Targeting search advertising drives increased conversions for Eurostar:
Eurostar is the high-speed passenger rail service directly linking the UK to the Continental Europe via the Channel Tunnel. Eurostar launched services in 1994 and now runs up to 17 city centre to city centre services from London to Paris and ten to Brussels daily. A key driver of its continued success is Eurostar’s targeting of the business travel market and independent travelers.
Objectives
Attempting to combat the traditional slowdown in sales during February, Eurostar sought to optimise its Search campaign by using Microsoft adCenter’s unique targeting tools. To improve sales performance Eurostar looked to focus ads on travelers most likely to regularly use their high-speed service - those living within the London and Kent areas, aged between 25 and 45 years.
Approach
Using Microsoft adCenter’s geographic, demographic and day-part targeting technology Eurostar were able to maximize the visibility of their ads when being searched for by its key target audience.
For this campaign Eurostar up-weighted their bids by x% for those living in the London and Kent areas aged between 25 to 45 years. adCenter also allowed Eurostar to capitalize on the natural uplift in travel-related searches on Mondays and Tuesdays by displaying their ads higher in the listings on those crucial days.
Campaign Results
The use of adCenter’s targeting tools had a dramatic effect on Eurostar’s pay per click results – driving the performance of Live Search above and beyond the other engines:
- The click-to-sale ratio of Live Search was 35% higher than the other engines.
- The cost-of-sale rate was 16% lower using Live Search than other engines.
- Live Search was the only engine to achieve an increase in conversion rate from the previous month.
- The click-through-rate grew to nearly 5 times the average from all
- search advertising.
Summary
The Eurostar campaign provides strong evidence that the responsiveness of the Live Search audience, combined with adCenter’s unique targeting tools can lead to substantial advertising benefits.
Offering a targeted advertising experience In which you increase the chances of your ads being seen by your key audience, whilst not excluding other users, can lead to significant increases in CTR, sales and ROI.
