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increase in organic conversions
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increase in paid conversions
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increase in engaged sessions
The client
Sports Tours Ltd is a UK-based specialist in organising youth sports trips and tournaments, established in 1989. In April 2019, Rayburn Tours acquired Sports Tours Ltd, integrating their expertise in UK and European sports travel into its broader educational and group-tour portfolio.
Originally focused on fixtures and festivals, especially football and rugby, Sports Tours has grown to serve nearly 20,000 players, coaches, and families annually, offering unforgettable tours at both domestic and international levels.
Sports Tours Ltd is Rayburn Tours’ dedicated arm for grass roots sports and sports teams in the community, targeting coaches, managers, players and families. They handle competitive fixtures, international festivals, and multi-sport tours, with full organisational support and professional coaching opportunities.
The challenge
As a market leader in youth sports travel, Sports Tours’ business model relies on filling spaces for specific, tournament-based events. Despite their heritage, the brand faced a significant organic visibility hurdle: their generic brand name made it difficult to rank for their own brand, and high-intent traffic was often lost to event competitors or third-party providers. This was having an impact on the lead volumes Sports Tours were able to generate.
Furthermore, the brand’s digital strategy was largely reactive. Marketing efforts typically only began as a new season started, meaning they were missing out on early-bird demand and long-term planning cycles for coaches and parents. With an expanding portfolio, including a new focus on women’s tournaments including an expansion of netball tournaments, Sports Tours needed to pivot from a seasonal, event-by-event approach to a proactive, long-term vision that captured demand the moment it surfaced.
What we did
To achieve the aim of a 15–20% increase in enquiry volume, we focused on three strategic pillars. Firstly, driving high-quality leads from new and existing audiences through a highly efficient paid media strategy. Secondly, by strategising a collaborative organic approach that built the client’s internal SEO competency while unifying search efforts. Supporting this, our Data & Insights team established a robust measurement framework and improved attribution to more accurately reflect the true commercial impact of our cross-channel activity.
A proactive unified strategy
Recognising that Sports Tours’ business model is entirely tournament-led, we transitioned from a reactive, seasonal marketing approach to a proactive “forward-thinking” strategy. Our SEO and Paid Media teams worked in lockstep to launch promotional activity for the following year’s events immediately after the current ones concluded, allowing us to capture high-intent early demand that had previously been lost to competitors.
Expansion of Sports Tours’ offering
To support Sports Tours’ business growth, we expanded their digital footprint into new sporting territories. This included the development of dedicated keywords for women’s sports, namely football and netball tournaments, ensuring the brand established immediate authority in these expanding sectors.
Data-driven decision making
To ensure performance remained measurable during a period of complex tracking changes and cookie changes, our Data & Insights team implemented extrapolated data modelling. This allowed us to strip away “noise” and provide a clear, comparable view of performance across all channels, ensuring every strategic pivot was backed by reliable evidence.
The results
By capturing intent earlier in the tournament planning cycle and expanding the brand’s keyword footprint, we saw a dramatic “snowball effect” in both organic and paid performance.
The integrated approach didn’t just drive more traffic; it drove higher-intent users who were ready to engage. This was evidenced by a 27% increase in overall engaged sessions compared to the previous period. Across the same period we also saw a 194% increase in organic conversions year on year, proving that a forward-thinking SEO strategy can overcome the challenges of a generic brand name. In the same period, we were also able to do more with less, increasing paid conversions by 69% compared to the previous period, with 26% less ad spend.
These results served as a solid launchpad for the brand’s next chapter. With the successful launch of the new Sports Tours website, the foundation is now set to scale these successes even further. Keep your eye out for Sports Tours dominating the youth sports travel market throughout 2026 and beyond.
“Hallam’s approach to search has transformed how we view our tournament cycles. Over a 6 month period, we have been able to capture significantly more demand than previous years. The teams are easy to collaborate with on both a retainer and consultancy basis and their strategic direction has been valuable to the growth of the brand.”
Nicky Astle, Marketing Manager at Rayburn Tours
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