How We Added $552,000 In Direct Revenue For A Caribbean Resort In
7 Months
GOOGLE ADS - CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION - CART RECOVERY
Belize Ocean Club (now known as Umaya Resort & Adventures) is a 4-star beachfront property set on acres of Belize's tropical shoreline. But even paradise isn't without its problems.
New competition had just opened their doors a mile away and were offering deep discounts to put heads in beds. With high season right around the corner, Belize Ocean Club needed to act fast to ensure they'd hit their revenue and occupancy goals for 2019.
That's where we came in.
Belize Ocean Club partnered with Above Average to develop and execute a strong digital strategy designed to outshine their threatening new competition on search engines, and maximize booking opportunities on their website.
Main Challenges
Fresh competition with ambitious investors
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New resort's massive media and marketing push just before high season diminished Belize Ocean Club's demand.
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They were bidding on Belize Ocean Club's brand keywords.
Original website not fully optimized for mobile
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Belize Ocean Club was losing a lot of traffic from mobile devices.
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We had less than a week to redesign their mobile experience before launching, so Google Hotel Ads could perform at its fullest potential.
Our Approach
Google Hotel Ads
Leveraging a combination of Belize Ocean Club's existing data, Smart Bidding, and geo-targeting to reach traffic that was most likely to convert based on their location, we generated close to $300k in new business over 7 months. We segmented campaigns based on location for the purpose of delivering ads to users in their native language. This enabled Belize Ocean Club Resort to reach a previously inaccessible segment of high-intent customers.
Google Remarketing
Using remarketing lists, we created tiered search and display remarketing campaigns based on different audiences: Users who visited the site for over 1 minute but did not book and previous customers who had recently visited the site but did not book. With these audiences, we were able to retarget high-intent users with the right messaging and offers most relevant to them.
Microsoft Advertising
To supplement revenue from leisure bookings, we set up a proactive ads program aimed at securing advanced reservations for corporate events and room blocks. After extensive research and testing, the Microsoft Ads platform proved to be most effective for reaching corporate audiences and was extremely cost-efficient due to scarce competition for relevant keywords at the time we launched our program.
Conversion Optimization
In order to maximize booking opportunities on their website, we set up strategically timed opt-in and exit intent forms with an offer for a discount on the guests stay. Our goal was to increase their subscribers entering into an automated drip email campaign, where we were able to nurture and convert 8X more customers than their previous lead generation forms.
Cart Recovery
Belize Ocean Club's analytics showed us that, every month, thousands of people abandoned their checkout and only an average of 2% would return to complete their booking. To capture the other 98% of abandoned carts that were falling through the cracks, we implemented an exit-intent form on the checkout page, which enrolled contacts into an automated cart recovery email sequence. Our solution converted 5.95% of non-booked sessions into confirmed reservations and recovered $137k of lost revenue.
Results
In just 5 months, we turned Belize Ocean Club's total investment of $20,000 ($4,000/month) into over half-a-million dollars, delivering a 28:1 ROI.
Cost per acquisition decreased by 46.6%, and with less reliance on third-party booking channels, OTA commission payouts decreased by 19%.
As a result of the pricing strategy on our Conversion Optimization opt-in forms, the AOV increased by $72. Last but not least, we helped the 60-suite resort maintain occupancy rates between 80% and 95% during high season.
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Increased quarterly revenue by 81%
Converted 8X more customers with opt-in and exit intent forms
$298,883 revenue generated from Google Hotel Ads
$137,247 of revenue recovered from abandoned carts
Increased email subscribers by 164%
