In 2011, New Brunswick Department of Culture, Tourism and Healthy Living (Tourism New Brunswick) and T4G launched a website full of New Brunswick trip ideas to support CTHL’s summer campaign – “My New Brunswick Finds”.
The primary goal was to increase engagement for two target audience segments with activities and experiences that suited their interests:
- “No-Hassle Travellers”: Those looking for quick and easy summer getaway vacation ideas.
- “Cultural Explorers/Authentic Experiencers”: Those looking for natural wonder and authentic cultural experiences.
Tourism New Brunswick and T4G wanted to use web analytics to evaluate the site’s performance, and also influence decisions for future campaigns. Since the window to attract visitors is both short and competitive, Tourism New Brunswick needed a platform that was agile enough to evaluate what was working and what wasn’t.
T4G implemented Google Analytics Campaign Tracking on all marketing links, and closely monitored which sources were sending the most relevant and engaged traffic. This information allowed them to make future recommendations on how to concentrate marketing dollars for the highest return on investment.
Using Event Tracking, T4G tracked how often the “Make an Enquiry” form was used for specific New Brunswick experiences, and set those actions up as Goals in Google Analytics. T4G also measured site text links, image links, button interactions and exits to third party sites, in order to understand their full impact on the user’s experience.
T4G was crucial in the success of the “New Brunswick Finds” campaign. Their knowledge and expertise in Google Analytics allowed us to make quick decisions and appropriate changes required to meet the customers’ expectation.” Carol Alderdice, Manager Web Technology, New Brunswick Department of Culture, Tourism and Healthy Living
The Tourism and Hospitality strategists at T4G then set up a Google Website Optimizer test for the campaign landing page. The original version had lots of links to click on; some leading deeper into the site and some taking visitors off the site altogether. The variation page that T4G tested against it gave visitors only two options, one link for each key audience segment with clear calls to action.
The variation page with fewer links outperformed the original with 99% confidence, and so the new design was permanently launched. The result was an 11.4% decrease in bounce rate, and a 58.31% lift in customer enquiries.
These insights informed an overhaul of Tourism New Brunswick’s main tourism website – www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca, which launched in the spring of 2012.
Moving forward, analytics will help T4G continually optimize the users’ online experience and deliver additional performance improvements to Tourism New Brunswick’s digital properties.
View the Google Analytics “success story”, published on the T4G’s Google Analytics “partner page”.
For more information on Google Analytics, contact Kathryn Tector and read more about T4G’s Web Analytics services.