Three Amusement Parks Increased Visitation Over 60% YoY Using Cross-Device Display & Paid Search
Back to Case StudiesA chain of amusement parks wanted to increase awareness and ticket sales during peak season for three of their locations: Aurora, IL, Downers Grove, IL, and Seekonk, MA. To achieve its goal, the amusement park enlisted Digilant’s services to create a custom media strategy that would reach and engage audiences near each of the client’s target locations with upper and lower-funnel tactics.
Strategies & Tactics
Digilant launched a six-week campaign that targeted adults, aged 18 to 34, using animated banners and paid search ads. By employing radius targeting, centered on each park’s location, Digilant would enable the client to find the right audience.
- Amusement Parks #1 & #2
- Display ads: 50-mile radius
- Paid search ads: 50-mile radius
- Amusement Park #3
- Display ads: 30-mile radius
- Paid search ads: 40-mile radius
Cross-Device Display Tactics
A mix of tactics were used to reach new visitors and drive them down the funnel to purchase tickets, including:
Adaptive Segments: Segment users who have engaged with the amusement park’s website based on activity, pages visited, action taken, and adjusting bidding strategy to drive even stronger conversions.
Algorithmic optimizer: Digilant customized the amusement parks’ buying algorithm towards views and clicks to reach their awareness and visitation goals.
Behavioral targeting: Third-party data segments were used to reach adults 18-37 years old, and entertainment enthusiasts interested in visiting amusement parks.
Contextual targeting: By aligning ads with relevant content and other similar terms, Digilant kept the amusement parks top of mind amongst target audiences.
Curated marketplace: A custom whitelist was created and used to run across news, sports, weather, entertainment, home & garden, and parenting sites.
Site Retargeting: To encourage action, Digilant delivered ads to users who visited the amusement park’s website but didn’t purchase tickets.
Paid Search
Digilant also leveraged paid search to reach people who searched for amusement parks, competitors’ parks, and other local attractions and events in the area. Digilant used the following approaches and tools to drive strong performance across SEM:
- Extension creation, which enabled custom conversion event tracking & improved ad quality (with a “Buy Now” button in the ad)
- Custom dashboards, to provide granular data access, including day & hourly performance by click, impressions, and total investment, in addition to granular data at the campaign, ad group, and keyword level for traffic.
- Conversion setup and custom event tracking, like sitelink clicks and reporting via reporting docs.
- Routine optimizations, including bid and budget management with pacing, negative keyword additions and search term reviews, week-over-week KPI reviews & adjustments
Key Results
The combination of display and paid search allowed each amusement park to reach and exceed its goals.