Informative case studies covering the development of Yandex client’s advertising efforts including goals, tools deployed, and end results.

1. Часть
How Yandex.Direct helped a
brand new hotel reach 80%+
occupancy in three months

2. Grand Cruise resort-hotel chain
guests per month
1500
year founded
2012
Sergei Pavlenko
Marketing director
Family-friendlyhotels
Dzhemet, Anapa, Russia
(on the Black Sea coast)

3. Period:
Tools used:
June — August 2012
Attract visitors from across Russia to a
brand new hotel with no reviews
› Search ads (Yandex.Direct)
› Ad networks (Yandex.Direct)
› Yandex.Metrica
Goal

4. Background
The Grand Cruise opened at the
start of a very hot summer in
2012.
Opening its doors after peak
season had already begun, the
Grand Cruise had no time for
traditional promotion tactics
involving tour operators.
Most of the Grand Cruise’s
competitors were already
seeing occupancy rates higher
than 90%.
For a completely new and
unknown hotel, it would take a
miracle for them to reach even
60% occupancy.
4

5. Solution
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3
Start ad networks
campaign
Launch search
campaign
Set goals in
Yandex.Metrica
5

6. Step 1

7. Set goals in Yandex.Metrica
The hotel added a Yandex.Metrica
counter to its site and set 4 goals:
› viewed 2 pages
› viewed 5 pages
› started booking
› completed booking (reservation
form sent).
7
metrica.yandex.com

8. Step 2

9. Set up search campaign
Search ads were displayed to
users throughout Russia.
The keyword groups initially
selected were related to:
› Anapa vacations
› hotels and resorts in Anapa
› vacations in Dzhemet (the
village where the hotel is
located)
› hotels and resorts in Dzhemet
› Anapa + month
› Dzhemet + month
9
wordstat.yandex.com

10. 10
Ad texts matched user
queries and highlighted the
hotel's advantages
Write attractive ad texts
hotels in Anapa
yandex.com
Sitelinks added to ads
Ads appeared in premium
placement for sales queries Контактная информация · +7 (918) 05 33 505 · пн-вс 9:00-21:00 · Анапа
grand-kruiz.ruРеклама
Море рядом... Номера и цены Фотогалерея
Hotel in Anapa — we're open! / grand-kruiz.ru
Seaside hotel Rooms and prices Photo gallery
Contacts · +7 (918) 05 33 505 · Mon-Sun · 9:00-21:00 · Anapa
The new Grand Cruise hotel — 2012. Beach and pool. All inclusive.Makereservation

11. 11
Add sitelinks
Holiday in Dzhemet
yandex.com
Контактная информация · +7 (918) 05 33 505 · пн-вс 9:00-21:00 · Анапа
grand-kruiz.ruРеклама
Море рядом... Номера и цены Фотогалерея
Relaxing holiday at a brand new hotel in Dzhemet!/ grand-kruiz.ru
The Grand Cruise — we're open! All inclusive.Privatebeachand pool!
Ad texts matched user
queries and highlighted the
hotel's advantages
Sitelinks added to ads
Ads appeared in premium
placement for sales queries
Seaside hotel Rooms and prices Photo gallery
Contacts · +7 (918) 05 33 505 · Mon-Sun · 9:00-21:00 · Anapa
Sitelinks

12. 12
Set bids for “sales queries"
July vacation in Anapa
yandex.com
Контактная информация · +7 (918) 05 33 505 · пн-вс 9:00-21:00 · Анапа
grand-kruiz.ruРеклама
Море рядом... Номера и цены Фотогалерея
Plan your vacation in Anapa in July / grand-kruiz.ru
The Grand Cruise — we're open! All inclusive.Privatebeachand pool!
Ad texts matched user
queries and highlighted the
hotel's advantages
Sitelinks added to ads
Ads appeared in premium
placement for sales queries
Seaside hotel Rooms and prices Photo gallery
Contacts · +7 (918) 05 33 505 · Mon-Sun · 9:00-21:00 · Anapa

13. Step 3

14. Start ad networks campaign
14
The Grand Cruise ran campaigns in ad
networks simultaneously with their
search campaigns.
Ad networks include high-quality, high-
traffic sites with an audience of over 74
million people, without significant
overlap with Yandex search users.
The Grand Cruise disabled impressions
on search partner sites, applied the
Weekly Budget strategy for ad
networks, and set a limit of 5,000 RUB
to maximize the number of clicks.
direct.yandex.com

15. 15
The Grand Cruise composed
more attention-grabbing ad
headings and texts for use in ad
networks. Sitelinks were added
to emphasize the hotel's
advantages and simplify site
navigation.
Start ad networks campaign
The sun, the sea, the beach! Dreaming about your holiday? Act now!
Your holiday is closer than you think! Where do you want to relax in June?

16. Results

17. Results
17
The hotel’s phones began ringing and their email inbox filled with
reservations.
The Grand Cruise developed and refined the campaign
message and bid management strategy over three months.
The number of reservation requests doubled with
each passing month.
01
02
03
04
The site drew an engaged audience: 70% of visitors viewed more
than one page, with 13% viewing more than five pages.

18. Ironing out wrinkles in the reservation process
18
The hotel management wondered why
few visitors were completing the on-site
reservation form, and instead enquired
about prices by phone or email.
Then they had an idea what the problem
could be. Not only did the form not
show the price for the period selected,
but it also required that users enter a
CAPTCHA in order to send the
application. As a result, only one in ten
users actually finished the reservation
process.
The Grand Cruise redesigned the
reservation form based on their
observations, and to good effect.
grand-kruiz.ru/bronirovanie

19. As soon as we started using Yandex.Direct, our sales
took off, and our average occupancy rose to 81.5% in
just three months. Things worked out so well because
we went right to the heart of customer demand. As a
result, we made a firm decision to prioritize online
marketing in the future.
19
Sergei Pavlenko
Marketing director