The Hoban Hotel Case Study

Overview

Formerly known as Aspect Hotel Kilkenny, The Hoban Hotel was relaunched in March 2019 following a major renovation and rebranding programme. Based just 20 minutes walk from Kilkenny city, the hotel offers 80 guest rooms, bar, restaurant and meeting rooms and is a vibrant place to stay, meet and socialise. The hotel is a very popular place for business guests visiting or passing through the city, and also for leisure guests enjoying short breaks in the city and immersing themselves in Ireland’s Ancient East. The hotel was named in reference to James Hoban (1755-1831), a pioneering Kilkenny-born architect who designed and built America’s White House.
45% increase in paid search return on ad spend.
0 %
Increase in bookings from paid search
0 %
increase in click-through rate from paid search.
0 %
Increase in direct bookings on the hotel website
0 %

The Challenge

As the hotel was rebranding, we were launching a brand new website on a new domain name which had never been indexed by the search engines and was not likely to be found organically. We needed to ensure that there was no loss in relevant traffic when changing from the old website to the new one and that the new website continued to deliver strong levels of direct reservations. We also needed to ensure that customers were not confused by the rebrand and did not bounce off the site when they saw the new name and branding and didn’t recognise it as the former Aspect Hotel.

Process

We targeted brand and generic keywords. Brand campaigns target keywords that contain the Hotel’s name (e.g The Hoban Hotel), the old brand name (Aspect Hotel Kilkenny), and generic campaigns target keywords that relate to people’s searching for hotels in Kilkenny (e.g. hotels in Kilkenny, Kilkenny city hotels, etc). We also built out extensive negative keywords to ensure the traffic we captured was most likely to convert. Focusing on traffic that was more likely to convert, we bid aggressively, depending on the keyword, device, audience list, demographics, locations, and other criteria. Our ad text and landing pages focused on the unique benefits that direct bookers receive such as access to the Rewards From Us To You loyalty club, a free drinks and a best rate guarantee. The showcasing of these benefits ensured that we achieved a high conversion rate. Dedicated landing pages were used to also increase conversion rate ensuring people who were familiar with the old hotel name were not confused by the rebranding.

Results

300% increase in paid search revenue. 

300% increase in bookings from paid search.

45% increase in paid search return on ad spend.

55% increase in direct bookings.

22% decrease in cost per click from paid search.

95% increase in click-through rate from paid search.

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