Live client · Case study

El Marena: 5× return on ad spend for an island resort.

El Marena is a small eco resort on Saint Martin’s Island, open only for the island’s short tourist season. We run its website and its marketing, and every channel points at one button: Book on WhatsApp. So far each $1 in ads has brought back $5 in booked stays, $15,000 in sales.

elmarena.com/en (opens in a new tab)
Client
El MarenaEco resort · Saint Martin’s Island, Bangladesh
Services
Paid mediaContent & SEOEmail & SMS
Platforms
Own website · WhatsApp · Meta · Google Ads
Duration
Ongoing
A two-storey wooden cottage with a red roof and a lookout tower under a sky of small clouds
El Marena · the duplex cottages
Results

The numbers.

Measured in El Marena’s own booking and ad account data.

  • Return on ad spend5×Every $1 in ads has brought back $5 in booked stays.
  • Sales from booked stays$15,000From the four channels, so far.
01 · Situation

A short season, and a booking that starts in a chat.

El Marena sits near Chera Dip, at the quiet south end of Saint Martin’s, Bangladesh’s only coral island. Duplex and single wooden cottages, a few tents near the beach, an open-air restaurant and a seafood grill.

The government opens the island to tourists for a few months a year and caps how many can visit each day. Every stay has to be sold inside that window, and the best dates go first.

Guests don’t check out in a cart. They send a message on WhatsApp with their dates, and the team confirms the cottage and the price. So the job is simple to say: get the right people to send that message, early.

  • 4½ monthsin the island’s 2026–27 tourist season
  • 3,500visitors a day, on average, at most
  • 1 chatevery booking happens on WhatsApp
02 · The site

A site that sells the stay before the chat.

We look after El Marena’s website, in English and Bangla. Every stay has its own page with photos, what’s included and the price for weekdays and weekends, so guests arrive in the chat already knowing what they want.

Every “Book on WhatsApp” button opens a message with the dates and the number of guests ready to fill in. The site also answers what people ask before they book: how to reach the island, which ship to take and when the season opens.

03 · What we run

Four channels, one button.

Each channel does a different job, and they all end in the same place: a WhatsApp message from someone with dates in mind.

  • Meta adsFacebook and Instagram ads made from the resort’s own photos and clips: the cottages, the sea and the bonfire nights.
  • Google adsSearch ads for people already looking for a stay on Saint Martin’s, sent to the stay pages with the prices on them.
  • SEOStay pages, a Saint Martin’s travel guide and ship ticket information in English and Bangla, found while trips are planned.
  • Email & SMSPast guests and earlier enquiries hear when the season opens, before the best dates go.
04 · Results

Results so far.

Return on ad spend is 5×: every $1 in ads has brought back $5 in booked stays. Sales from the four channels come to $15,000 so far.

The site, the ads, search and the messages run as one plan, reviewed together, so the money moves to whatever fills the next dates.

Book a strategy callMore work
The site we run

Booked from a phone.

Screens from the live site we look after, in English and Bangla. On a phone, the price and the WhatsApp button are never more than a thumb away.

El Marena’s home page: “The quiet side of Saint Martin’s”, with Book on WhatsApp and the three stays
The home page
The duplex cottage page on a phone, with the price and Book on WhatsApp pinned to the bottom
Book on WhatsApp, always in reach
El Marena’s home page in Bangla on a phone
In Bangla too
  • English and BanglaEvery page in both languages, with a switch in the header.
  • Every stay with its priceWeekday and weekend prices on each stay page, before anyone has to ask.
  • Book on WhatsAppOne tap opens a chat with the dates and the guests ready to fill in.
  • How to get thereThe ship, the jetty and the road to Chera Dip, answered on the site.
Timeline

Step by step.

  1. Step 1

    The site

    Stay pages, prices and the WhatsApp button, in English and Bangla.

  2. Step 2

    Ads live

    Meta and Google ads built from the resort’s own photos.

  3. Step 3

    Search

    Stay pages and the travel guide tuned for what people search.

  4. Step 4

    Email & SMS

    Past guests hear first when the season opens.

  5. So far

    5× ROAS

    $15,000 in booked stays.

From the work

Aerial view of Saint Martin’s Island and a sandbar reaching into the sea
Saint Martin’s from above
Two tents on the sand under palm trees
Tents by the beach
Fish grilling over charcoal at night
The seafood grill
The wooden cottages lit up among the trees at night
The cottages after dark
Fresh lobsters laid out on a wooden table
Today’s catch

Your turn

Let’s grow.

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