Rethinking Branded Paid Search for Stansted Express

BACKGROUND

Bicycle was appointed by Stansted Express in July 2024 to manage brand and performance marketing, beginning with a comprehensive audit to identify growth opportunities. A key finding was the potential benefit of integrating Paid and Organic Search through a Total Search approach, as they previously operated independently. During the agency transition period, when Paid Search campaigns temporarily went offline, traffic and revenue remained stable with Organic listings effectively capturing and converting traffic at zero cost, suggesting that branded Paid Search might not be generating incremental value.

This insight was reinforced by the observation that competitor presence on branded terms wasn't significantly impacting performance, highlighting Stansted Express's strong Organic listing and brand equity. Based on these findings, Bicycle hypothesised that pausing branded Paid Search campaigns would likely not negatively impact overall revenue, and reallocating this budget to more generic campaigns could potentially deliver revenue growth through more incremental channels.

EXECUTION

Based on their hypothesis, Bicycle implemented a strategic pivot by pausing all Stansted Express brand campaigns on October 28th. In preparation, they developed a custom measurement framework using Funnel data visualisation tool that integrated data from Google Ads, Search Console, and Analytics to track holistic impact across both Paid and Organic channels. They established clear protocols to monitor key metrics and competitor activity through tools like Semrush, with a safeguard to immediately restore brand campaigns if revenue declined significantly.

Alongside this brand-to-generic budget reallocation, Bicycle conducted a thorough consolidation of the remaining search campaigns to improve the account structure's efficiency. The audit had revealed that some campaigns were receiving minimal budget (less than £1 daily) and using individual bid strategies with insufficient data flow. By removing shared budgets and implementing portfolio bid strategies across similar campaigns, they significantly increased the data available for algorithm decision-making, ensuring the increased investment in generic terms would be deployed with maximum efficiency.

RESULTS

The strategic pivot to pause brand campaigns and reallocate budget to generic search terms delivered exceptional results for Stansted Express. From October 28th, 2024, to March 14th, 2025, despite a modest 14% increase in total search spend year-over-year, revenue grew by 15% while maintaining stable ROAS. This success defied the typical rules of diminishing returns, with an estimated 47% of the revenue increase directly attributable to reinvesting brand budget into generic campaigns. The strategy allowed organic presence to naturally capture brand queries while paid generic search impressions increased by 94% year-over-year, significantly improving reach and visibility.

A key focus area was capturing more inbound international travellers who lacked brand awareness when researching transportation from Stansted Airport to London. Prioritising this segment for increased investment proved highly effective, with a 32% increase in spend yielding a 78% increase in revenue. The success of this total search approach was so convincing that Stansted Express approved additional budget for February and March 2025, representing a 54% increase in planned paid search investment. This case study demonstrates the power of breaking silos between organic and paid media channels, taking a holistic view of the search ecosystem, and confidently questioning established practices.