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Stagecoach Performing Arts is one of the largest extra-curricular performing arts schools in the world. Using data visualisation, we took a single PPC metric and turned it into very powerful business insights that helped to grow the franchise network.
Stagecoach operates in hundreds of cities worldwide, requiring many AdWords campaigns. Identifying the search terms and campaigns that are most effective is difficult when dealing with this kind of scale.
We were specifically trying to identify whether we were maximising the branded search opportunity – impressions resulting from a search that includes the company name – however, we needed to make the data more meaningful by overlaying it with other dimensions, such as location. Considering the volume of data we had, this was no easy feat!
We used a data visualisation tool to view the data on a map, to get a better understanding of audience geography.
This showed which cities were generating the most impressions. Then, by adding a layer with the locations of the franchises, we hoped to identify a relationship between the ad impressions and the local schools. Using this information, we were then able to identify how far away each ad was showing from the nearest school – ‘distance to travel’ is a key factor for parents looking for a school.
Using Google’s Distance Matrix API, we created a data visualisation that plotted distance as shades of red on the map – the larger the dot, the more search volume; and the redder the dot, the further away from a school it was.
Initially, our data visualisation told us where ad spend could be considered as wasteful, due to the distance from the nearest school the search was. But, unexpectedly, we had uncovered a secondary insight that was even more helpful.
Data analytics told us that Portsmouth and Manchester were two major cities in the UK where Stagecoach was generating interest but didn’t have branches local to high volumes of search. So, by using data visualisation, we’d gone from a single impression metric to providing our customer with actionable intelligence to help with future growth.
To learn more about our experience in the education sector, visit our education marketing page.