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Case Study
Wheelhouse DMG has managed Clipper Vacations digital advertising since 2016 and has achieved spectacular success on their behalf, increasing bookings by 632% while simultaneously reducing CPL by 65%. In 2019, Clipper came to Wheelhouse DMG with a new concern – organic traffic and the revenue that came along with it was dropping fast. They needed to understand what was happening and why. More importantly, they needed to stop the losses and ensure the revenue growth they needed would continue.
Our analysis clearly showed that the combined effects of a recent rebrand and aggressive moves by third-party travel aggregators to offer Clipper Vacations travel packages were behind Clipper Vacations organic traffic and revenue losses versus prior years. With only three months before Clipper’s peak booking season, we knew we needed to move fast. We needed to employ a strategy that enabled rapid increases in search performance.
With so little time available to boost performance, we knew that longer-term SEO tactics and content strategies were likely to be ineffective. We needed something to move the needle fast. Our strategy was two-fold:
We also developed UX and design recommendations to mitigate pain points in the conversion funnel and reduce friction in the user experience. Through our SERP analyses, we discovered that a subset of users who landed on Clipper Vacations’ website were ready to book. These users did not need additional information about vacation packages or destinations but were instead trying to start a transaction. We addressed this unmet user need by repositioning the booking CTA on conversion pages and introducing the CTA earlier in the user’s experience.
We identified the most valuable content on the Clipper website, then optimized it to better match user search intent and to capture Featured Snippets or “People Also Ask” boxes for high-value queries.
I want to reiterate the HUGE impact and shift the level of attention and detail is having on our business this summer. It’s truly game-changing…
- Scott Meis / Clipper Vacations
Our strategy was very effective for Clipper Vacations. In just three months, we increased the number of Featured Snippets and “People Also Ask” placements by 637%, capturing 223 additional placements and increased booking starts by more than 50%. More importantly, not only did we reverse the organic traffic and revenue losses, our work resulted in a year-over-year increase in organic revenue for Clipper. On a strategic level, our work enabled Clipper Vacations to cut ties with the third-party aggregators that had been cannibalizing their traffic, leaving them in a much stronger position as a business.
637%
Increase in featured snippets and "people also ask" placements
223
Additional placements
50%
Increase in booking starts
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