How TMI Paid Search Helped Mr & Mrs Smith Drive Growth

Objective

Mr & Mrs Smith (MMS) had traditionally relied on brand strength to fuel growth. But rising competition from dominant hotel aggregators like Booking.com and Trivago forced a strategic rethink. MMS needed to strengthen both brand retention and customer acquisition, with paid search forming the foundation of their new approach.

TMI’s challenge was to deliver results within a limited timeframe. With January’s peak fast approaching, we had just a few months to gather insights across over 1,000 hotels and 8,000 locations. Internally, MMS remained cautious—balancing brand values with performance goals. Could the brand stand out with a direct response approach? Would that approach dilute their luxury positioning?

TMI developed a dual-purpose strategy: protect and promote the brand while winning new customers. We focused on precision, scale and efficiency in a competitive paid search environment.

Campaign Build

We built granular campaigns across six key markets, tailoring search activity for 1,000 hotels and 8,000 locations. Each hotel campaign included custom ad copy, highlighting exclusive Smith Extras and unique propositions. Our teams also developed dedicated creative for Smith Exclusive offers and conducted controlled testing to optimise brand and location-level messaging.

To enhance efficiency, we implemented a rigorous brand negative keyword strategy. This approach allowed us to lower brand campaign costs while increasing overall conversions.

Data Collection and Challenges

With thousands of campaigns running, accumulating statistically significant data while maintaining performance was a major challenge—particularly as the hotel collection kept growing. TMI introduced highly targeted ad copy informed by offer types, hotel extras and location relevance.

New offers were added frequently and expired quickly, creating fluctuating test environments. In response, we supplemented campaign insights with offline sales data, customer profiles, and real-time industry pricing. These alternate data points informed strategic decisions for bid optimisation and campaign scaling.

A lack of call tracking further complicated measurement. Several premium hotels and villas could only be booked offline, which meant campaign-driven conversions were not always captured online.

Using Data to Drive Growth

We introduced rules-based automation to monitor spend versus performance and adjust bids dynamically. Custom alerts flagged high-potential hotels with limited visibility, and enabled us to divert budget to untapped opportunities.

A flexible account structure allowed for fast adaptation to price changes and seasonality. TMI segmented hotels into price tiers, which could be scaled or adjusted as offers and competitive pressure changed.

Geo-targeted bid modifiers were applied based on historic customer behaviour and demographic data. We also used audience segmentation to capture intent around seasonal spikes, such as Valentine’s Day, and matched messaging to luxury buyer profiles for high-end inventory like villas.

Conclusion

Through a data-led, audience-aware strategy, TMI delivered a scalable and efficient paid search solution tailored to the unique needs of the Smith brand. The result was a campaign structure that not only protected brand value, but also delivered measurable performance growth across multiple markets.