Travel Trends in 2025: What They Mean for Travel Brands & How to Market Smarter

Travel is back in full force in 2025. According to the European Travel Commission, international arrivals to Europe rose 7.2% in Q1 year-on-year. Airbnb reports record demand for spring and summer bookings, while Expedia and Google highlight growing interest in more flexible, experience-led itineraries.

Travellers are rethinking how they plan, where they go, and what they value most. Social media, AI support, and rising sustainability awareness are influencing these choices in real time. Planning behaviours have shifted fast, and brands risk selling 2010s holidays to a 2025 audience. For marketers, this means adapting quickly—whether through geo-targeted messaging, new content formats, or platform-specific strategies. And while cost still matters, price alone won’t win. Travellers are prioritising value, experience and alignment with their personal preferences more than ever—reshaping what it takes to stand out in a crowded market.

We’ve seen this shift firsthand with our client Oliver’s Travels, and it is both the challenge and the opportunity for travel brands in 2025.

“Successful marketing isn’t just about having a great product, it’s about connecting with people on a deeper level.”

— Oliver Bell, Co-Founder of Oliver's Travels

Sustainable Travel & The Shift to Lesser-Known Destinations

Travellers in 2025 are prioritising meaningful, less crowded experiences over major tourist hotspots. According to American Express, 72% prefer the right experience over the cheapest deal, with growing interest in wellness, local stays, and eco-conscious options. The global sustainable tourism market is now valued between $3.1 trillion and $4 trillion, expected to grow by over $500 billion by 2029. Gen Z is leading this shift, with nearly half concerned about their environmental impact and 76% of all travellers aiming to make more sustainable choices.

Demand is also shifting to quieter alternatives—Expedia reports increased searches for less touristy cities like Reims, Girona, and Santa Barbara, echoing Airbnb’s 2023 finding that 80% of new bookings were in non-urban areas.

This presents an opportunity for travel brands to align with evolving preferences. Campaigns across paid search and social can spotlight quieter destinations, off-season travel, and low-impact experiences—appealing to travellers who value more thoughtful, less crowded trips.

At Kinase, we’ve seen this shift firsthand with long-term client Oliver’s Travels. By combining CRM insights with geo-targeting strategies, we helped them surface the right villas to the right audiences—even for lesser-known destinations—driving awareness and growth across social and search as they expanded to nearly 10,000 properties.

How Tech is Redefining Planning

Planning behaviours have also shifted. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are now key sources of travel inspiration, especially for younger audiences. Over 80% of millennials turn to social media for ideas, with more than half of Gen Z saying it’s their main planning tool.

AI is accelerating this shift, with the travel AI market projected to grow from $2.95 billion in 2024 to over $13 billion by 2030. This includes tools like itinerary generators, price prediction engines and personalised trip planners, already used by one in five millennials to build more tailored travel experiences.

For marketers, this means meeting travellers where they’re searching—and ensuring that channels like search, social and display work in sync across the funnel. Social platforms are increasingly where travel inspiration begins, while search captures high-intent moments as travellers narrow down options. Display, often overlooked, can reinforce brand recall and retarget undecided users across the journey. To make this work, brands need to invest in short-form video, user-generated content and AI-powered personalisation that adapts to how and where people are planning their trips.

The Search for Real Value

While cost remains a key factor, travellers aren’t cutting back on what matters. According to Skyscanner, 60% say flights are their top decision driver, followed by accommodation and dining. Despite rising costs, 80% still plan the same or more trips in 2025.

That means price alone won’t win. Travellers are looking for clear value—whether through flexible pricing, loyalty perks, or meaningful upgrades that enhance their experience. Brands that position their offers as “worth it,” not just “cheapest,” will stand out.

Global Uncertainty & Regional Shifts

Global events continue to shape demand. U.S. inbound tourism is down 11.6% year-on-year, including a 17% drop in European visitors. Canadian travel could fall by over 20%, risking $9 billion in lost revenue. In contrast, Asia’s tourism is booming—Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia saw double-digit growth in 2024, and Japan welcomed 37 million tourists.

