Can you transform a business with a new website and PPC ads?

In the early part of 2020, the hospitality industry was in crisis. COVID was sweeping the world, and whilst government grants were being handed out to businesses large and small, the hospitality industry was left exposed without adequate support. Fixed lump-sum payouts were granted to companies across the UK, but unlike a restaurant that can adapt to serve take-out, performance spaces, that rely on the presence of people not only to buy tickets but also to spend in the venue, were hurtling towards closure and bankruptcy. To make matters worse, ticket aggregators were withholding payouts from venues until shows would actually take place. So, with ever-changing lockdown rules, it meant millions of pounds worth of vital cash flow were locked in a third-party bank account.

Alex Proud, Owner-Founder of the Proud Group has been very vocal about the lack of support the hospitality sector received during the worst of covid.

THE PROBLEM

1. Proud needed to find a way of selling tickets directly to consumers, without aggregators holding payments indefinitely
2. Previously PPC Ads (and social ads) had always been a small part of the marketing mix as Proud lacked the internal resource and knowledge to implement an online ad campaign.

OUR APPROACH TO PPC Ads

To solve the first problem, W2 Solutions needed to find a reliable platform for product sales. This platform needed to have a 99.99% uptime, a robust back-end, with built-in analytics, stock management, staff access, and a comprehensive shop admin panel. On top of that, because the product being sold is not tangible, we needed to find a way to ‘fulfill’ orders without adding tracking information in the same way a bricks and mortar physical goods store would.

We had to find a way to link up to Google Analytics, Business manager, and other analytical tools to the site – while also being able to deliver on the eCommerce aspect of the business. It needed to be quick, easily editable (due to the number of new show dates that are added) and easy to understand and update for less ‘tech-savvy’ employees.

To help with proving the viability of PPC ads, W2 Solutions ran a series of split tests to find the best way of selling tickets. With an AOV (average order value) of well over £100 – purchases would not be considered ‘impulse’ and therefore we needed to figure out the correct sales funnel, when, IOS 14.5 made it harder than ever to remarket to customers.

We would run multiple ads:

• Simple conversion ads
• Engagement Ads + Retargetting
• PPC ads (Google DSA, Keyword, YouTube, Remarketing Web Traffic)

W2’S SOLUTION

1. We found that Shopify was by far the best solution to provide a stable, eCommerce platform. We used this to implement a new customer journey and design.Through a third-party integration, we managed to retro-fix Shopify’s fulfilment system with a ticket delivery system instead, giving customers an electronic ticket & apple wallet download, rather than a UPS tracking number.
2. With our development team, minimum order quantities were added to bookings, so the in-venue teams could manage table availability – plus, api integrations so that orders were pushed to the company CRM.
3. It was found that based on time-of-year, the marketing mix between social platforms, and search channels would change, so that we could always take advantage of seasonal behavior changes and positively influence digital sales. We therefore employed a mix of PPC and social ads, depending on the time of year – largely avoiding much remarketing (unless via Google) and heavily investing in keyword specific campaigns, DSA and conversion ads via Instagram, Facebook and partner sites.

Result: Company revenues have grown exponentially every month, a dramatic increase in average order value, the highest returning customer rate the company has ever seen and significantly increased social media engagement. Plus, full control of cashflow.

CAN YOU RELATE?

Are you tired and frustrated that your ad campaigns don’t appear to generate the return on investment you’d imagined? Worried that a new Instagram algorithm change will ruin your return-on-ad-spend? Are your products or services invisible on Google search, or maybe, your website just doesn’t convert?

We may just have a solution for you. We are W2. Get In touch.