A Refreshed Brand, New Website, and Scaled Advertising Doubles Hike Maui’s Direct Revenue
Results
105%
increase in direct online revenue
41%
increase in website conversion rate
209%
increase in digital ad spend while improving overall ROAS
48%
increase in direct revenue as a percentage of total revenue
How We Did It
- Brand strategy & positioning
- Visual & verbal brand re-fresh
- Website re-build & ongoing CRO
- Ad campaign re-build across search & social
- Search & social advertising re-structure
- Content & SEO strategy
- Growth marketing strategy & consulting
Approach
After 40 years of perfecting the ultimate hiking adventure, Hike Maui’s story was being told by everyone but them. Their over-reliance on third-party resellers was diluting their brand and cutting into their margins. To solve this, we worked with their amazing team to refresh their brand strategy and verbal/visual expression—a full rebrand. A new website and comprehensive digital advertising restructure and creative build flowed directly out of the brand work.
With a strong foundation laid, we layered on direct booking marketing strategy intended to sustainably grow direct bookings over time. The result has been a fundamental shift in their business, trading reseller dependency for profitable, direct growth.
Reporting Methodology & Details
Online revenue & conversion rate results: For a more useful conversion rate comparison, we’re looking at non-blog traffic and have excluded Paid Social, Display, and Cross-Network channel groupings, so that shifts in our channel mix don’t impact the conversion rate. We’re looking at results since our Feb 15th, 2025 website launch. (When you include those channel groupings, the online revenue growth is +135% and the conversion rate growth is +23%.) The 2023 Maui fires were devastating for many Maui tour operators, including Hike Maui. While some of the year-over-year growth during the assessment period can be attributed to the Maui recovery, the growth far outpaced Maui visitor growth, as shown here.
Advertising results: These results also look at data since the Feb 15th website launch. The ROAS number we’re primarily considering is a blended ROAS which looks at last click revenue from ad-sourced traffic. When you look at Google Ads and Meta Ads platform ROAS numbers, we also saw an improvement in ROAS of 1.5% and 18% respectively. It’s important to note that our approach to Google and Meta advertising here is full funnel—so you’re not looking at an overly inflated ROAS number bolstered by an overly-saturating bottom of funnel ad mix.
Direct revenue as a percentage of total revenue results: This is purely a YoY look at direct revenue as a percentage of total revenue for the past two months compared to the prior year. When you pull back and look at a broader range, we’re still seeing a meaningful shift towards direct. The intent with highlighting a shorter window of time here is to illustrate the current trajectory of Hike Maui’s revenue mix.
