Few companies shape how Americans experience a sport in the way that Bowlero defines ten-pin bowling. Bowlero runs over 300 bowling alleys – more than any other company in the world – generating over half a billion dollars in revenue.
Bowlero grew through acquisition and operated four beloved brands: Bowlero, AMF, Brunswick Zone, and Bowlmor Lanes. As a result, the web properties of these brands were fragmented. BFM helped Bowlero consolidate their brands onto a single digital platform and seize new opportunities to grow the business through digital channels.
The Challenge
Bowlero needed a web presence that presented a unified company and showed the range of incredible bowling experiences it offers.
At the same time, our solution needed to preserve the very different identities of the four brands, which ranged from blue-collar to family-friendly to urban and upscale.
And once those challenges were overcome, we needed to make sure that we continued to optimize the site for search, using paid media efficiently and effectively to drive business growth through online booking, with a particular focus on events and parties.
The Approach
As AOR, we were hands-on for every step of Bowlero’s transformation, from planning to post-launch. Our approach was decidedly pro-SEO and driven by user experience, employing keyword preservation and a robust optimization program to get the new Bowlero websites ready for success.
page 1 keywords for AMF.com
for Bowlero.com each year
Making the Ranks
As the leading name in bowling, Bowlero sites were naturally highly relevant for bowling-related searches. However, none of their web properties had ever been optimized for search, meaning that there were still big opportunities for additional success.
After initial optimization of the site, our SEO team has continued optimizing the content and code on key pages, making the site competitive among searches for entertainment in general, not just bowling – putting the brands in front of a whole new audience.
One Platform, Four Brands
The Bowlero brands couldn’t live apart any longer – they were part of the Bowlero network, and the website needed to reflect that. We wanted everyone to be able to find the experience they were looking for, without pretending that all brands were the same.
We solved for this by keeping the four brand sites separate, but creating an integrated navigation bar that allows users to quickly and easily explore all four websites.
Booking It
Event bookings were a high priority for Bowlero Corp., but they didn’t have the booking tools available to make planning an event easy for customers.
BFM developed, deployed, and optimized digital booking infrastructure that did just that, to make planning a Bowlero event easier than ever.
Mighty Media
To reach customers and motivate them onto the lanes, the BFM team completely revamped the company’s paid search, allowing more control of spend on the local level. As a result, it became easier to prioritize spend, focusing on the locations with the greatest need while still maintaining success elsewhere. We drove CTR up by 67% and reduced CPC by 23%.
Along with our search marketing efforts, the BFM team launched multiple social campaigns to support location rebrands across the network. We were able to boost engagement and offer users new reasons to visit the site, growing time on site and reducing CPA further.
Results
Across the Bowlero network impressions and organic visits saw impressive growth, and page 1 Google rankings became the norm. And because booking was so much easier, RFPs and event bookings grew rapidly, with over 19,000 coming from organic search yearly through AMF.com alone. With a more intuitive website and the media to back it up, Bowlero could reach the top of its game.
