return on investment.
Campaign Objectives
The objectives of the campaign were, in summary:
- Install tracking software to monitor campaign performance
- Create additional URL’s to support regional hotel searches
- Increase relevant internet traffic
- Reduce cost-per-click levels
- Maximise online sales
- Increase online brand awareness of Britannia Hotels
Strategy in Action
The campaign strategy is primarily focused on driving traffic to the www.britanniahotels.com website in order to maximise bookings, improve capacity levels across the hotel group, and provide return on investment within or beyond pre-set parameters.
It has been integral to the success of the project that all the objectives, keywords, and deliverables were clearly defined during the planning stage of the campaign, prior to implementation. During these early stages, Latitude was required to install tracking software on all URLs to monitor performance.
Once the campaign had been formally implemented, the work carried out during the planning stage began to pay dividends, as relevant online traffic began to rise significantly. With Latitude’s experience and professional expertise in a technique known as ‘deeper keyword buying’, the cost-per-click level showed a steady decline against increasing web traffic. Subsequently the amount of online sales began to rise in correlation with traffic.
Of the campaign, Account Manager Mike Kirwan said: “Latitude is especially proud of the Britannia Hotels project as the holistic approach taken by the Production and Account Management team to planning and implementation has seen great success, which in turn has led to a significant increase in brand awareness across the online travel sector for Britannia.”
The Results
In the first month of the project, Latitude delivered an additional 1,800 visitors to the site, without compromising Britannia’s budget. This compares similarly with the second month, where the managed campaign achieved an additional 12% traffic above forecasted levels, again within budget.
Monitoring and reporting on performance is an essential part of building the client relationship. To enhance this process, tracking software was added to the campaign to more accurately establish where the clicks originate, and what URLs and keywords work best. This allows Latitude to refine the campaign and distribute the budget according to the best performing keywords and search engines, and the ability to communicate this to Britannia Hotels is paramount to achieving business success.
Search engine marketing is a much more effective and efficient way of increasing hotel room capacity and revenue than traditional methods of marketing, such as press, advertising, TV or radio. It is also more adaptable, scalable and responsive – you can turn it on, off, up, or down in real-time.
Search can be as reactive as your company desires. For instance, if Britannia notices hotel bookings are down one weekend, they can invest an additional amount into the pay-per-click activity and see an immediate response. Similarly, if demand for rooms is too high, Britannia can turn the campaign down. It really is that simple.
To put the success of the Britannia project into perspective, the achieved cost-per-click level is running at 10% below the target level, providing Britannia Hotels with significant cost savings.
Similarly, the cost savings achieved through the management of the campaign has allowed for additional web traffic to be directed to the http://www.britanniahotels.com website – an increase of 16% above forecasted levels.
From Q3 to end of Q1 this year, Britannia’s bookings increased by 197% compared to the same period in the previous year. This increase was due to the success of the paid search marketing activity.
Diana Maxwell, Internet Marketing Manager for Britannia, is happy with the continually improving developments, commenting: “In January, we had the highest ever number of visitors to the website, as well as some good results in terms of bookings – so are doing very well.”
The Future
Latitude is intent on continuing to build on the initial success achieved for the Britannia Hotels group. With the help of keyword and URL tracking the campaign can be continually monitored and refined, in order to maximise the effectiveness of the PPC budget.
With hotel capacity levels on the rise and booking figures looking healthier than ever, there is more than enough potential for Britannia Hotels to achieve its ambitious growth targets for this year. Alongside this growth for the main hotel site, Britannia has also just launched a dedicated site for business and holiday makers who require hotel accommodation as part of their travel itinerary. The new site is www.stayandfly.co.uk and Britannia has already asked Latitude to do some initial PPC activity to trial the site.
Later in the year, Britannia intends to launch another site aimed at the conference and banqueting market, but details of this have yet to be finalised. Latitude is likely to be called upon again to help establish this third site and to continue raising the online profile of Britannia Hotels across the travel sector.