Before AdShot Media vs After:
One Travel Agency's Google Ads Transformation in 6 Weeks
This isn't a polished success story written by a marketing team. This is exactly what we found when we audited Adblaze Media's Google Ads account, what was broken, what we changed, and what happened to their numbers week by week. If you're running Google Ads for a travel agency right now, there's a very good chance you have at least one of the same problems.
Who is Adblaze Media - and What Was the Situation?
Adblaze Media is a global flight booking agency that connects travellers with flight deals across international routes. When they came to AdShot Media, they had been running Google Ads for over a year - spending real money every month - and had almost nothing to show for it.
The calls were inconsistent. Some days brought a handful of enquiries. Other days brought nothing. Policy warnings were accumulating on their account - the kind that sit silently in the background before triggering a full suspension. Their landing pages were generating disapprovals. Furthermore, their cost per acquisition was climbing month over month with no clear explanation from their previous setup.
They weren't a startup that had never run ads before. They were an established business that had been trying to make Google Ads work - and couldn't figure out why it wasn't. Consequently, when they reached out to AdShot Media, the first thing we did was an audit. What we found was unfortunately very common for travel agency Google Ads accounts.
Does this situation sound familiar? Schedule a strategy meeting with us - we will walk through your account together.
Schedule a Meeting →The "Before" - What the Account Looked Like
Here's what we found when we audited Adblaze Media's Google Ads account. Every single one of these issues is something we see in the majority of travel agency accounts we audit.
- ✕Every call - including 4-second hang-ups - was counted as a conversion. Smart Bidding was optimising toward junk.
- ✕Landing pages had no independent agent disclaimer. This was triggering policy flags on every review cycle.
- ✕Ad headlines used language that implied airline affiliation - a direct trademark violation in Google's policy.
- ✕No negative keyword hygiene had been done in months. Budget was bleeding into irrelevant searches daily.
- ✕All traffic sent to a generic homepage - no destination-specific or service-specific landing pages.
- ✕Ads ran 24 hours, 7 days a week - including early morning hours when conversion rates were near zero.
- ✕No call duration filtering — the account had no way to distinguish a genuine booking enquiry from a wrong number.
- ✓Call conversions counted only when duration exceeds 90 seconds — genuine buyers only.
- ✓Policy-safe landing hub with correct agent disclaimers, transparent pricing, and fast mobile load.
- ✓All RSA copy reviewed against Google's compliance checklist — zero trademark conflicts.
- ✓Negative keyword review every Monday — budget stays on high-intent, booking-ready searches.
- ✓Intent-matched landing pages for each ad group — ad promise = landing page delivery.
- ✓Time-of-day bid rules built from call heatmap data — spend concentrated in peak booking hours.
- ✓Smart Bidding now learning from real qualified calls — account compounds week over week.
"The account wasn't failing because the product was wrong or the budget was too low. It was failing because the foundation was built without compliance in mind — and everything else was suffering as a result."
Ankit Shrivastava · Founder, AdShot Media · Google Ads Specialist since 2015The 4 Structural Changes We Made
We didn't redesign everything from scratch. Instead, we identified the four root causes that were holding the account back and fixed each one systematically. Here's exactly what we did and why.
Rebuilt the Landing Pages With Compliance at the Core
The old landing pages were conversion-optimised but not compliance-optimised — which is a fatal mistake in travel advertising. Therefore, we rebuilt them from the ground up. Each page now carries a clear independent agent disclaimer, transparent pricing ranges with terms, destination-specific content that matches the ad, and a sub-2-second mobile load time. The policy warnings stopped appearing within 48 hours of the new pages going live.
Rewrote Every RSA Against a Compliance Checklist
Every responsive search ad headline and description was rewritten against a 12-point compliance checklist. No trademark conflicts. No absolute guarantee language. No implied airline affiliation. No misleading pricing claims. Furthermore, we restructured the RSA assets so Google's algorithm had more compliant combinations to test. Ad approval rate went from inconsistent to 100% within the first week.
Fixed Conversion Tracking With Call Duration Filters
This was the single most impactful change. We set up dynamic number insertion (DNI), created a separate conversion action for calls exceeding 90 seconds, and removed the old conversion action that counted all calls regardless of duration. As a result, within three weeks Smart Bidding had recalibrated — it was now chasing the profile of a genuine booking enquiry, not a 4-second hang-up. This one change is responsible for the majority of the CPL improvement.
