Not outbid. Moved markets.
Decomposing a tour operator's rising cost per click by market and by month, and finding that the blended figure had moved because the mix had changed, not only because the auction had.
Speak with NicInternational Tour Operator
Client name and figures withheld for confidentiality.
The problem on the table.
A blended cost per click is an average across every market an account buys in. When it rises, the obvious reading is that competitors are bidding harder, and that reading leads straight to a conversation about budget.
There is a second explanation that looks identical in a monthly table. If the cheaper markets stop receiving clicks, the average rises without a single auction becoming more expensive, because the mix behind the average has changed. The two have different causes and completely different remedies, and no blended figure can tell them apart.
For an operator selling one destination into several countries the difference matters commercially, because one is a pricing problem and the other is a question about which markets the account is buying.
What forensic looked like here.
Clicks and spend were read by market and by month across two matched years, so the shape of the change could be seen rather than inferred from a single blended line.
The two halves were then reported separately. Where the price genuinely rose, that was stated as a price rise with the competitive evidence beside it. Where a market's share of clicks fell, that was stated as a mix change, and the two were never presented as one number.
Share was reported alongside the totals rather than instead of them, because the account's overall click volume had fallen. A chart of totals alone would have shown every market declining and hidden the change in mix entirely, which is the finding.
Search coverage was read on the same basis, comparing which kinds of search earned clicks in each year, and reported as a change in what the account reaches rather than as a claim about demand, because the platforms withhold low-volume terms and a coverage read can only describe what is reported.
- Clicks and spend decomposed by market and by month across matched years
- Price change and mix change reported as separate findings
- Share reported alongside totals, never instead of them
- A search-coverage comparison stated as reported coverage, not demand
- A stated correction where an earlier read had rested on a single month
What changed.
The rising cost per click was explained rather than absorbed, with the part caused by a genuinely more expensive auction separated from the part caused by the account buying different markets.
The pack carried its own correction. An earlier read had drawn a favourable conclusion from one month, the month-by-month view did not support it at the year level, and the correction was stated plainly. A pack that quietly changes its story costs more credibility than one that says what changed.
- By marketand by month
- 2 yearsmatched windows
- Price vs mixreported separately
- Statedcorrection on the record
Other engagements.
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Nic CraneFounder, The Crane Consultancy
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