Sykes Cottages Reverse Trend of Growing Costs of Customer Acquisition
Marin Software’s powerful, Folder-based automated bid optimisation drove a reduction in CPA inflation of 171%
Cross-publisher management tools and bidding has meant that Sykes Cottages can more heavily invest in both Google and Bing with a 22% reduction in CPA on Bing and a 259% increase in volume
Additional investment in paid search is justified; 19% increase in volume of conversions for only 8% additional investment
Marin Software’s powerful, Folder-based automated bid optimisation drove a reduction in CPA inflation of 171%
Cross-publisher management tools and bidding has meant that Sykes Cottages can more heavily invest in both Google and Bing with a 22% reduction in CPA on Bing and a 259% increase in volume
Additional investment in paid search is justified; 19% increase in volume of conversions for only 8% additional investment
At Sykes Cottages, we’re delighted with the results Marin Software has helped us achieve. Before, we struggled to run effective search campaigns and all our time was taken up with manual bidding. Now with automated bidding, we are able to focus on strategic testing.
Tom Lowes
Search Marketing Manager, Sykes Cottages
The challenge of acquiring new customers
Sykes Cottages is the UK’s leading independent cottage rental agency. Sykes Cottages has been in business for over 25 years and now have more than 4,000 holiday cottage rental properties available across the UK and Ireland.
All marketing activities are run in-house at Sykes Cottages and the team are very passionate about the business meeting the challenge of acquiring new customers very seriously. Sykes Cottages run several marketing channels including email, paid search, affiliates and retargeting.
Before they used Marin Software, Sykes Cottages did not have tracking in place that could accurately track new customer acquisition and manual bid optimisation was being carried out using un-reliable data and the team were struggling to operate the campaigns in an optimal way.
Finally, relying on publisher tools meant that running on both Google and Bing was impossible as there were not enough hours in the day to manage and optimise two sets of campaigns.
Following the customer journey
Consumers tend to tread a lengthy path-to-conversion when booking a holiday which presents a challenge in itself; how to continue to fill the top of the funnel with consumers making initial requests but optimise to the revenue which can only be counted at the point of conversion. If Sykes Cottages do not continue to fill the top of the funnel with interested consumers, they risk not meeting their new customer acquisition goals; however, if they fill the funnel with the wrong audience, they risk missing out on sales and reducing the return-on-investment (ROI) of their online marketing activity. Using Marin Tracker, Sykes Cottages are able to track multiple conversion types across all stages of the conversion funnel, from brochure requests and call back requests to bookings made with credit card payment and also owner pack requests.
The team at Sykes Cottages also leverage Marin Software’s powerful automated bidding solution to optimise bids on a daily basis, across both Google and Bing. This is a far cry from their manual process which was so time consuming that some keyword bids were only changed once a week and they no longer ran activity on Bing as they lacked the time to optimise.
Marin Software’s unique Folder based bidding solution allows Sykes Cottages to segment their campaigns into separate Folders which align to business goals, each with its own cost-per-acquisition (CPA) target. Furthermore, this set up facilitates rapid optimisation – the team at Sykes Cottages often move the Folder goal at times of high demand or if they are running out of available niche stock.
Being able to act in such a nimble way has drastically reduced wasted budget where stock is low but has also allowed the team to fully understand the impact of changing the goals which they were unable to do before because of the lack of granular tracking provided by publisher tools.
Reduction in CPA inflation and improved performance on Bing
As a result of turning on Marin Software’s automated bidding for Bing campaigns, Sykes Cottages saw an instant drop in cost per acquisition (CPA) of almost a quarter. Through cross publisher campaign management in the following months, conversion volume from Bing has grown substantially whilst CPA remains in line with Google. Sykes Cottages have also successfully reduced the rate of CPA inflation and significantly grown conversions year over year at a higher rate than they have increased investment.
