A Stone’s Throw Away
From organic-only to a scalable, high-margin direct booking engine.
Client
A Stone’s Throw Away (ASTA) is a boutique hospitality property in the US, known for its premium experience and personalized stays. Prior to working with us, ASTA relied almost entirely on organic website traffic for bookings, with minimal brand search demand and zero paid acquisition support. Industry: Hospitality (Boutique Hotel).
Partnership
We joined forces to introduce a full-funnel paid media strategy, transforming ASTA from a purely organic-dependent property into a performance-driven direct booking brand. This collaboration resulted in sustained revenue growth and stronger brand demand.
Work
We launched a two-pronged strategy: Meta Ads for demand creation and Google Ads for high-intent capture. Meta campaigns focused on brand awareness, storytelling, and showcasing the property experience to travelers in the planning phase. Once demand was built, Google Search campaigns captured branded and non-branded high-intent keywords, driving users directly to the booking engine.
Challenge
ASTA faced heavy dependency on organic bookings with no structured paid media strategy. They were missing opportunities to capture high-intent travelers and had no controlled channel to scale direct bookings.
- Heavy dependency on organic bookings only
- Low branded search volume on Google
- No structured paid media strategy
- Missed opportunity to capture high-intent travelers actively searching to book
- No controlled channel to scale direct bookings (non-OTA)
Our Approach
We implemented a funnel-led channel mix. Meta builds awareness and consideration, Google Search converts demand into bookings, and the website is optimized for direct conversion. This full-funnel approach allowed us to scale sustainably, ensuring growth came purely from direct bookings with higher margins.
Meta Ads – Demand & Buzz Creation
- Focused on brand awareness & storytelling
- Showcased property experience, ambience, and location-led creatives
- Reached travelers in planning & inspiration phase
- Goal: Create brand recall and increase intent-driven searches on Google
Google Ads – High-Intent Capture
- Captured branded and non-branded high-intent keywords
- Targeted users actively searching for stays, boutique hotels, and nearby accommodations
- Drove users directly to the booking engine (no OTA dependency)
- Goal: Convert existing demand into direct website bookings
Funnel-Led Channel Mix
- Meta: Builds awareness & consideration
- Google Search: Converts demand into bookings
- Website: Optimized for direct conversion
- Scaled sustainably without just spiking short-term bookings
Results
2X
Increase in Direct Website Revenue
30–40%
Contribution from Paid Ads to Total Revenue
Zero
OTA Dependency for Growth
The Results Breakdown
| Outcome | Result |
|---|---|
| 2X Increase in Direct Website Revenue | Revenue doubled compared to organic-only period |
| Paid Ads Contribution | ~30–40% of total revenue (shift from 0%) |
| Increase in Branded Search Demand | Meta improved recall; Google volume increased |
| Zero OTA Dependency | Growth came purely from direct bookings |
| Balanced Revenue Mix | Organic + Paid working together; reduced risk |
Testimonial
"In hospitality, demand creation (Meta) combined with intent capture (Google) is what unlocks scalable, high-margin direct bookings."
Key Insight
Strategic Takeaway
Bottom Line
By introducing a full-funnel paid media strategy, we transformed ASTA into a performance-driven direct booking brand. The result was sustained revenue growth, stronger brand demand, and reduced reliance on OTAs, proving that organic and paid channels can work together for a balanced revenue mix.