Paul Oates heads performance media at Forge Holiday Group, including Sykes Cottages. Alongside App Marketing Lead Sarah McColl and Product Lead Sarah Capjon, the team’s strategic rethink of the Sykes app has been pivotal in making it a key revenue driver.
It seems British people have a soft spot for hot tubs. As one of the top search terms leading users to our site and app, we’re naturally highlighting these sought-after amenities in our ads.
Keeping pace with changing travel trends has been crucial in propelling Sykes Cottages forward. From a mother-and-son startup run at the kitchen table with just a handful of rentals in 1991, we are now a B Corp with more than 22,000 managed properties.
However, one trend that initially was challenging for us to crack is the increasing customer preference for booking holidays via apps. Like many brands, we launched our app years ago under the assumption the market required it, but it never quite got the love it needed.
To boost the app’s capabilities so it could compete with other engagement channels, we had to make the case for investment and measure its impact. Ensuring a seamless customer experience was also crucial — nowhere more so than in the journey from Search to app.
Our mantra: “What about the app?”
Apps all too often get pushed down the list of business priorities. This is especially the case when they are not seen as a quick path to revenue and the focus is on short-term business metrics.
At Sykes, we’ve worked hard to change that narrative. The team have been such staunch advocates in meetings that colleagues joke that there should be a sign saying, “What about the app?” But words aren’t enough. We needed to show unequivocally that if we could direct users seamlessly to relevant content within our app, it could drive immediate revenue and growth.
When users are directed to relevant in-app content, they are 27% more likely to make a booking
Most of our customer journeys begin on Search, even for the 1.5 million people who have downloaded the app. For this reason, we decided to run a small-scale test of Google’s Web to App Connect. This tool would allow us to direct users who click on our Search ads straight to relevant pages within our app with deep linking, while also measuring the success of those ads in driving specific actions — in our case, bookings.
Making a Google Search a “one and done” experience
All our paid search campaigns are finely tuned to capture the detailed queries travellers increasingly use when booking holiday accommodation. For example, we use broad match keywords like “dog-friendly holidays” and “hot tubs” to reach those searching for “Cornwall cottage, dog-friendly with hot tub”.
In our test of Web to App Connect, we combined broad match with deep linking. Any user with our app installed who clicked on one of our Search ads would be directed to the relevant property listings within the Sykes app — in the example above, that’s 1,476 cottages where furry friends and long baths are encouraged. For mobile users who don’t have the app, it would direct them to the mobile website as usual.
We also used smart bidding, with a focus on target return on ad spend, to automatically tailor our campaigns to generate the most conversion value for our given budget.
We were then able to measure subsequent in-app conversion actions, such as “add to basket” or bookings, to track and enhance our campaign performance and get recommendations, all from within Web to App Connect.
This combination of smart bidding, deep linking, and broad match means users land exactly where they intend to be, eliminating the need to search further in the app — while maximising profitability. Our goal is to make their initial query on Google Search a “one and done” experience.
Ramping up relevance with deep links
The results of the Web to App Connect pilot exceeded even the most optimistic expectations of the team, showing the app’s potential as a revenue driver. Our conversion rate jumped by 34%, and cost-per-action decreased by a huge 55%.
Given the pilot's success in driving more bookings at a lower cost, we promptly scaled up to include a wider range of keywords and increased our advertising spend. It all supports our pivot towards being an app-first business.
We also have some fantastic data showing how deep linking boosts app conversions. Any friction and you risk losing a sale, but when users are directed to relevant in-app content, they are 27% more likely to make a booking compared to those who just landed on the homepage or a non-deep-linked page.
Next, our focus is on delivering more value to our app customers. We’ve recently ramped up app-exclusive features and are about to launch a loyalty programme. This is very much a long-term strategy to enhance the customer experience and keep them coming back to the app — and our cottages.
