Accelerating Digital Sales for Clipper Vacations

For this campaign, Wheelhouse DMG targeted a regional audience and adjusted bids to be more aggressive toward cost per lead (CPL) goal. We focused on three key areas for improvement:

1. Brand vs. Non-Brand: We restructured the account to more accurately break out brand vs. non-brand campaigns and launched these in April, ahead of Clipper Vacations’ peak season (May-Sept).
2. Location Targeting: Wheelhouse also separated campaigns between location targets to enable proper bidding-to-value (separating Victoria, BC, and the US-wide market). Previously, the Seattle market was being undervalued because data from other DMAs was being aggregated. We implemented expansion efforts against a competitive set, messaging appropriately based on user location, and coverage of the account.
3. Non-Brand Keyword Coverage Expansion: Expanding on non-brand keyword coverage and structuring ad groups to focus on separate service offerings (round trip ferry tickets, ferry + hotel packages, whale watching and other local day trips) allowed us to scale and efficiently bid to the value of each offering based on varied CVR and AOV.

The implementation process focused on both restructuring the account as well as expansion efforts to drive more traffic. The restructure focused on splitting brand and non-brand and applying negative keywords for proper funneling.

The campaigns also focused on Victoria, Seattle, and US DMAs separately, due to the desired variation in ad messaging, as well as varied performance.

• US campaigns targeted customers who were traveling to Seattle and would be taking the trip while visiting. Therefore, ad copy was more detailed for individuals less familiar with the area and focused on education of the nature of the Pacific Northwest.
• Seattle campaigns targeted customers who were more familiar with the company, so creative emphasized pricing, services, and packages with more competitors in the area.