Travel Magical: rebrand, rebuild and a 50% cheaper lead

The business

Through Philosophia Ltd I founded Travel Magical, a Disneyland® Paris partner built with travel agents. From 2009 until I sold the business in 2017 I owned the whole commercial engine — brand, website, paid media, conversion, and the regulatory obligations (FCA-regulated, with historical insurance revenue over £1M). It averaged ~£2.5M annual revenue on ~£200k/year marketing spend, and it made the perfect laboratory: every experiment ran on my own money.

The rebrand and rebuild

The original site had outgrown itself, so I led a complete rebrand and ecommerce rebuild — strategy first (a full review across the marketing mix), then customer research, UX testing and session-recording analysis to simplify the customer journey.

The centrepiece was the Deal Finder: a tool that let customers see holiday seasonality and pricing at a glance — answering "when is it cheapest to go?" before they asked. It became the site's biggest engagement driver.

• Bounce rate down 30%
• Average time on site up 20%
• Cost per lead halved — the same traffic, converting on a site finally built to sell

"Fraser led the rebrand from start to finish with complete transparency along the way. We are delighted with the transformation." — Billy-Joe Meredith, Director, Travel Magical

The paid media overhaul

Travel is one of the most contested, seasonal, price-scrutinised paid-search markets there is. The paid programme started the way every good one does — market research, campaign review, competitor and consumer analysis to set objectives worth having — then rebuilt the channel mix across AdWords, Bing and Facebook:

• Facebook retargeting with split tests on creative, audiences and landing pages
• Display retargeting and placement refinement on AdWords
• Custom audience development, budget reallocation and bidding strategy work

The results, measured where it counts:

• Cost per lead down over 75% on Facebook
• Cost per lead down 50% across all paid media
• CPCs down 25%, with keyword quality scores rising

"Fraser more than exceeded our high expectations." — Billy-Joe Meredith, Director, Travel Magical

Why this case matters

Eight years of spending my own budget is the discipline behind how I run client accounts now: wasted spend hunted first, landing pages built to convert the traffic they're fed, and honest measurement — because when the numbers were wrong, it was my money that paid for the lesson. The exit matters too: businesses are sold on their numbers, and this one's held up to a buyer's scrutiny in 2017.

Disclosure: Travel Magical was my own company — these results are client-side work I did as its director, and Billy-Joe Meredith was my fellow director.