About Providence Warwick CVB: Big Love for a Small State
The team at the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau (PWCVB) champions Providence, RI – and essentially the entire state – as a premier destination for meetings, conventions, sporting events and leisure travel. With a mission to make Providence the Northeast's must-visit city, the team works tirelessly to enhance its profile in the events industry. Not surprisingly, most people who work at the PWCVB either grew up in Rhode Island, went to school there, or both.
| 400% Increase in meetings inquiries | 133K Increase in clicks |
| +812% Increase in engaged sessions | 30% Decline in CPC |
Challenge: Significant Gaps in Paid Search Strategy
Providence Warwick CVB Meetings (PWCVB) invests time and budget in its Paid Search, creating multiple campaigns based on key themes -- business, Getaway packages, meetings, and more. To drive performance and meet their ambitious goals of growing Providence Warwick’s visitors, the team used Google Performance Max (PMAX).
Using a single campaign, PMAX is a Google Ads campaign type designed to help advertisers drive performance across all Google platforms (Search, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Display, and more). It leverages Google’s machine learning to automate targeting, bidding, and ad delivery. Unlike traditional campaigns, PMAX doesn’t rely on keywords. Instead, it uses machine learning
to match ads to user intent based on their actions across Google's platforms.
Despite these investments, the PWCVB team didn’t see the hoped-for results. Specifically, the traffic to their website wasn’t qualified, and they wanted better outcomes for their money. Unsure of how to proceed, PWCVB contacted Orange 142 for help. After conducting a comprehensive audit of Providence Warwick’s paid search campaigns, Orange 142 discovered several issues that needed addressing, including outdated practices, unnecessary ad spending on irrelevant keywords, and an overall lack of cohesive organization.
For the paid search campaigns to deliver the desired results, Orange 142 would need to address specific challenges:
Account structure and hygiene issues
The paid search campaigns were overly granular, which led to poor organization and budget allocation. PWCVB also lacked segmentation between key PWCVB’s evergreen, seasonal, leisure, and meeting planner themes. While PMAX is an excellent tool for targeting user personas across multiple properties, the campaigns grouped all search themes—this limited Providence Warwick’s ability to tailor targeting and messaging.
Keyword strategy inefficiencies
Meeting planners have specific requirements when considering destinations and search on those terms to find a suitable location. PWCVB’s keyword strategy relied too much on broad match keywords, which meant they missed critical keywords that Orange 142 identified through search query reports—additionally, the campaigns underutilized brand keyword lists.
Ad Copy and Ad Extensions Issues
In some cases, the ads featured generic ad copy with minimal focus on search themes, CTAs, and branding. Additionally, the campaigns and PMAX copy didn’t take full advantage of ad extensions (e.g,. site links, callouts, locations). Overall, the ads worked as hard as they could for Providence Warwick.
Bidding and Budget Problems
PWCVB used Max CPA and targeted return on ad spend (TROAS) when competing for placements. However, these bidding strategies are designed for e-commerce, not tourism. They don’t align with the goals of driving qualified traffic, raising awareness, or attracting business leads in the tourism sector.
Additionally, no bid adjustments were made to better align with PWCVB’s KPIs. The ads couldn’t be tailored without adjustments to meet specific goals, such as targeting users in certain locations or adjusting bids for higher-performing times.
Solution: A Paid Search Overhaul Geared towards Tourism
To address the challenges identified in the audit, Orange 142 implemented a comprehensive strategy focused on optimizing the Paid Search campaigns.
Campaign Restructuring
The campaigns were organized into key themes, such as evergreen, seasonal, and audience-specific categories, with brand and non-brand campaigns split to improve targeting and geo-strategies. PMAX campaigns were restructured to include differentiated asset groups to tailor messaging to the correct audience.
Keyword Optimization
Orange 142 used insights from search term reports to add high-performing keywords, incorporate brand-specific keywords, and introduce negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic and reduce wasted spend.
Ad Copy Revamp
Orange 142 revamped the ad copy with Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), which automatically adjusts to match user search queries. PMAX ads were enhanced with more robust headlines, descriptions, and key extensions like site links and callouts to increase visibility and engagement.
Bidding and Targeting Adjustments
Orange 142 moved away from e-commerce-centric bid strategies and instead tailored bidding to align with tourism goals. Bid adjustments were introduced at the state level to optimize targeting based on geographic performance, reallocating the budget to high-performing areas.
Results: Growth in KPIs Met
After implementing the optimizations, the PWCVB saw impressive improvements in performance:
| Growth in Meeting-Specific Results | 400% - The client experienced a 400% increase in meeting-related inquiries, demonstrating the success of the refined targeting strategy. Additionally, the number of engaged sessions increased by 812%. |
| Lower Costs | 30% - The overall cost-per-click (CPC) declined by 30% |
| Improved Performance | Overall, key metrics such as CTR, conversion rates, and ROI significantly enhanced, as the campaigns were better aligned with the client’s KPIs. |
| Ongoing Partnership | The client expressed satisfaction with the work's transparency and ongoing, collaborative nature. Monthly meetings with the Orange 142 team allowed for continued optimization and quick responses to performance data. |
About Orange 142
Orange 142 is a digital marketing and advertising company with offices across the US. We service
marketers and agencies. We are part of Direct Digital Holdings.
We help marketers of all sizes grow their reach and revenue through data-driven media strategies. We also partner with agencies and execute campaigns on behalf of their clients.
Our team of experts deeply understands the digital landscape and the latest advertising and marketing technologies. We work closely with our clients to develop and execute custom advertising and marketing campaigns that meet specific goals.
We are committed to providing our clients with the highest service and transparency. Open
communication and collaboration are essential to the success of every advertising and marketing initiative.