Yet rapid growth has its downsides. Cities like Kyoto are facing over-tourism pressures, while European destinations like Bruges are introducing new visitor taxes to manage the strain. So in conclusion, marketers must balance visibility with sustainability—promoting off-peak, lesser-known, or more responsible options, backed by geo-targeted messaging that flexes with changing conditions.

Where We Go From Here

Travellers are more mobile-first, experience-driven, and more quick to switch plans than ever before. To keep up, brands need to shift toward predictive insights, platform-specific content, and real-time campaign agility.

Performance-focused strategies should embrace AI personalisation, short-form content, and user-generated social proof. At Kinase, we help travel brands stay responsive and results-driven—optimising Paid Search and Paid Social campaigns to meet changing traveller expectations and deliver measurable impact.

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Combining PPC and Paid Social to Deliver Long-Term Growth for Brewers Decorator Centres

Context

Since 2019, Brewers has transformed from a trade-exclusive brand into a thriving multi-channel business, now serving both Trade and DIY customers. To support this evolution, Brewers partnered with Kinase to boost brand visibility, grow its presence across Trade and Retail audiences, and strengthen support for its extensive store network. 

In 2022, Kinase’s role expanded to include Paid Social management, aimed at accelerating growth and enhancing brand awareness.

Solution

Kinase implemented a data-driven, dual-focus strategy that combined brand-building with performance-driven campaigns. Key initiatives included:

• Strategic segmentation of Trade and Retail audiences to personalise messaging and maximise ROI

• Transitioning to ASC+ campaigns to leverage machine learning for improved efficiency and scalability

• Optimising lead generation to enhance first-party data and customer signals

• Upgrading creative assets and catalogue feeds to boost engagement and streamline user experience

• Activating local inventory ads and geo-targeted campaigns to drive in-store traffic

Results

Since the beginning of the partnership:

• Revenue has grown by 38x since 2019

• Achieved a 106.6% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in revenue over 5 years

• A strong and stable cross-channel ROAS has been maintained throughout

“We’ve been working with Kinase for over 5 years now - they’ve become an extension of our marketing team! Their strategic approach to our PPC campaigns has boosted our ROAS and exceeded objectives. The team are so easy to work with, with excellent communication and a willingness to go the extra mile, which really sets them apart from other agencies. Highly recommend!”

— Nicky Pysden, Digital Marketing Manager, Brewers

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Making smart bidding smarter for Purplebricks

A bespoke data integration led to a sophisticated extra layer for smart bidding - driving more and better quality leads

Building a new model for Purplebricks supercharged lead quality - and opened up a full funnel approach.

Challenge

In 2023, Purplebricks needed a way to optimise for better quality leads, knowing that not all leads are equally valuable. With the cost per lead rising, a better lead gen strategy was needed.

Many variables beyond customer intent impact the value of a Purplebricks lead. These include external factors (postcode, property value, market liquidity) as well as internal ones (agent availability and calendar availability for each geographic area). These sat in multiple systems and frequently changed in-day. 

The challenge was to disentangle all of that data in order to bid optimally for every lead.

Strategy

The first step was to ingest field and market data by geographic area. The second was to build a new model which could power up smart bidding with these signals, in order to better optimise for converting leads.

Kinase and Purplebricks ingested all relevant data using a combination of Google Ads scripts and SA360 bidding portfolios to introduce an extra layer of optimisation at a local geographical level.

This worked by building a weighting model to score potential value based on postal outcode clusters across the UK hourly.

Results

After implementing this geographic automation project, lead quality immediately improved. The number of users who booked a property valuation increased by 22% year over year. The number of appointments that converted into an ‘instruction to sell’ a property increased by 8% - more leads and more valuable lead. The net value of a lead increased by over 12%.

This opened up full funnel digital marketing opportunities for the business, with the confidence that additional channels could return real gains based on the geographic modelling already proven.

The approach of using first party data at scale to supercharge smart bidding is a unique story, especially the element of incorporating agent availability. However, there is an underlying story here for other advertisers. This is a focus on building solutions which lie in strategic insight and handling of data - rather than proprietary technology which can become a dependence.

