Globus family of brands Converts Visitors to Its Websites with Seasonally Relevant, Targeted Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Campaigns

Program highlights include a 65% conversion rate increase and 27% decrease in cost per conversion over the 12-month period.

Globus family of brands, including Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and Avalon Waterways, provides a variety of products that match today's diverse traveler with unparalleled vacation experiences. The tour operator has offered hundreds of unique itineraries all over the world for 80 years.

Sample Creative: Region Terms  | Branded Terms

Challenge
Globus family of brands partnered with 90octane in April of 2003 with an interest in increasing its online brand visibility in the ultra-competitive travel space. While tremendous strides were continually made in both paid search and organic listings, the client and 90octane raised the bar in 2007 with goals of driving more qualified visitors to a greater number of Globus websites. The challenge was to build upon gains in search engine exposure and low cost-per-click averages to increase conversion rates and decrease the average cost per conversion. Conversions were defined as brochure requests, e-newsletter signups and bookings.

Solution
90octane developed a distinctive search engine optimization (SEO) program for each Globus site, including a unique keyword strategy, linking strategy, and recommendations related to meta data, content and site code.

Brand-related terms were implemented in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, driving traffic by prospects already familiar with the company. Keywords related to specific styles of travel unique to Globus, such as ‘river cruising’ or ‘escorted travel,’ were employed to promote the travel provider to prospects interested in travel but unfamiliar with the brand. Search term popularity figures and the Globus brochure distribution schedule were important factors in allocating the PPC budget to certain regions during the most relevant seasons. Seasonality also drove an innovative approach to prioritizing pages within XML sitemaps.

The results of careful execution of these tactics were tracked in a workbook that projected numbers of impressions, clicks and conversions based on past metrics and the media plan. Actual figures were regularly measured against projections, and the program was optimized accordingly.

Results
Campaign highlights included a 65% conversion rate increase and 27% decrease in cost per conversion over the 12-month period. Previously, the brand Monograms had not appeared in the first page of organic listings in the search engines, but after optimization, it was ranked first in Google, Yahoo! and MSN. An 83% increase in click-through rates was the result of other SEO wins, including a 64% increase in Top 30 Listings, 71% increase in Top 10 Listings and 50% increase in Number One Listings.

For more information, please contact info@90octane.com
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