Reduction in CPA inflation of 171%
19% increase in volume of conversions for only 8% additional investment
CPA on Bing reduced by 22% year over year with Marin Software’s automated bidding
259% increase in volume of conversions from Bing as a result of cross-publisher budget optimisation
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PPC for B2B: a Performance Marketing Survey Report for 2023
To help you stay on the leading edge of performance marketing, we surveyed over 300 B2B marketers to uncover actionable insights that will help you improve the performance of your PPC investment. Through a Marin and LinkedIn partnership, we sought out to understand what B2B marketers face right now and how they are dealing with a complicated market. Read the full report to get a better understanding of how B2B marketers are changing their approach this year.
What You'll Learn from the Report:
How budgets have changed through the years 2020 to 2023 and how budgeting complexities affect the work of advertisers this year.
What challenges are most prevalent this year and how other marketers like you are adapting.
The critical role audience targeting plays in your success, especially during a recession, and some interesting trends relating to targeting techniques.
The types of content and campaign management techniques are currently helping advertisers move buyers through the sales funnel.
What paid social or PPC channels are providing the best ROAS or conversions for B2B right now.
Enhancing Search Marketing Strategies With Generative AI
Search marketing is a critical component of a successful business strategy. With so much content available online, businesses must strive to stand out from the competition and deliver relevant results to their target audience. This is where generative AI comes into play. By leveraging the power of artificial intelligence, businesses can now elevate their search marketing strategies to new heights.
In this blog post, we’ll explore how generative AI can enhance search marketing strategies. We will delve into the potential of this innovative technology to drive more accurate and personalized search results, improve keyword targeting, and enhance content creation. From identifying patterns in customer behavior to generating engaging ad copy, generative AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we approach search marketing.
7 Ways businesses are using generative AI in search
Generative AI has found its way into the workflows of many industries. Here are seven specific ways marketers use generative AI in search.
1. Personalized search results
Generative AI algorithms trained to analyze user data and behavior deliver more tailored and relevant search results and can significantly enhance the online experience for users. Users can consistently expect to find search ads more aligned with their interests. Recent research shows that 94% of marketers believe that personalization boosts sales and more than three quarters of marketers say that generative AI helps them deliver this personalization.
2. Improved keyword targeting
Marketers must constantly analyze vast amounts of data to identify trends and correlations, allowing businesses to optimize their keyword selection and improve the effectiveness of search advertising campaigns. AI helps marketers do this more effectively by increasing the amount of data they can analyze in a limited amount of time.
3. Enhanced content creation
With generative AI, marketers can produce engaging headlines, ad copy, and social media posts based on user data and preferences, saving businesses time and resources while maintaining relevance and effectiveness. Generative AI saves marketers approximately two-and-a-half hours per day simply by optimizing time-consuming tasks such as content creation.
4. Mining customer insights
By analyzing large datasets quickly, generative AI algorithms can identify patterns in user behavior, preferences, and purchase history, providing businesses with valuable insights for targeted marketing campaigns, product recommendations, and personalized offers.
5. Automated SEO practices
SEO practices can be time consuming and highly prone to human error. Generative AI can streamline and automate certain aspects of search engine optimization, such as optimizing metadata, meta descriptions, and creating internal linking structures. This enables marketers and SEO professionals to focus on higher-level strategies while leaving technical SEO tasks to generative AI. The productivity lift that this automation can deliver for marketers has been estimated to be valued at $463 billion globally.
6. Conversion rate optimization
Call-to-action (CTA) prompts are key for driving user action and boosting conversion rates. AI can help marketers evaluate how effective each CTA is in driving customer action, and generate the most effective CTAs that incorporate insights from past successful campaigns.
7. Competitive advantage
When leveraging generative AI in search, businesses can gain a competitive edge by delivering more personalized experiences, targeting the right audience, and staying ahead of the competition in the evolving digital landscape.
Leveraging generative AI for content creation
Leveraging generative AI for content creation offers an incredible advantage to content creators. This technology opens doors to new possibilities, allowing content creators to focus on other aspects of their work while ensuring that their content remains engaging and relevant.
