Content creation and social search on TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube and Giphy to become a category leader
The challenge
Parkdean Resorts sells UK holidays (think lodges, hot tubs, beach resorts). ☀️👙⛱️ We've worked with them for 4 years and got them to one of the highest positions ever on Google. 📈 But the user-buying journey isn't that simple.
Users don't just go to Google, find your site and book ❌
Their holiday buying journey includes over 100+ touchpoints at each stage across multiple platforms. Parkdean Resorts, despite being discoverable on Google, were not discoverable on other channels. They had very little share of the SERPS on TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube and even Giphy (we'll explain why Giphy soon), and to drive conversion and cheaper cost of acquisition, we prioritised an offsite SEO strategy to push users down the funnel.
To start with, we wanted to be more discoverable at the very earliest stage 👈🏼 of the buying journey as possible, generating triggers for destinations we sell, putting Parkdean in the mind of the consumer when thinking of booking a UK staycation.
Driving growth offsite
What we did
📱We found that when families decide to go away (Mum, Dad, kids, Aunties, Uncles, Nan) a WhatsApp group is formed. In that WhatsApp, they then decide on where, when, and who (especially who's driving). The most common form of content shared in this group is GIFs - that's right!
Think, sliding into the weekend, Friday feeling, Auntie Jane getting sloshed on day one GIFs.
So at the early stage of the buying journey before users have even decided on the location, we spotted GIFs and Giphy to be where we could be more discoverable.
🗺️ We then found that before they've decided on location, a decision is made based on local area:
🚲Things to do itineraries
🥘 Places to eat
🧒 Kids activities
🚶🏽♀️ Walking distance
🚗 Parking options
👴🏼 Local chippy for Grandad
AND inspirational/information searches for that are HUGE on Pinterest and TikTok.
So, we created 300 pieces of video content and turned them into GIFs (sliding into the weekend, sunburn memes, seagull gifs, hot tub moments and more).
We then created over 100 location itinerary pins on Pinterest, all with links back to the site for conversion content.
We also created 2-3 short-form videos a week, pushing location, product, and inspirational content optimised for social search to be the most discoverable brand within the UK holiday sector. This was executed across TikTok, Instagram reels and YouTube Shorts.
Pos 1 on TikTok SEO and a Giphy strategy competitors can't replicate
The results
The Rise at Seven team transformed Parkdean Resorts’ approach to social, shifting from reliance on engagement driven by the Starland Krew and promotional messaging to incorporating more top-of-funnel brand awareness content and search first content. This new strategy encouraged a broader audience to consider UK staycations and Parkdean Resorts as a go-to brand.
In just 90 days of working together, we achieved position 1 for over 20+ key terms across TikTok, all with no media spend.
This included high-intent informational search queries such as:
- Newquay
- Things to do in Newquay
- Lizard Point
- Things to do in Lake Windermere
- Newquay beach
- UK best beach
- Cornwall holidays
- Last-minute holidays UK
The results speak for themselves:
- 92.5% Increase in Sessions: Traffic grew from 206k to 400k.
- 94.5% Increase in Transactions: Bookings rose from 835 to 1,625.
- 152% Increase in Revenue: Revenue jumped from £225k to £580k.
By targeting high-buyer-intent search terms, often used by decision-makers of the group, we captured low-competition opportunities that drove significant growth.
On Pinterest, we saw a 295% increase in new user traffic to site. Impressions from Pinterest content skyrocketed 1677% and assisted conversions increased 525%.
Alongside this, Giphy content gained 48.7m views with a 2.75% engagement rate. A clear win for improving brand awareness!