The project has been recognised by Google’s Premier Partner Awards 2024 and in the UK Paid Media Awards 2025.

Discover more about Lead Gen at Kinase

Building on Brewers Paid Social Growth

There paint no mountain high enough for Brewers Paid Social performance

By Daniel Quin, Paid Social Account Manager

Challenge

Brewers Paid Social campaigns have seen steady growth, with Kinase growing revenue year on year. We challenged ourselves to build on these foundations, rather than rest on the performance to date. From August 2024 we refreshed our strategy and devised new ways to make use of Meta’s growing feature set, with the final aim to drive further growth on the account with an increased ROAS. 

Solution

Within the old structure of the Ad Account, there was a new Meta campaign for each new type of activity, which led to a busier and fragmented Ads Manager. With this information, we first created two new master campaigns for Brewers Store Openings, one for Reach and one for Awareness.

This enabled us to better harness the Meta-algorithm and help exit the crucial but limiting learning phase quicker. 

We then moved on to improving conversion performance. We realised from our analysis that our older conversion campaigns were combining Brewers core audiences within separate Prospecting and Remarketing campaigns. With our new structure, we combined our Prospecting and Remarketing campaigns but separated them by the core audiences instead of by the campaign type, with the aim of boosting performance. 

Results

With a cleaner account structure and a different approach to our conversion activity, we saw improvements in our performance quarter over quarter and year over year.

As an example, when comparing Q3 to Q2 2024, we drove a 12% uplift in revenue, ultimately leading to an 82% rise in ROAS, finishing at 9.5 from 5.2.

We also saw efficiencies increase within the account, reflected in a 28% decrease in CPC and a 43% decrease in CPP. 

For Q3 year over year, the account saw a 44% increase in revenue and a 90% increase in ROAS, ending at 9.6 from 5. Efficiencies again increased, as our CPC and CPP fell by 38% and 55% respectively. 

Building on this, the opportunity for Brewers is clear - with an audience of potential customers waiting to be captivated by a Brewers paid social ad.

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Simple Yet Powerful: Using Trust Signals On Advantage+ To Treble ROAS For Oliver’s Travels

A case study using Meta’s Advantage+ for Oliver’s Travels

By Ellen Currie, Paid Social Team

Case Study: Oliver’s Travels

Background

After winning the esteemed Condé Nast Traveller Reader’s Choice Award for 2024, Oliver’s Travels secured the iconic award emblem for use in future marketing efforts. This presented an ideal opportunity to leverage a trust-inducing, key USP-related image across paid social channels.

Implementation

We needed a powerful way to leverage Oliver’s Travels trust signals from this award win. Using Advantage+ Catalogue Frames, the award emblem was seamlessly embedded into a range of dynamically sourced content. The setup was incredibly efficient compared to traditional ad creation processes, which often require extensive asset design and production time.

Advantage+ Catalogue Frames are a straightforward yet effective tool designed to enhance your catalogue ads. Here’s how they work:

• Easy Setup: Simply upload a PNG file—this could be your brand logo, an award badge, a sale-related message button, or any other creative element.

• Automatic Overlay: Once uploaded, Meta automatically overlays your image element on your product images.

• Versatile Application: This feature works across both single-image and carousel ads, whether you’re running dynamic or static catalogue campaigns.

To ensure the overlay perfectly aligned with the Oliver’s Travels brand and campaign objectives, we customised the catalogue ad frame for opacity, size, position and blending. These options allowed us to tailor the frame to complement Oliver’s Travels imagery, ensuring the extra layer of branding was both subtle and effective.

Results

After the ads exited the learning phase, we conducted an informal test comparing:

• A regular dynamic catalogue carousel ad of properties.

• A duplicate ad featuring the award badge frame.

Focused on the US market—where Condé Nast Traveller Award-themed content historically performs well—the framed ads delivered impressive results:

• Significantly higher attributed bookings volume and revenue

• Lower cost per booking

• A remarkable 3x higher Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) compared to ads without the frame

Summary

Advantage+ Catalogue Frames provide advertisers with a simple way to embed key branding elements directly alongside product images.