Built Time-of-Day Bid Rules From Call Heatmap Data
We pulled historical call data and built a heatmap showing exactly which hours and days produced qualified calls (≥120 seconds) versus low-quality calls. Consequently, we applied bid adjustments that concentrated spend during the highest-quality windows and pulled back during the dead periods. This reduced wasted spend by approximately 22% while improving call quality by 36% — more results from the same budget.
All 4 of these issues are fixable. Want to know if your travel agency account has the same problems?
Book a Strategy Meeting →Week by Week — What Happened After We Launched
The changes didn't all produce results immediately. Here's the honest week-by-week account of what happened — including the weeks where things were still unstable before they improved.
The new compliance-safe landing pages and rewritten RSAs went live. Policy warnings stopped appearing immediately. However, call volume was still inconsistent — Smart Bidding needed time to learn the new conversion signals. This is normal and expected. The temptation at this stage is to make more changes — we resisted that and let the algorithm learn.
With call duration filters now active, Smart Bidding entered a learning phase. The first consistent qualified calls (≥90 seconds) began appearing. Furthermore, we ran the first Monday negative keyword review — removed 47 irrelevant search terms that had been bleeding budget. Call quality was visibly improving even though total call volume was still modest.
The time-of-day bid rules went live in week 3, based on the call heatmap analysis. Daily qualified call volume nearly doubled compared to week 1. Consequently, Smart Bidding now had enough conversion data from genuine buyers to start making meaningful optimisation decisions. The account was visibly finding its rhythm.
By week 4, 30+ qualified calls per day had become the consistent baseline — not a spike, not an occasional good day, but the new normal. Moreover, call quality (≥120 seconds) had improved by 36% compared to pre-launch. Form conversion rate was up 19%. The account had fully exited the learning phase and was compounding.
With reliable data now available, we made more aggressive bid adjustments — increasing bids on the highest-performing hours and device combinations, and reducing spend on the underperforming segments. This produced further efficiency gains without increasing the overall budget.
By week 6, the account had transformed from a set of campaigns that needed constant intervention into a self-improving system. Smart Bidding was optimising toward genuine buyers. The landing pages were converting. The compliance architecture meant no policy flags, no disapprovals, no suspension risk. The account has remained suspension-free since launch.
The "After" — Where the Account Stands Today
Here are the results after 6 weeks of running AdShot Media's compliance-first framework on Adblaze Media's Google Ads account. These are verified numbers — not projections, not estimates.
5 Lessons Every Travel Agency Should Take From This
This case study isn't just about Adblaze Media. Moreover, the problems we found and fixed are present in the majority of travel agency Google Ads accounts we audit. Here's what you should take away from this — regardless of whether you work with AdShot Media or not.
Your conversion tracking is probably lying to you
If every call counts as a conversion regardless of duration, your CPL data is meaningless. Furthermore, Smart Bidding is chasing the wrong signal. Fix this before anything else.
Compliance isn't optional in travel Google Ads
Travel is Google's highest-scrutiny category. Therefore, building compliance into the campaign foundation isn't a nice-to-have — it's the only way to keep campaigns running long-term.
Your landing page is a policy document as much as a sales page
In travel advertising, your landing page must identify you as an independent agent, show transparent pricing, and match the exact intent of the ad that drove the click. Consequently, if it doesn't, disapprovals follow.
Not all hours are equal — bid accordingly
Call heatmap data will almost always show a clear pattern of when your qualified buyers call. However, most agencies ignore this data and run campaigns at flat bids 24/7. This wastes 20–30% of most budgets.
Patience during the learning phase is a competitive advantage
Most businesses make changes too quickly when a new campaign structure launches. As a result, they interrupt the Smart Bidding learning phase. Giving the algorithm 3–4 weeks to learn the new conversion signals is what separates accounts that compound from accounts that stagnate.
Want to know if your travel agency account has these problems? Schedule a meeting and we'll walk through it together.
Schedule a Meeting →Want to see exactly how we structure Google Ads for travel agencies? and how compliance-first campaigns prevent it? Read our in-depth guide.
See Our Travel PPC Service →FAQ — Google Ads for Travel Agencies
Is your travel agency Google Ads account actually working?
Most travel agency accounts have at least one of the problems we fixed for Adblaze Media. The only way to know for sure is to look. Book a strategy meeting — we'll walk through your account, identify what's holding it back, and tell you exactly what to fix.