Social media advertising case study: Anchor Bay Holidays
In this month’s blog, we’re showcasing how we’ve helped Anchor Bay Holidays with their social media advertising as well as elevating their online brand more generally, and sharing some of the exciting results of our partnership.
Why did Anchor Bay holidays contact The Thinking Cap?
In May 2024, Anthony Smith contacted The Thinking Cap on behalf of his company, Anchor Bay Holidays; he found us via a Google search as he was looking to outsource the management of his digital paid ads.
He was running the social media ads himself, and felt that they were working ok, but they could be better: that’s where we came in.
How did they present the project?
Anthony wanted us to focus on his social media advertising; he knew that the ads themselves didn’t look very professional, and they were being shown to a cold audience rather than being targeted at any particular demographic.
When we began working with Anchor Bay Holidays, Anthony was spending a healthy £700 per month on his social media advertising, which is considerably larger than most companies allocate, and we were keen to help him to get better results for his money.
What was your strategy?
The Thinking Cap is a husband-and-wife team, and we love working together to help businesses to grow their online presence and marketing.
So, whilst Martin was busy creating the ad visuals, I worked with Anthony to create four different ad sets.
We also used analytics from Anchor Bay Holiday’s website to work out his primary audience, and from there we worked to refine this and create the four different ad sets:
1.The first ad set utilised one of his best-performing cold audiences, but altered the visuals and text from the original ad to elevate the hard work Anthony had already put into this previous campaign.
2. Anthony has a large email subscriber list, which we used to create a ‘lookalike audience’ – an audience very similar to those who are already invested in his holiday cottages – for
the second ad set, which yielded a really receptive group.
3. For
the third ad set, we utilised retargeting ads. This is where interested customers who haven’t yet completed their booking are shown social media ads which refocuses their purchase and redirects them back to the website. In order to do this you need a Facebook event pixel on your website, of which Anthony already had.
4. Finally, we created
the fourth ad set which focused on the dog-friendly aspects of Anchor Bay Holidays, and aimed these at an audience of people who’d shown previous interest while on Facebook or Instagram in dog-related products such as dog food, training, and grooming, so might well be looking for a holiday where they could bring their pet along.
For each of these ad sets, we created a static advert, a carousel and a video, which worked well alongside focused text and the right 'Book NOW' call to action.
Did your work with Anchor Bay Holidays focus solely on social media advertising?
No – We also redesigned his homepage, and made sure that this was ready to go live at the same time as the ads, so that interested customers were directed to a website which was clear, professional and easy to use.
Previously, Anthony’s website didn’t have a clear route for customers to follow, and it was difficult to work out how to search for a holiday cottage.
Once this was cleaned up, the website looked great, was easy to navigate and now has clear CTAs (Calls to Action) so that customers know where to go in order to book a holiday.
How did Anchor Bay Holidays feel the ads were going?
Even within the learning phrase – when the Meta Ad Manager is refining the best audience to send your ads to– Anthony found his new social media ad sets to be high-performing.
They achieved conversions much more quickly than previous ads, and the audiences reached were much broader too.
Something Anthony was particularly pleased with was that the average cost per click was vastly reduced; before working with us, he was paying around 50p per click, and we reduced this to 10p – sometimes less. So he getting five times more traffic for the same price.
What were the results for Anchor Bay Holidays?
The overall feel of Anthony’s social media advertising is completely transformed since we began working together.
His ads look much less cluttered, and more accurately illustrate the luxury, high-end holidays that Anchor Bay offer – showing why they’re worth the cost and attracting an audience who are willing to spend this amount. See the below image for the Before and After ad imagery. Less is more (in this case)...
The messaging across their ads and website is now clear and informative, with a warm welcoming tone which showcases the values of Anchor Bay Holidays as a company.
The customer journey is much smoother due to our work on the website, as clients can use a clear search filter to find what they need.
Anthony’s social media advertising is now targeted and reaches a more defined and interested audience – which is reflected in the much higher conversion rate of customers; now that his investment in ads is being directed to the right people, he’s getting way more clicks from the right people.
In fact, between March and May 2024, click rate increased a massive 1177%, and cost per click was reduced by 300%. Alongside their 847% increase in impressions, this makes for a very impressive roundup of results!
What does ongoing work with Anchor Bay Holidays look like?
We now work on a monthly retainer with Anchor Bay Holidays and look after a wide range of their marketing tasks.
Alongside their social media advertising and posts, we write regular blogs for Anchor Bay, run magazine ads and competitions, and have co-ordinated PR collaborations, including working with the Spirit of Yorkshire whisky distillery, which is just around the corner and a perfect collaboration for such a locally rooted business.
We have also overhauled their newsletter. We mentioned earlier that this had a large audience, but unfortunately the emails had no clear messaging and poor imagery, so it was time to upgrade these too.
Their email marketing now has a similar feel to the new ad sets, and are full of information about the high-end holidays on offer through Anchor Bay to guide customers through to purchase.
Would Anchor Bay Holidays recommend you to others?
Anthony at Anchor Bay is really happy with our work – in fact, here’s a review he left for us which speaks for itself:
“What a Team!!! I’ve only worked with Lisa and Martin for about 6 weeks but they’ve totally transformed my business! In a few short weeks they have refreshed all the creatives (something I was an amateur at), have created blogs (a job I really didn’t like) as well as made my whole brand lifted to the next level. The main success (in addition to the above) is the impact they have had on my social media ads – turning a lacklustre set of campaigns which just ‘worked’ into targeted and high performing ad sets! I cannot recommend them highly enough to your business!”
It’s hardly surprising that Anthony is so pleased with our work. He was previously managing around 50 properties on the bay in Filey but thanks to his new, professional marketing and high-performance social media advertising, his business has now grown to the point where he’s managing over 75 properties, and is considering expanding into other areas along the Yorkshire coast.
Not only have we solved his marketing problems and made the running of his business much smoother, we’ve also attracted a large number of homeowners to his portfolio, and given him the confidence to upscale knowing that he can rely on our support as his business grows.
Anthony is keen to recommend our services to other business owners who need a hand with their online marketing, and we can’t wait to meet more people like him who’d like to elevate their brand.
If this sounds like you, get in contact today and start your journey to high-performing social media advertising and business growth.
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