Paid Media Case Study

Visit Vancouver Washington

Leveraging Non-Stop Flights in Nearby Major Cities to Increase Vancouver Washington’s Visitation

September 2024 - September 2025

Client Snapshot

Visit Vancouver Washington

Visit Vancouver WA is a destination marketing organization (DMO) serving Vancouver and Clark County, Washington. As the region’s official tourism authority, its mission is to strategically market the area for leisure travel, meetings, conventions, sports events, and group tourism, all with a focus on boosting visitor spending to stimulate local economic growth and community vitality.

The Challenge

Despite being located in the heart of the Pacific Northwest and just across the river from Portland, Oregon, Vancouver, Washington, has historically struggled with awareness and differentiation as a travel destination. Many leisure travelers are familiar with nearby cities like Portland or Seattle, but few recognize Vancouver as a place with its own unique identity, experiences, and attractions.

At the same time, Vancouver faced another hurdle: perception of accessibility. While Portland International Airport (PDX) is less than 15 minutes from downtown Vancouver, most travelers naturally associate PDX with Portland. This meant that even though Vancouver is equally convenient for air travelers, it wasn’t top of mind when people considered destinations connected to direct flights into the airport.

The competitive landscape also posed challenges. Larger, well-known cities like Portland, Seattle, and even regional hubs like Spokane have bigger and stronger name recognition. Vancouver needed to carve out a niche that would highlight its distinct culture, thriving food and drink scene, outdoor recreation opportunities, and approachable charm, all without being overshadowed by its neighbors.

Finally, the pandemic-era recovery in travel underscored the importance of reaching drive and flight markets strategically. By targeting travelers in cities with direct flights to PDX, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, and Phoenix, Visit Vancouver WA had a clear opportunity to close the awareness gap and position the city as an easy, accessible getaway.

We hit the ground running with these considerations in mind:

Bridge the Awareness Gap: Travelers from major U.S. markets weren’t considering Vancouver as a top destination.
Competition: Regional competitors like Portland and Seattle often overshadow Vancouver in traveler searches.
Opportunity: Direct flights from key cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, and Phoenix presented an opening to position Vancouver as a convenient, “non-stop” getaway.

Rooted Rock Approach

1. Leveraging SEO Insights to Shape the Campaign

One of the key advantages we brought into this campaign was the ability to tap into insights from our ongoing SEO program. Through SEO, we had already developed a deep understanding of what content resonated with different regional audiences. By analyzing keyword trends, content engagement, and landing page performance, we could identify which sections of the Visit Vancouver Washington website attracted the most attention from visitors in specific geographic markets.

For example, our SEO data showed that users from certain regions engaged more heavily with particular site content and navigation paths, which allowed us to tailor campaign links and landing pages accordingly. This ensured that ads didn’t just drive clicks, but sent users to the areas of the site that aligned most closely with their interests.

Because of this foundational knowledge, we were able to create a campaign strategy that spoke directly to the unique preferences of different regional audiences. This not only improved engagement but also gave us a roadmap for further optimization — with opportunities to refine regional variations even more as the campaigns continue to run.

2. Paid Advertising Execution (Google)

Flight-City Campaigns: Separate ad groups were built for each target city (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Phoenix) with custom creative and messaging referencing “non-stop flights.”
Seasonality: Campaign timing aligned with peak travel planning windows for spring/summer getaways.
Ad Extensions: Utilized sitelinks for hotel packages, outdoor recreation, events calendar, and dining guides.
Budget Allocation: Invested more in top-performing cities while maintaining testing budgets in others.

The Results

Google Ads Results:

Conversion rate increased 19%
Click-through rate (CTR) grew by 143%
Cost per click (CPC) dropped by 50%
Return on ad spend (ROAS) improved 20x

Paid Media Engagement:

47% more active users
47% more new users
50% more engaged sessions
39% more total events

As a predominantly drive market tourism destination, identifying new fly markets to target was intimidating. Rooted Rock Marketing really helped us create a strategy using our website and Google ads to gain traction in these new areas that used to feel out of reach for us. They coached us on what information to put on a landing page and expertly tweaked the ads to reach the right audience.

— Erica Lindemann, Director of Marketing, Visit Vancouver WA