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Great North Railway
Driving Direct Ticket Sales in a Complex, High-Intent Market Result: Increased direct ticket sales at target CPA, reducing reliance on third-party platforms Great Northern Railway is part of the largest train operating group in the UK, operating services across Greater London, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk. While demand for rail travel was strong, a significant share of ticket purchases were happening through third-party platforms such as Trainline. The objective was clear but far from simple: shift customer behaviour and drive direct ticket purchases through the Great Northern website, while maintaining a strict cost-per-acquisition target.
The Challenge
Selling train tickets isn’t a typical e-commerce problem.
Great Northern faced several structural challenges:
- Highly complex route networks with overlapping services and destinations
- Non-linear search behaviour (users searching by station, route, journey type, or time)
- Strong competition from aggregators dominating paid search
- Tight CPA targets within a regulated and price-sensitive market
The risk was inefficient spend — paying to compete on broad, expensive terms without converting users who were already conditioned to buy elsewhere.
The Approach
We built a full digital strategy designed to intercept high-intent demand and redirect it to Great Northern’s own booking journey.
Search strategy built around real travel intent
Google Ads campaigns were structured by:
- Specific routes and lines
- Origin and destination station pairings
- Journey-led search behaviour, not generic rail terms
This allowed us to focus spend on searches with genuine purchase intent, rather than competing blindly with aggregators on broad keywords.
Messaging that encouraged direct booking
Ad copy and extensions were carefully written to:
- Reinforce trust in booking directly
- Highlight official pricing and journey reliability
- Reduce friction and uncertainty compared to third-party platforms
Consistency between ads and on-site messaging ensured users felt confident completing their purchase on the official site.
Paid social to support awareness and reinforcement
Social media advertising was used to:
- Reinforce route awareness and service coverage
- Support specific lines and travel corridors
- Build familiarity with Great Northern as the primary booking destination
This helped warm audiences before they reached high-intent search moments.
Continuous optimisation against CPA, not volume
Campaigns were optimised based on:
- Cost per ticket sold
- Conversion rate by route and journey type
- Incremental value of direct bookings versus third-party sales
Budgets were reallocated dynamically to the lines and searches that consistently hit CPA targets.
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Achieved Goals
The Result
By aligning paid search, paid social, and on-site messaging into a single performance system, Great Northern achieved:
- Increased volume of direct ticket sales through the website
- CPA targets met across priority routes
- Reduced dependency on third-party booking platforms
- Greater control over customer data and the booking experience
The strategy proved that even in a crowded, aggregator-dominated market, direct acquisition is achievable with the right structure and intent-led approach.
Why This Project Works
This project demonstrates a critical strength of my approach:
Complex markets don’t need more spend — they need better structure.
By breaking down how people actually search for train journeys, and aligning strategy around intent rather than assumptions, we were able to shift behaviour and deliver measurable results in one of the most competitive digital environments in the UK.
Had the pleasure of working with Katie and the team on our Google Ads and Social media activities, fantastic knowledge of marketing and our needs as well as the channels covering both the technical detail and overarching strategy, leading to outstanding results!