Headline and title generation
Modern technology can be used to analyze existing headlines and produce fresh ones for various forms of content like blog posts, articles, and more. Doing so not only saves content creators valuable time and effort, but also generates powerful headlines that truly resonate with users. Generative AI can also help marketers ensure that their titles and headlines include keywords that are most relevant to their customers to help them find these articles or blog posts easily.
Ad copywriting
Engaging ad copy is essential for search advertising campaigns and social media marketing. By analyzing user behavior and preferences, AI can generate effective ad copy that resonates with target audiences and drives conversions. Additionally, AI can help marketers repurpose old content and create new copy that is unique but has the same messaging as previous campaigns.
Social media posts
Social media data can help marketers determine the best time to post content, understand what type of posts get the most engagement, and even suggest new content ideas based on this information. Marketers can use this insight to create unique posts that are relevant for each social media platform.
Content personalization
Americans are constantly inundated with search content. A deeper understanding of customer preferences allows marketers to personalize outreach based on this insight and stand out from the crowd. Generative AI algorithms can analyze user data to personalize content for individual users. This can include customizing content based on geographic location, search history, and other factors to provide a more tailored and engaging experience.
Content summarization
Companies often create longer-form content such as whitepapers or research reports to deliver highly complex or technical information to their audience. AI can help marketers repurpose this content and generate short summaries that capture the key insights of the content. This can be useful for drawing up executive summaries or providing users with quick overviews of more in-depth content.
Video and audio content
Generative AI can also be used to create unique video and audio content. For example, it can produce custom music compositions or match stock footage with voiceover audio for ad campaigns.
Enhancing advertising campaigns with generative AI
With generative AI as a powerful tool, businesses can stay ahead in the competitive advertising landscape by delivering personalized and engaging content to their audience. Here are some ways you can use generative AI to create and execute better advertising campaigns.
Dynamic ads
Timing is crucial for the success of any advertising campaign. AI can be used to dynamically produce ads in real time based on various factors like user behavior, location, and preferences. By tailoring ad content to specific users or contexts, businesses can deliver more relevant and compelling ads, increasing the chances of generating conversions.
Target audience expansion
Generative AI can analyze customer data and identify insights and patterns that can be used to expand target audiences. By finding common characteristics among existing customers and generating lookalike audiences, businesses can reach new potential customers who are likely to be interested in their products or services.
Ad testing and optimization
Automating the process of ad testing and optimization can help marketers be more effective by quickly producing and testing different ad variations. This enables businesses to easily identify the most effective combinations of ad creatives, targeting, and messaging, leading to improved campaign performance.
Predictive analytics
Generative AI algorithms can analyze historical campaign data and external factors to make predictions about future ad performance. Leveraging predictive analytics, businesses can optimize their ad campaigns by adjusting targeting, budget allocation, and bidding strategies to achieve better results.
Stay ahead of your competitors with Marin’s cutting-edge search marketing management features
With Marin's AI-powered capabilities, marketers can gain deeper insights into the intersection of their paid search campaigns and their SEO efforts. This allows them to make data-driven decisions, refine their targeting strategies, and improve the overall effectiveness of their search marketing campaigns.
Marin's proprietary algorithms and machine learning technology are designed to help you optimize your campaigns and extract the most value from your advertising spend. Whether you're looking to target new audiences or improve your ROI, Marin's powerful AI-driven insights can help you achieve your goals.
With Marin's detailed reporting and performance metrics, you can monitor your campaigns in real time and make informed decisions about your marketing strategy. Additionally, Marin's integration with leading eCommerce platforms like Amazon and Shopify provides a seamless experience for managing your online store's advertising campaigns.
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Background
Established in 2007, Yotel is a hotel group that offers guests an experience that challenges the status quo; with a promise to deliver a different kind of stay through awesome people, smart design, and the creative use of technology.