The Shore Kelowna
The Shore Kelowna

Selling hospitality with modern marketing.

Your home away from home.

The Shore is a modern apartment-hotel complex located in Kelowna, BC. Operated by Appelt Properties, they’re part of an exclusive group of mixed-use residential and premier office space across the country. The Shore came to us for Google Ads in December 2020, concerned with their accounts performance. After reviewing their account, we discovered the targeting was too broad, leading to high impressions but low relevance. They were spending their budget in all the wrong places, something that we quickly helped to turn around.

Reach

Tourism-based with nationwide appeal

Year

2020 – Present

Services

Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Copywriting
Website Updates
Web Hosting
Maintenance & Support

Tech Stack

WordPress
Google Ads
Google Tag Manager
Google Analytics
Google Search Console
Google Trends
Agency Analytics
SEMrush
HotJar

GOOGLE ADS

Whipping their ad account into shape.

Stray clicks from foreign countries, random clicks from mobile games, and lists of broad, irrelevant keywords were just some of what we found during our initial account review. After a much-needed cleanup, we developed a multi-tiered marketing strategy that included highly targeted ads and audiences. We worked with The Shore’s marketing team to determine where their guests were coming from and who their major competitors are.

Using keyword and competitor research, we built a content strategy that tied their Google Ads and blog content together. We analyzed user intent and search history to determine what people search for when booking a hotel, and the best way to get in front of them during those searches.

CONTENT STRATEGY

Laser-focused on location.

In building the content strategy, we knew that we were up against some marketing giants. Platforms like Booking.com and Expedia invest heavily in showing up in search, so our strategy had to take advantage of their main weakness – local expertise.

One of the factors in Google’s Quality Score, a metric that determines whether an ad will show for a search term, is relevancy. We worked to position The Shore as the most relevant choice for location-based searches, crafting targeted landing pages that matched each of our new ad groups.

We also worked on creating ads that targeted booking intent, rather than just direct searches for hotels. Users that search for cabins, cottages, vacation rentals, resorts, airbnbs & vrbos are all looking for the same thing: somewhere comfortable to rest their heads. While we can’t position The Shore in all of these categories, we can offer it as a great alternative. In a popular travel destination like Kelowna, this competitive positioning has made all the difference.

DATA-DRIVEN RESULTS

Because everyone loves a before & after.

In the first two months of their campaign, we saw considerable improvements to their total cost per action (CPA) and other key performance indicators. And we haven’t stopped there. Each month we thoroughly review their campaign performance and make adjustments to search terms, keywords, and other campaign criteria.

Cost-Per-Action (CPA)

average

Impression Share

Click-Through-Rate (CTR)

average

To date, we’ve managed over $100,000 in ad spend and brought in over 15k leads for the company.

SITE OPTIMIZATION & SEO

From building to booking.

Hospitality in the Okanagan is a seasonal business. While our seasons are mild and we’re lucky to have visitors all year long (thank you Big White Ski Resort), search volumes look different in July than in mid-February.

During slower seasons, we shift focus to organic growth and SEO. We started by conducting a comprehensive site audit to determine areas for improvement, and put together an action plan targeting the lowest-hanging fruit.

Some things we’ve worked on for The Shore include:

  • Improving mobile pagespeed and core web vitals
  • Fixing broken links and resolving chain redirects
  • Site security improvements
  • Conversion optimization & small website updates
  • Page, category and tag optimization
  • Optimizing images and image filenames
  • Reviewing NAP citations and creating industry profiles
  • Heat-mapping with HotJar
  • Schema insertion & adding location-specific markup

Through consistency in publishing blog content (over 40 posts to date), on-page and off-page SEO, we’re seeing truly great results.

Today it’s not about ‘get the traffic’ — it’s about ‘get the targeted and relevant traffic.

Adam Audette

Organic traffic increased

Organic traffic up

The team at Twirling Umbrellas has been an invaluable addition to our marketing efforts, acting as a direct extension of our team and treating each initiative as its own.

We have been thoroughly impressed by each team member we have had the pleasure to work with throughout our digital campaigns, SEO management, continued blog and web support, and all the quick answers they provide to each of our technical marketing questions.

I highly recommend the team and look forward to many years of continued success through the support Twirling Umbrellas provides!

Ryan Gray, Director of Operations, Appelt Properties

FINAL THOUGHTS

Holistic marketing for the real world.

More than ever, we’re having to rely on real-time metrics and adaptability in digital marketing. Gone are the days of attributing a sale or a lead to a single source, user journeys and environmental influences have gotten a lot more complex. It takes multiple interactions with a brand for customers to build trust, and what works today might not work tomorrow.

Our success with The Shore is the result of a strategic, persistent approach. While some wins have been quick, sustained growth has happened over time through consistent effort in multiple areas. If you’re ready to invest in your long-term growth, we’d love to connect.

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Let’s make marketing magic.

Whether you’re looking to update an existing website or you’re starting from scratch, we’d like to help you on your digital journey. Reach out and let’s talk.

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