The Retreat
The Retreat is a lakefront chalet retreat in Taupō. Since May 2024 the Author team has built search, social and Google Ads to work together, so each year’s work builds on the last.
+96%
bookings from Google Ads, year on year, on 21% less spend.
We provided
- Google Ads
- SEO
- Organic social · Instagram
- Looker dashboard
- Website
The Retreat’s bookings leaned on third parties and customers who already knew them. Every booking through a global reseller clipped a commission. We compounded search, social and ads so the brand is familiar before the click, and awareness and, more importantly, bookings have continued to compound. The strategy has continued to shift towards owning Google space organically rather than renting it through ads.
At a glance
+96%
bookings from Google Ads, July to September, year on year
-21%
ad spend over the same period
-60%
cost per booking, year on year
17.9x
September 2026’s return on Google Ads spend
The compound
- Engagement starts · May 24
- Brand search protected
- Category search · Jun 26
- Bookings ~2x on less spend
Each year’s work builds on the last: protect the name, stay visible between clicks, then go after guests who haven’t chosen Taupō yet.
Same quarter, one year apart
Jul–Sep 2025 · tracked direct bookings
Jul–Sep 2026 · tracked
+96% completed bookings on 21% less spend: each booking costs 60% less than it did a year ago.
Branded search
Protect
the name, so the booking lands direct instead of with a reseller’s commission
Performance Max
Find
new guests across Google’s whole surface while the brand does the convincing
Category search
Catch
people still deciding on a Taupō stay who don’t know The Retreat yet
The engagement
Every direct booking saves a commission, and the engine now reports its own value: booking revenue is tracked against every dollar of spend, in a dashboard the client reads without us.
Want more direct bookings? Talk to us.
View our work
Our reads