They are easy to implement across various ad formats and offer customisation options that ensure your creative remains on-brand. As demonstrated in our Oliver’s Travels case study, using award-based frames can significantly boost your lower funnel KPIs, delivering measurable improvements in performance.

Explore how these frames can elevate your campaigns and drive better results in your own marketing efforts.

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Finding Incremental Reach for Watches of Switzerland

Finding new customers by trialling new Microsoft campaign tech

Watches of Switzerland Group wanted to drive more conversions efficiently during their peak trading season. They briefed Kinase to explore Microsoft’s new campaign type, Cost per Sale Shopping.

Plan

Kinase created new Cost Per Sale (CPS) Shopping campaigns to supplement existing shopping campaigns to expand reach.

Implementation

Launched CPS campaigns with five brands that saw immediate uplift in clicks and impressions.

Accelerated the CPS campaigns to include 24 more brands, thanks to the impressive results.

Results

The CPS campaign results were outstanding:

• Watches of Switzerland Group received an additional 3.2K clicks compared to their base target ROAS campaigns at an 84% lower Cost Per Click. 

• Generating over £12K of revenue since October, WoS Group achieved a 16x ROAS on tROAS campaigns.

Lasting Impact

Watches of Switzerland Group is continuing to scale by increasing budgets and target CPS to further expand

• Because of the campaign’s success, WoS x Kinase have continued the rollout to cover the majority of inventory

The campaign proved that reaching incremental revenue via trials and experiments with new campaign types can yield results, when managed and targeted expertly.

"Launching CPS campaigns during the peak period drove incremental revenue at a very favorable ROI. This was a welcome boost to our online performance during a very competitive period."

— James Thompson​, Group Digital Marketing Manager at The Watches of Switzerland Group

For the full case study, see Microsoft’s case study page

The Impact of Video Unlock For Reed.co.uk

Find out how Kinase doubled Reed.co.uk's average watch time and achieved a 43% view rate using Video Unlock.

Challenge

Reed.co.uk had consistently experienced engagement rates exceeding industry norms over an extended period, boasting view rates of 20% and CTRs of 0.18% on YouTube. However, following the findings of a brand lift study, which revealed that a significant portion of users were already well-acquainted with Reed.co.uk, there emerged a pressing demand for compelling creative content. This need became particularly apparent after almost a year of using nearly identical assets.

Solution

Kinase proposed Video Unlock as a solution. Currently in a testing stage, Video Unlock is an opportunity for advertisers partnering with Google to receive a custom YouTube-first video ad that follows YouTube best practices.

Video Unlock not only generates highly effective assets but also leverages Google's capabilities, enabling the client to adapt and repurpose these assets across various social media platforms. This not only results in cost savings but also significantly boosts cross-channel synergy for the client.

Results

As part of Video Unlock, there was a minimum spend commitment with Google which was already within Reed.co.uk’s media plan. Due to this they received the assets at no added cost. This strategic move led to a significant surge in view rates, enabling Reed.co.uk to fully leverage their creative refresh.

The results were remarkable, with a view rate of 43%, tripling the industry average, and doubling the average watch time. Moreover, over 50% of viewers engaged with the content until the very end, showcasing the effectiveness of this approach.

Testing AI to Measure Overall PPC Impact for Lovehoney

Kinase collaborated with Lovehoney's digital attribution partner to propel Lovehoney forward as the leading global brand for sexual happiness.

Challenge

To grow revenue by using Lovehoney’s data in a more intelligent way. 

Solution

We partnered with Lovehoney’s digital attribution partner to optimise paid search to multitouch data-driven attribution using their AI-powered Cubed solution. This offers considerably more touchpoints than those available in Google Ads or Google Analytics. The model incorporated standard user data such as device, location, time, and so on, as well as rich on-site performance data such as dwell time, page depth and basket behaviour to provide a superior model to that available through competing tech.

Because the Cubed model operated across many touchpoints and all channels, it allowed us to focus in on search terms and targeting that drives the most incremental value to the business.

