William Hill to boost marketing spend by a fifth following operational upgrades
Interim CEO Philip Bowcock says new marketing strategy will be “personalised and data-led”
William Hill has announced plans to boost its UK marketing spend by 20% after recent sweeping changes to its digital marketing operations.
The firm cut ties with more than 1,000 affiliates, switched to revenue share deals rather than CPA agreements, and optimised its keyword search ads in an effort to boost the value of new customers.
The operator also clamped down on bonus abuse, improved its push messaging capabilities and introduced retention-focused offers like High Five on horseracing and 4 Means More on football.
The changes appear to be paying off initially, with the value of new customer accounts worth 29% more in Q4 2016 than the same period in 2015.
The changes also saved £10m, according to Hills, with the money to be reinvested back into marketing, including more TV ads, sponsorships and targeted digital ads.
William Hill interim CEO Philip Bowcock told EGR Intel the new marketing strategy would be “data-led and personal”.
“We’re delivering a personalised offering that we know our customers want,” said Bowcock.
“There’s a lot of heavy lifting been done,” he added. “Going forward the business is well set for 2017 and the foreseeable future.”
The marketing budget as a whole was around £122m in 2016.