Objectives

When developing the strategy for Best Western, LBi bigmouthmedia looked at how they could solve the challenge of this campaign as simply as possible, whilst ensuring that the client’s objectives were met. The following elements were carefully blended into the full strategy in order to tackle each point as efficiently as possible:

• Increase low converting affiliates performance
• Increase the number of affiliates on the programme to balance the affiliate mix in order to provide additional exposure relevant to Best Western’s facilities
• Improve relationships with key PPC affiliates and build connections with industry peers through Affiliate Days

Our Solution

1. Low Converting Affiliates

This was initially introduced to help audit the quality of the sites promoting Best Western. Affiliates who were performing lower than the program average were selected and their referring sites were audited by LBi bigmouthmedia. Once an audit had been completed the account team then fed this back to the affiliate and in turn they updated their sites based on recommendations including quality of content, creative and call to actions. As a result there was a fantastic response rate and a number of improvements on the overall program conversion rate average.

2. Recruitment

LBi bigmouthmedia recruited niche sites surrounding family friendly, pet friendly, fishing,walking and golfing hotel breaks in order to ensure a wider target audience was captured. From this 125 key content affiliates were identified and contacted. The joint program team managed to recruit 24% of the affiliates contacted which surpassed the industry standard of 5%. This figured can be attributed to the bespoke emails sent to the affiliates by the account team. This was closely monitored by the account team through a singular, streamlined calendar process which was transparent from account team to client.

3.Improve Relationships

PPC affiliates were introduced to help broaden Best Western’s exposure within the search space and in turn help to diminish any competition. In order to identify relevant partners RFP’s were sent out and affiliates were asked to pitch their ideas to LBi bigmouthmedia who were then able to make a suitable decision based on the submitted plans. By introducing the PPC activity onto the program there has not only been positive results in terms of bookings and revenue but the team also managed to target additional areas within space where the program was lacking exposure contributing to the strength of the program’s overall results.

Furthermore the joint team organised a successful Affiliate Day for Best Western Hotels, which was an opportunity for not only the affiliates to share their thoughts but also for the client who was able to share their current and future plans and gain feedback from the affiliates directly. This led to strengthened relationships with key affiliate partners enabling the account team to communicate each of the strategies in depth and work with the client to deliver more sales.

Results

• The combination of strategies resulted in a 192% increase of revenue YOY
• 25% increase in the number of active affiliates
• Program’s average conversion rate has increased from 1.8% to 4%
• 30% response rate to audits of low converting affiliate sites
• 24% recruitment rate – 19% above industry average of 5%