We used a tool developed by Skai called Impact Navigator to conduct a robust geo-split test. This used historic data to determine two comparable (99% correlation) location groups, and measure the impact of bidding to the Cubed revenue data vs last non-direct click data at an overall business level. 

Using the location data, we split the UK into three; two groups of comparable locations (A and B) and a third group of outlier locations (C) not suitable for the test.

London was the only location specifically excluded from the test, all other areas were assigned to group A or B, while group C targeted the entirety of the UK with location exclusions for the test areas, covering London as well as any cracks between targeted areas. This third group made up approximately 20% of UK volume, while the other two accounted for around 40% each. 

We triplicated our existing campaign structure, implementing the location targeting changes outlined above to create the 3 groups of the test. We adjusted the conversion action for the test group of campaigns to use the imported Cubed data as the conversion value to optimise towards. We put each campaign group in its own target-ROAS bidding portfolio, with a 10% lower target for the test group as we were initially seeing around 90% of the revenue tracked in GA through Cubed (when optimising towards GA revenue). 

Results

The test segment drove an additional £59,548 revenue (total GA) over a four week period compared to our control segment, exceeding our initial target of £50k. We saw this revenue gap improve the longer we ran the test. 

On a granular level, spend was moved and assumptions based on Google Ads last click data were disrupted.

For example, product categories such as Essentials & Better Sex, Bondage, Lingerie and Sex Toys saw reallocated spend levels. Cubed data also challenged some core beliefs around strategies such as bidding on Lovehoney’s competitors and upper funnel query terms, both of which Cubed data values less than Google. Meanwhile Cubed sees more value in seasonal (Halloween, advent calendar etc) terms, and lingerie.

Integrated Brand Awareness for the Watches of Switzerland Group

Kinase drove Watches of Switzerland Group’s brand awareness in the US by optimising video and display for the Anytime Anywhere story - more than doubling revenue year on year

Challenge

Watches of Switzerland Group wanted to increase brand awareness in the US. The retailer needed a digital campaign to engage a new audience whilst also doubling revenue year on year.

Solution

Taking a set of distinctively British brands and devising a campaign to achieve measurable break-through in the US market over six months was a brief which needed a flexible strategy based on clear targeting of audiences and channels.

Search, YouTube, Discovery and Display were selected to cover the range of formats and funnel stages needed to portray the Anytime Anywhere story. 

Kinase’s International Growth team used in house data and Google’s Market Explorer tool to map out channel reach across each US region. This was cross-referenced against indices of Brand and Category penetration. This enabled the budget plan to be split across regions, platforms, and audiences, ensuring that all were in line with the biggest opportunities for brand growth.

To make the biggest impact, 13 key states were shortlisted for the geographical reach of the campaign - rather than spreading campaigns too thinly for real brand awareness across the whole of the US at once. 

Ensuring that the budget was then intelligently placed, a combination of Google, Skai and the agency’s own machine learning and automation was used to tie each ad auction and placement to the campaign’s branding and sales KPIs. Over the course of six months, this optimisation process at scale had plenty of data to refine and push performance as the period culminated in Thanksgiving and then Christmas gifting periods.

Results

The campaign achieved a 596% increase in year on year conversions.

264% increase in revenue (breaking through the target of doubling revenue).

25% of the market was reached, with a total watch time of 11.7 years.

As a measure of the impact the campaign had for Watches of Switzerland Group's brands in the US, Google’s Brand Uplift study of the campaign returned 1 million lifted users (defined as ‘new users who are now actively considering your brand or product after seeing your ads’). The cost per lifted user scored a best in class level against Google’s benchmarks for a new integrated brand awareness campaign.

Watch ‘Anytime. Anywhere’ By Watches of Switzerland

Eight luxury timepiece brands, eight change makers at the pinnacle of their craft, captured in eight different locations across the great American landscape to form the most extensive, multi branded timepiece campaign the industry has ever seen.

“Working with the digital team as early as the storyboarding stage allowed us to get the most from YouTube platform and ensure our creative was best in class. This was reflected in the results of the campaign with engagement metrics well ahead of industry benchmarks.”

