Bali Hai Cruises increases bookings by 150% and calls by 29%
Bali Hai Cruises increases bookings by 150% and calls by 29%
- Keep up with a clientbase that’s younger and more tech-savvy
- Increase site traffic and reach out to more potential customers
- Increase volume of online bookings and boost revenue
- Ran Google Ads, targeting general keywords related to tourism services
- Refined keywords and targeting so that campaigns would be more focused
- Redirected searchers to specific landing pages instead of website homepage
- 150% increase in online bookings within one month of launching Google Ads
- Website bounce rates dropped from 70% to 56%, then to 10%
- Phone calls to Bali Hai Cruises increased by 29%
- Online bookings subsequently increased by another 108%
“At this stage in our growth, we urgently needed to revisit our digital marketing and redesign our website using the latest tools from Google Ads to keep up with market innovations.”
— Andrew Sutherland, General Manager, Bali Hai Cruises
About the company
1990
Bali Hai Cruises was founded
150%
Increase in bookings within one month of running Google Ads
108%
Subsequent increase in bookings after optimising campaigns
Bali Hai Cruises’ goals
Bali Hai Cruises was founded in 1990, right when Bali opened up to tourism from around the world. For nearly two decades, the company provided unique marine adventures for families and independent tourists, with a deep commitment to ensuring that their operations and practices are environmentally-friendly.
Bali’s booming tourism industry has provided no shortage of demand for Bali Hai’s services, and now the team is nearly 500 members strong. Yet the business landscape has changed drastically since its inception: Bali Hai now faces stiff competition, and has to keep up with a client base that is younger and more tech-savvy. These clients come mainly from the Asian continent and are less reliant on travel agencies, which have long been Bali Hai’s key marketing channel.
By 2012, it became clear to Andrew Sutherland, General Manager, that he needed to change tactics and reach his potential customers where they spent the most time: online. Bali Hai had already built a website and invested in SEO, but they still weren’t driving as many online bookings as they’d hoped.
Frustrated, the team turned to Google Ads. Their goal was to use Google Ads to drive more traffic to their site, and increase their number of online bookings.
Bali Hai Cruises' Approach
Bali Hai started out simple, and ran a Google Ads campaign that targeted general keywords related to tourism services. From there, they fine-tuned their keywords so they could narrow down their targeting, and improve their results.
On top of that, Bali Hai also stopped sending searchers to their homepage using their ad campaigns; they started redirecting their consumers to specific landing pages instead. For example, customers searching for “cruises in Bali” would be brought to ads and landing pages highlighting Bali Hai’s cruise services.
Bali Hai Cruises’ results
Bali Hai experienced great results early on, with their online bookings increasing by 150% within one month of launching their ad campaigns.
After Bali Hai refined its keywords and improved upon its targeting, its website bounce rates dropped from 70% to 56, and phone calls to the business increased by 29%. Within a year, the company’s online bookings grew by another 108%, and today, Bali Hai has an impressively low bounce rate of 10%.
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