Virgin Holidays: 168% increase in ROI after Steak takes over
paid search
Despite tough times for the travel industry STEAK has taken
paid search for Virgin Holidays from strength to strength
Background
Virgin Holidays is one of the UK's leading travel brands
and the largest transatlantic tour operator. Launched in 1985, they
now provide holidays to over 300,000 people per year. In May 2008
Virgin Holidays appointed STEAK to manage paid search activity
across the major search engines.
To retain their status as industry leaders in online
marketing, Virgin Holidays were keen to see a range of improvements
to the key metrics of their campaign, including lowered cost per
acquisition, increased click-through rates and higher levels of
conversion. They also wanted all learnings to be shared with the
wider in-house and external marketing teams.
Work
In order to take the Virgin Holidays account to the next
level, STEAK undertook a thorough review and optimisation
programme, launching strategic campaigns designed to improve
quality of traffic and stabilise conversion rates. Further tactical
improvements were made along the way to tackle challenges presented
by Google's trademark changes, and volatility in the travel market
following the collapse of XL Group.
Results
By the end of January 2009 Virgin Holidays had seen great
results:
- Overall return on advertising spend up by
168%
- Click through rate increased by 281%
- 204% improvement of cost to sale
- Cost per acquisition reduced by half
"The people at STEAK
have proven themselves to be flexible, creative and a valuable part
of the Virgin Holidays e-business team. As well as delivering
impressive results and innovative solutions across a number of
campaigns, their friendly professionalism, wide industry knowledge
and collaborative approach to working with our various agencies and
internal teams means I'd have no hesitation in recommending
them."
Chris Roe, General
Manager of Sales and Distribution, Virgin Holidays