-James Thompson, Group Digital Marketing Manager at The Watches of Switzerland Group

Connecting Margin to Real Time Bidding to drive Toolstation’s Online Growth

Kinase helped Toolstation improve Smart Bidding by integrating margin into target ROAS - delivering 3x profit year on year.

The home improvement and DIY sector experienced increased demand in 2020 and Toolstation ensured they were able to capitalise on this trend and grow their share of the market during a period of rapidly changing customer behaviour.

Challenge

Toolstation tasked Kinase with improving the return on PPC spend by optimising more closely to margin data. With over 20 thousand products covering a wide range of margins there was an opportunity to increase true ROI and the scale of activity.

Solution

Kinase proposed testing a novel use of Google Smart Bidding combined with Kenshoo’s signal enhancement solution to pull margin data into Google Ads. Smart Bidding’s machine learning would then optimise to imported ROI data in real time to drive increased profit. The test was run with a 50/50 split.

Kinase deployed a bespoke combination of Kenshoo’s signal enhancement and Google’s smart bidding. Product margin data fed into Kenshoo is then passed to Google as a signal to layer into the existing smart bidding real time solution. Kinase worked closely with Kenshoo on this data connection to ensure that the combination with Google would work and that Toolstation data would be processed smoothly.

Results

The results were conclusive; compared to a standard tROAS implementation ROI increased by over 10% for the test group with search campaigns driving a 72% increase in margin revenue. The strategy was then fully adopted for November’s peak period, driving a 168% increase in ROI and 333% increase in profit year on year.

For Kinase as well as Toolstation, the most important learning from the test was that innovative use of data is the key to unlocking the potential of digital channels to help businesses grow faster and more efficiently. At a time when channel specific tools like smart bidding are levelling the playing field for many advertisers, this shows the importance and value of continuing to innovate in search of competitive advantage.

“Kinase devised and delivered an excellent initiative for Toolstation’s paid search by connecting our rich margin data to real time bidding in advance of our peak trading. Whilst we anticipated good results and that lots would be learned in what had been an extraordinary year in our digital growth, the results were exceptional and particularly interesting around our Search campaigns. The ROI impact was notably better than we expected and we were happy to roll out Signal Enhancement x Smart Bidding across our entire account once the test had concluded.”

— Ryan Hill, Head of Digital, Toolstation

Relaunching Sharps Digital

How Kinase worked with Sharps to connect revenue data to optimisation for leads, increasing ROI by 20% and lead volumes by over 56%.

Challenge

Sharps Bedrooms is a UK-wide leading specialist in fitted bedrooms and home offices. The company was founded in 1970. Its brand recognition was built through TV advertising, and the expansion of a network of 78 showrooms.

Sharps recognised that the audience they were speaking to was narrowing - and that their existing digital activity needed to be refreshed.

Sharps turned to Kinase to overhaul and relaunch their digital marketing channels. Sharps challenged Kinase to drive a full funnel, omni-channel strategy. The core of it would be to form a new and innovative way of delivering ads which would drive leads with a better conversion rate to revenue.

Sharps briefed Kinase to prove and improve: prove new digital channels and audience reach, and improve the quality of leads which digital drives for the business.

Kinase worked with Kenshoo campaign management platform to work out how to use Sharps’ database of leads, home visits and revenue. At the core of the brief was to find a new technical solution which could drive a reporting and optimisation process to drive revenue and transform Sharps digital marketing.

Solution

Kinase drew up a strategy to connect and select: connect data points and optimise to select the right leads for the business. With joined up data we could increase audience reach while confidently deriving new, path-breaking KPIs.

Kinase knew that we really had to prioritise the further scope for brand awareness and performance remarketing to amplify digital reach - YouTube’s relaunch with new action orientated ads became a clear top priority.

To address the core development brief of connecting revenue data back to leads and to campaigns, we worked with Kenshoo and Sharps on their Salesforce implementation in order to track clicks to leads, and then return the status of the leads through to sales and revenue.

Results

Tracking and optimising to revenue across channels led to ROI increasing by 20%, with the volume of leads up 56%.

