LeisureLink serves as a revenue management service for thousands of condominium rental properties and independent hotels. The company also distributes its inventory through its consumer site, ABetterStay.com; travel agents and online travel booking sites. Working through its search marketing partner DataPop, LeisureLink’s consumer site, ABetterStay.com, relies on paid search campaigns to drive a significant portion of its business. A long-time advertiser on both Yahoo! Search and Bing, LeisureLink has realized five-star results following its transition to the combined marketplace in 2010, with more than double the amount of clicks, much higher conversion rates and ROAS, and a reduced cost-per-click.
The Challenge
As with all travel-related offerings, inventory levels and pricing on ABetterStay.com is incredibly dynamic depending on market and time of year, so LeisureLink relies on the services of its partner, DataPop, a company that helps manage its paid search campaigns. DataPop’s system actively manages keywords, ads and landing pages based on the available inventory across ABetterStay.com’s portfolio of properties, generating search marketing campaigns only for what's available at the most attractive price.
LeisureLink’s paid search campaigns offer other unique challenges. They have to be properly managed to offer the right set of results from its more than 2,000 properties, and consumer intent varies wildly depending on the season. Additionally, LeisureLink must work within slim margins due to its aggregation of partner inventory, so its paid search campaigns must produce consistent and predictable ROI.
The Solution
Working closely with account managers at Yahoo!, the DataPop team developed an offer-driven approach for LeisureLink’s campaign set-up and optimization, which they already knew worked well on Microsoft adCenter.
Specifically, they designed campaigns to deliver a significant portion of traffic through the Exact match type, and from “tail” terms (very specific search terms that have high conversion rates). They developed small, tightly structured ad groups that had a strong relationship between associated keywords, ads and landing pages. Finally, DataPop incorporated dynamic data in the ads—such as pricing, room availability, and local weather details—which leads to better informed prospects and a higher level of engagement.
The Results
With DataPop expertly piloting the transition to the combined marketplace, LeisureLink realized results that far exceeded anyone’s expectations. Comparing the firm’s results using separate Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter accounts in 2010 vs. the post-transition single account results in 2011, total clicks to ABetterStay.com more than doubled (+125%), and its conversion percentage increased by 72%. At the same time, its cost-per-click was reduced by 29%. Most significantly, the return-on-ad-spend LeisureLink has realized on the combined Yahoo!/Bing marketplace is 90% higher than with Google AdWords.
“Our experience transitioning LeisureLink shows that the combined Yahoo!/Bing marketplace delivers great value for marketers, especially those who take an active approach to managing it,” says Dave Schwartz, Head of Client Services at DataPop. “The amount of revenue that a company can realize from advertising on the combined marketplace can represent a substantial portion as compared to AdWords, so advertising on Yahoo! and Bing should be a key part of any online marketing mix.”
About LeisureLink
LeisureLink, Inc. gives independent hotel and resort properties access to enterprise-class technologies that automate revenue management, online distribution and back-end processing to help them increase reach, efficiency and revenues. Its platform, Marketspan, enables clients to compete on online channels, automate real-time pricing, and simplify back-end processing for increased bookings and consistent growth.
About DataPop
DataPop is a search marketing technology provider that simplifies how companies create high-performing, customized and relevant search ads. Recognizing the need for a radically new way of managing paid search campaigns, the DataPop team developed an entirely new ad creation platform for its clients.
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