This case study shows how Beeby Clark+Meyler helped Costa Cruise Lines improve brand awareness with a paid search campaign that targeted top markets, helped drive online leads, and increased bookings.
Challenge
As Europe’s leading cruise line, Costa Cruise Lines was suffering from a lack of brand awareness in the U.S. – Costa was effectively dwarfed by the larger North American cruise players
Cruise buyer behavior analysis showed that customers researched cruises by destination (i.e. Mediterranean, Caribbean) prior to selecting a provider
Research also showed that most people completed their booking offline
Solution Aggressively target and track
BCM developed a paid search campaign that targeted the top feeder markets for Costa, highlighting their most competitive Caribbean and Mediterranean cruises
BCM devised an advanced tracking system to capture pre-cruise leads through brochure requests and tie these back to eventual sales
Finally, BCM worked with Costa to implement a dynamic 800# tracking solution to tie online research with offline purchase
Results
The campaign drove over 15% of all online leads acquired during the campaign period
The overall click-through rate improved 125% during the campaign
The search campaign drove over 2,800 calls to the Costa call center, which resulted in a 1400% increase in bookings
Overall, program ROI including offline bookings generated via paid search was greater than 3.25:1
The campaign was nominated by OMMA as one of the Best Paid Search campaigns
