Busfor is the largest bus ticket purchase service in Ukraine, Central, and Eastern Europe. Learn how they drove efficiency with Google’s search management platform — resulting in a 50% increase in conversions and 7% lift in ROAS.
Operating across multiple countries and managing a vast and constantly changing inventory are just some of the many challenges facing marketers in the online travel industry today. And adding to that the pressure of increasing competition, companies can’t afford to lag behind on their digital strategy.
Partnering with more than 7,000 carriers in over 35 countries across Europe and Asia, bus ticket seller Busfor was struggling to keep up with their campaigns. With such a large catalogue and market, how could they incorporate real-time data efficiently and serve up relevant ads? They had to completely rethink their digital strategy.
Streamlining campaign management
Busfor’s main objectives were to increase conversions and reduce costs. This required a more efficient and strategic approach that would enable the company to spend less time on campaign maintenance and more time optimising and improving performance. But this is easier said than done. In Busfor’s case it meant taking a big step to transform their digital marketing activities. With a strategy heavily focused on search, they decided to try out management platform Search Ads 360.
After aggregating their data in the platform, the Busfor team launched separate advertising campaigns for each top-performing market. Analysing the results allowed them to choose appropriate bid strategies for their campaigns.
“We simplified our campaign management enormously. This helped us to expand our strategy to other markets,” explained Kiril Vinokurov, head of performance marketing at Busfor.
Results worth scaling
The new approach led to a 50% increase in conversions at a 5% lower cost compared to the same time period the previous year, resulting in a 7% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS). They were also able to connect with a much wider audience, increasing the number of new users by 58%.
The increased efficiency freed up the marketing teams to focus on other areas of development and strategic decision-making. And they’re already thinking about their next move: scaling Busfor’s campaigns further to cover more markets.
