Google Ads / SEO / CRO
562% improvement from CRO
Overview
Digital Hothouse worked with Pacific Resort to improve their booking flow with an uplift of 562% more people going to their booking pages than from the control. We ran 2 separate tests with even the loser seeing a 400% uplift
SEO
CRO
Google Ads
Website Design and Development
Background
Digital Hothouse has worked with Pacific Resort since 2012. We started working with them on their SEO and Google Ads to drive more bookings from their website. We were driving high quality traffic but their bookings weren’t increasing as they should. We implemented a CRO test to improve the booking process and make it easier for visitors to get to the booking funnel. This resulted in the conversion rate increasing from 3.44% to 22.76% from booking enquiries with 100% probability to beat the control.
After working with Pacific Resort driving traffic through Google Ads and SEO, we recommended that we work with them to get more people creating booking enquiries and booking quotes.
We looked at their main landing pages and came up with several options to drive more people through to the booking funnel.
We engaged our web designer to create two different options to the current Homepage control which would improve this outcome.
The first test we came up with was putting the booking form in the middle of the hero image on the Homepage. Much like other accommodation websites – and even the Air New Zealand website. The other design incorporated a top left menu option.
Outcome
Increase in booking searches
The reason for running A-B tests is to see the outcome and choose the best option. As it turned out, we were wrong.
The first test we ran, we expected to be the clear winner – however, it was the second option that won. That’s why we run CRO tests rather than just simply implementing the ideas that we have or suggestions put forward by our team.
The first test that we expected to win had an improvement of 487% but the second option had a 562% increase, so it obviously made sense to roll out the second option. If we had just gone with our gut, then we’d still have seen a great increase for Pacific Resort, but not as strong as the result we achieved after running the A-B test.
The winning test had a 100% confidence rate of beating the control and a 92% confidence rate of beating the other option so it was a no brainer to roll out this option.
Conversion rate optimisation is about testing theories rather than simply implementing every idea we have in-house or that come from our clients. Whilst some changes might seem obvious, testing is the only real way to know whether a change will lead to an improve result or not and that’s why we place such value on CRO when working with our clients.
“Working with Paul, Gavin and the team at Digital Hothouse has been an absolute pleasure, and we wholeheartedly recommend their services to anyone needing a website and the occasional assistance on other projects. We’ve worked with their team for around ten years, and they have been an invaluable partner in the digital landscape. We are incredibly grateful for their contributions and look forward to continuing our collaboration in the future.”
