How Iberostar unlocked a 25% sales increase and a 6x return on ad spend
Challenge
Iberostar sought to increase direct channel share and profitability in the Swiss market for travel to the Balearic Islands. Their relatively small size simplified targeting, allowing for a focused approach. The challenge was to stimulate and capture incremental demand in this market, moving beyond traditional distribution channels.
Approach
A geo-targeted experiment was designed, dividing Swiss districts into control and test groups. The test group was exposed to a dual-pronged campaign strategy:
Demand Generation
Newly launched campaigns focused on raising brand awareness and highlighting Iberostar's unique selling propositions.
Performance Max
Campaigns optimized for conversions (hotel bookings) were activated to capitalize on the demand generated by the Demand Gen efforts.
This combined approach aimed to validate the effectiveness of using Demand Gen and Performance Max together to drive incremental revenue.
Results
The geo-experiment significantly exceeded expectations:
Sales Increase: a remarkable 25% increase in sales within the targeted Swiss regions
Incremental ROAS: an impressive x6 return on ad spend, demonstrating strong efficiency and profitability
Increased Brand Searches: a noticeable rise in brand searches, indicating the positive impact of the integrated campaign strategy on brand awareness
The campaign achieved significant impact:
“This experiment has allowed us to prove that there are other actions that can be implemented in addition to focusing on the brand, which also allow us to have a good return and generate incrementality. In addition to proving the positive side of activating Demand Gen and PMAX together, we saw an increase in brand searches, which shows that the joint activation of different actions with different objectives is really positive.” Laura Pons, Iberostar Traffic & Performance Director