A challenge experienced was that prior to us beginning our Integrated Paid Marketing (Meta Ads and Google Ads) strategy implementation, the ad account was unable to track revenue alongside an accurate depiction of conversions (bookings).

This meant that both Meta & Google were unable to accurately learn what a good conversion value was and thus wasn’t able to optimise for valuable conversions.

Prior to implementing the Integrated Paid Marketing strategy, Tiki Time Bay Tours was still using the soon to be sunset Google Analytics Universal Analytics revenue tracking. With the deadline for the sunsetting of GA UA in June 2023, the importance of correctly setting up GA4 and integrating it with Google Ads was a high priority. Ruby Digital’s assistance with recommendations to ensure this was setup correctly was integral to Tiki Time Bay Tours as a business and the success of the campaigns.

The tourism industry, particularly boat tours, is competitive and very seasonal.

It proved a challenge to show consistent growth in ad performance considering seasonality of cruise tours with booking peaks in the warmer months especially in San Diego.

A challenge encountered from Google Ads is the clients resistance to relinquishing control of the account and insisting on continuing to run their own campaigns. To differentiate the campaigns managed by Ruby Digital versus the client, we implemented Labels and consistently created comparisons between the campaigns to show value through performance improvements.