The success of the ‘connect and select’ strategy for using data and driving up return on digital spend has led to a more dynamic and transparent media planning strategy at Sharps. The Kinase team has also expanded to deliver more campaigns and development in 2020, with all new channels including YouTube now switched to ‘always on’. The team has also led the omni-channel drive in the agency, with other clients also joining up their data and working in partnership with Kinase on KPI workshops to ensure that they are focusing advertising budget where it can reach new audiences and drive up sales.

“Sharps digital marketing is transformed. Crucially, Kinase provides transparency in their reporting, so we can make decisions about a complex landscape of channels and revenue data quickly and with confidence.”

— Jared Andrews, Digital Marketing Manager, Sharps

Catering Restart - Driving ROI For Nisbets

Helping Nisbets reconnect with businesses after lockdown, leading to 70% ROI growth.

Background

Nisbets are Europe’s largest supplier of catering equipment. Nisbets develop, make and supply equipment to a diverse range of businesses including restaurants, cafes, schools, and hotels. They supply their own brand goods and third party products, and sell online, via mail order, and through physical retail outlets.

Working closely with the Nisbets team, Kinase has transformed the Nisbets b2b and b2c search strategy and performance by restructuring search campaigns, rolling out into new territories, and combining Kenshoo and Google intelligent bidding to grow Nisbets digital overall.

In February of 2020, COVID-19 became a global health concern and by March / April social distancing and then lockdowns on social and business activity were in effect across all of Nisbets’ key trading markets. Its core business customers - restaurants, cafes, schools, hotels - had to close their doors. The business began trading only online and by catalogue, focusing on the b2c side of the business which still saw some demand.

At the end of May, the UK government suggested that restaurants and hospitality could re-open from ‘early July’. Nisbets and Kinase needed to relaunch b2b strategy and campaigns quickly but flexibly to address the end of the UK’s first pandemic lockdown, and help the industry get back on its feet.

Challenge

The brief was to maximise b2b ROI for paid search in a very volatile UK market. The existing strategy and expectations clearly wouldn’t fit the new landscape. Three strategic objectives were:

1. Quickly track where business customers were coming through in the search account.

2. Understand how business customers could be targeted quickly and effectively as new trends and peaks emerged

3. Implement optimisation tools and practises could be put in place to ensure a performance-led ROI driven campaign was delivered.

Nisbets tasked Kinase with delivering more revenue at a higher rate of return year on year, while also driving new customers beyond the existing business customer base.

Solution

The strategy had three elements: reconnection, growth, and scale.

1. Reconnection

Aim: to reconnect with business customers during lockdown, there was a need to update audience targeting to understand the fast moving location and keyword trends for business customers preparing for re-opening.

For targeting and to refine bids, Kinase used customer match lists and Nisbets internal data to segment the search accounts for which keyword and interest areas were driving business customers.

2. Growth

Aim: focus on growing Nisbets market share by amplifying reach to increase the number of new b2b customers ordering.

Leveraging the first party data Nisbets had was crucial to this tactic. Building new audiences to amplify and extend the reach of the reconnection strategy - forming new connections to similar catering businesses to existing customers who had either never engaged with Nisbets before, or who had never had an online-first approach to sourcing business supplies before.

3. Scale

Aim: use a new layered bidding strategy to both stabilise and scale activity.

Kinase needed to reactivate activity from a standing start, and quickly apply learnings at a faster than previous rate. We needed a combination of bidding and optimisation mechanisms which could be layered to deliver ROI. We chose Google’s Smart Bidding x Kenshoo’s Budget Navigator to optimise to ROI from small data sets and real time reactions to sudden shifts in demand across every targeting type - keywords, audiences, time of day, locations, demographics, devices, ad unit selection.

Results

Amazing ROI Growth in Difficult Times

For June, the campaign delivered an ROI of 6.2. This ROI was up 70% year on year.

Optimisation and scaled up portfolio bidding delivered much lower CPCs year on year, enabling the campaign to find business customers efficiently and at scale despite the standing start and difficult market environment. This growth ensured that Nisbets was in a prime position to grow and capture the changing demands and needs of the catering sector.