A Case Study on Optimizing Seasonal AdWords Campaigns

Many of our clients are engaged in travel and tourism pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns which are seasonal in nature. An argument could be made that because of short time periods, very little continued optimization is necessary for a successful program. However, a recent case study I produced explains why this is a common misconception.

This was a comparison of our client's AdWords campaigns that ran over two consecutive winter seasons. By investing the extra optimization time both in the set up of the campaign and in the continued monitoring and testing throughout the duration of the program, the outcome for the two were significantly different.

The target market parameters of these campaigns were the same during the winter season in 2009-2010 as they were in 2010-2011. However, the one major difference between the campaigns was that the 2010-2011 budget was significantly smaller. Here is what I was presented with:

1. The campaign would run during the height of the winter season.
2. The target geography was limited strictly to visitors within easy driving distance.
3. The main goal of the campaign was to increase visitation to the site and increase online purchases.

Winter 2009-2010

A single campaign was established comprised of two separate Ad Groups labeled "General" and "Store". The "General" Ad Group contained 64 broad-match keywords all revolving around variations of geographically-targeted brand and category terms related to the campaign. The destination URL's of all the ads were directed to the home page. The "Store" Ad Group contained 14 branded keywords focused on specific groups of products. Both broad-match and phrase-match keywords were included in this Ad Group. Mobile ads were excluded and ads were shown 24 hours a day.

Results 

As you can see from the above screenshot, the campaign was fairly successful. Of the 3,866 visits that came from the paid search program, visitors viewed a higher than average number or pages, they stayed on the site longer when compared to the overall site traffic and revenue was generated.

Winter 2010-2011

This season, the daily budget was reduced to less than half of what was allocated the previous year. The campaign was revised to contain six ad groups with more specific targeting. Each ad group contained targeted keywords of varying match types (modified broad-match was the most widely used) with a total of 123 keywords selected. Top performing keywords were integrated into the ad copy. Destination URL's were updated to direct visitors to the most relevant pages. Geographic trends were identified by reviewing the previous year's campaign, as well as overall traffic and website key performance indicators (KPI's) within Google Analytics. The target geography was selected using state targeting, map point targeting and custom shape targeting and broadened to include additional neighboring regions. Ads were enabled to show on mobile devices and the click-to-call extension added. The account was synced with the client's Google Places account (local search marketing) and location extensions were enabled. AdWords sitelinks were also defined and enabled.

The campaign was reviewed on a weekly (often multiple times per week) basis. Keywords were modified with consideration to bidding costs, ad and keyword quality score, match type, click-through-rates (CTR), ad position and overall conversion rates. Negative keywords were added based on known trends and actual queries to ensure that the ads were shown for only relevant searches. A/B testing was conducted on all aspects of each ad including headlines, call to actions and the displayed website address (display URL). Ads were also created for specific events and rotated based on relevant time periods.

Results

• Paid search visits increased 396% over the previous season
• Bounce rate (% of people who visit the site but do not navigate beyond the page they landed on) decreased from 29% to 18%
• Revenue increased 928%
• Overall measured goal completions (not just e-commerce) increased 866%

Conclusion

 Although the overall spend to Google was decreased, the investment of a portion of the budget into management efforts actually increased the number of visits to the site and generated a significantly higher amount of revenue for our client. It is tempting not to devote the proper amount of time and money into optimizing seasonal and short-term AdWords campaigns. However, with some time and effort the rewards can be great. When determining your allocated budget, ensure that you are factoring in the required management time and you will make certain that your marketing investment reaches its fullest potential.

If you need any further explanation of the terminology used in this post, please reference the AdWords glossary.

About the Author
Shelly Cihan is the Search Marketing Manager at Adworkshop and is a Google AdWords Certified Partner. She manages both organic search and paid search campaigns for a variety of clients, many of which are travel and tourism based.