How we launched advertising for the Museum of Steel Figures in Prague
The client approached us specifically to launch performance advertising—search and display advertising on Google and campaigns on social media.
Foreword
The client already had a website. Our task was to check the funnel to make sure everything was working correctly, set up events, and point out any errors. We found a couple of bugs, fixed them, and were ready to launch the ad campaign.
Since this is a museum in a tourist city, most visitors come only once. The main flow is tourists, although locals may also visit if the show is interesting to them. Therefore, we set up the ad in several languages at once:
- Czech (for residents of Prague and other cities in the Czech Republic);
- major European languages (to reach tourists from different European countries);
- English (for tourists from the US and other countries).
Launch of search and media advertising on social networks
We set up a search advertising campaign, dividing it into two parts:
1. for those who are already in Prague or nearby,
2. for those looking for information about our museum or Prague museums in general from other countries.
Based on the collected search queries, we also launched banner advertising:
- reaching audiences interested in similar queries,
- remarketing to website visitors who have not yet purchased tickets.
On social media, we used a combination of interests. We took audiences interested in Prague or the Czech Republic (even if they were located in other countries) and crossed that with an interest in museums. This targeting proved to be basic and performed best.
The average cost of a ticket purchased through advertising was around €10. This meant that the advertising worked at almost zero cost, but it paid for itself and brought in a stream of visitors.
Search advertising performed best. Banner campaigns and social media were less effective, but still delivered results.
Competitors and field observations
At the same time, we closely monitored our main competitor—the Museum of Illusions in Prague. They had five times more traffic from organic searches, and we were unable to influence overall demand in any way over several months.
During field research, we noticed that the Museum of Illusions actively works with organized groups: tourists are brought in by buses and minibuses. This is most likely due to tour operators and agencies that include this museum in their excursion packages.
Search + social networks
Multilingual campaigns
Competitor — Museum of Illusions
Tour operators are important
In the end, our advertising worked, but we clearly saw the difference: the museum of illusions is a franchise represented in many cities and countries. They have higher organic demand, content filmed in the museum is more interesting for social media posts and is more actively shared, which further increases its popularity.
Key points
We have drawn several conclusions for ourselves:
- Advertising on Google and social media works and produces results, but it is not enough in the museum niche.
- Partnerships with tour operators, local agents who sell tours directly “on the street,” and hotels that include museum visits in their package deals are of primary importance.
- Performance advertising is good as an additional channel, but the main focus should be on offline partnerships, as they are what generate the main flow of tourists to the museum.
