• Increased visibility across conversion types throughout the purchase funnel enabled White.net to refine traffic acquisition and ultimately reduce cost per goal by 50%
  • Automation of monthly reporting saved White.net over four hours a month and halved the time required to monitor budgets
  • Automating the reporting process facilitated the production of weekly reports, improving performance visibility for Trafalgar
  • Scheduled actions reduced effort required to launch seasonal campaigns enabling White.net to quickly launch new promotions

A little about Trafalgar and White.net

White.net (SEOptimise Ltd) launched in 2007 and has doubled in size every year since. Familiar faces at SEO conferences as speakers and delegates, the ever-expanding White.net search team develop innovative SEO strategies based on the latest thinking and developments in the online market. White.net pride themselves on proven results delivered to clients at a high return on investment, with the flexibility to work to a huge range of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Over the years, White.net have built up an impressive portfolio of clients, covering sectors as diverse as travel, biotechnology, law, commercial property, publishing and white goods, among many others.

For 67 years, Trafalgar has grown to be one of the most trusted and successful international guided holiday companies throughout the world. From Europe to the United States, from South America to Asia and the South Pacific, Trafalgar pride themselves on uncovering the insider experiences, cultural highlights and not-to-be-missed attractions wherever you visit.

We’re delighted with the improvement in performance of our PPC accounts that White.net have achieved with Marin Software. Paying less for clicks on our brand terms and reducing our cost per goal has meant that our budget works harder for us driving more revenue into the business.

Skye Sanders
Head of Group Marketing at Trafalgar

Trafalgar needed a balance of soft conversions and actual bookings

Researching a guided holiday is an involved process, with multiple touch points. Search campaigns must be carefully designed to drive soft conversions like brochure requests, whilst also optimising booking volumes. Bid optimisation must consider each touch point while assigning greater value to quote requests and bookings in order to maximise return on investment.

Manually reporting across Trafalgar’s multiple territories was time-consuming. However, it was necessary for White.net to optimise budgets and bids, maintain visibility, grow brand awareness and ensure they were maximising conversions.

Trafalgar also offer last-minute deals, seasonal promotions and offers. Updating ads and click-through URLs to the correct offer-based landing page was done manually for each of their regions. This was time-consuming and repetitive, not to mention prone to human error.

Optimization opportunities were recognized quickly after starting with Marin

Firstly, Google Analytics data was integrated with Marin Software. This ensured data consistency and negated the need to add new pixels to the website, which can be quite time-consuming. Conversion data for the different conversion types was sent to Marin, giving White.net visibility into keyword contribution across the funnel. With Google Analytics conversion data being automatically stitched together with search engine click and cost data in Marin Software, White.net were able to immediately see optimization opportunities everyday.

Marin’s Excel Web Query functionality enables White.net to automatically populate reports in Excel with data from Marin, eliminating the need to manually manipulate data. This approach is used for monthly executive reports, weekly management reports and daily budget pacing reports saving significant time for White.net, whilst increasing visibility into performance for Trafalgar.

Finally, White.net use Marin’s scheduled actions to upload new ads with fresh offer-specific landing pages, scheduling them to go live when offers start and revert to the original ads when the offer ends. This means new ads go live without the need for manual changes at unsociable hours.

Marin software has enabled White.net to significantly improve the Trafalgar campaign, with a:

  • 50% reduction in cost per goal
  • 51% decrease in brand term CPC
  • 50% less time taken to monitor budgets
  • 4.5 hour reduction in the amount of time taken to produce monthly reports