Why a venue group's ad report said one thing and its bookings said another
12 venues, two emirates, three platforms, and no single answer to how many bookings the ads drove. We audited booking by booking, found where the numbers broke, and are bringing every report in line with one definition of a booking.
12
Venues
2
Emirates
3
Platforms
1
Definition of a booking
A QUICK CHECK
DO YOUR NUMBERS MATCH?
Not sure your ad reports match your real bookings? Book a call and we will tell you where the gaps are.
BOOK A CALL- 01
Ad
Instagram, Facebook and Google, aimed at diners across Dubai and Abu Dhabi
- 02
Venue page
the page for the offer on show, one per venue
- 03
Booking
the guest books and, for big events, pays
- 04
Confirmation
the moment a booking is real, and the only moment we count
THE BRIEF
THE GROUP.
A UAE hospitality group with a dozen venues across Dubai and Abu Dhabi: brunches, ladies' nights, a beach club, family venues and big seasonal nights like Christmas and New Year's Eve. Every venue ran its own campaigns. The question was simple. Which ads actually fill tables?
WHAT THEY HAD
THE REPORTS.
Every platform gave an answer, and the answers did not match each other or the booking system. Some venues looked strong in one report and invisible in another. Nobody could say, with confidence, how many bookings last season's ads had driven.
WHAT WE FOUND
THE GAPS.
We did not start in the ad accounts. We started with the bookings, and followed one guest from the ad to the table. Four problems showed up. Some conversions were people tapping a button, not booking. Some venues' bookings were never counted at all. The same booking could be counted more than once. And the total in the reports ran several times higher than the real number of bookings. Any one of these blurs a report. Together they meant budget was being steered by the wrong signal.
HOW WE WORK
ONE DEFINITION.
We agreed one rule with the group: a booking is a confirmed booking, counted once. Every report is held to it, across every platform, and checked against the group's own booking system, which is the source of truth. Nothing is trusted until it has been tested with a real booking.
THE LESSON
WHY IT MATTERS.
Ad platforms optimise toward whatever you tell them counts. If the count is wrong, they get very good at the wrong thing. Before you scale spend, check one thing: does the number in your ad report match the bookings your team can see? If you are not sure, that is the first job.
MORE WORK
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