How do you get drivers to switch to Park and Ride at the moment they search for parking?

The brief

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First Bus York needed an always-on presence in the search results drivers see when planning parking, travel or a day out in York.

Two earlier bursts of Park and Ride search activity had shown the approach could work; the brief was to run it continuously across the second half of 2025, rather than in short seasonal windows, and to see clearly which searches were actually turning into a visit to a site.

What we planned

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We built the search campaign around the way people plan a day in York, with five contextual strands covering parking, day trips, bus information, train information and attractions. Each was tailored to match the intent behind the search.

A Performance Max campaign ran alongside search, carrying the same message across YouTube, Gmail, Discovery and Display to reach people beyond the search results.

Every strand and placement directed users to First Bus York's Park and Ride page, with Google visit tracking built in from the outset to connect online engagement with real-world visits.

How it ran

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The campaign ran from 1 August to 22 December 2025. A Christmas message was added to the search copy in November and December, timed with the wider Christmas campaign running on other channels. We kept working the five strands throughout the run, watching which intents were converting and adjusting copy and emphasis in flight rather than leaving the campaign to run untouched.

What the reporting showed

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Google's visit tracking gave First Bus a clear read on how search activity was converting into visits to its Park and Ride sites. The most telling result came from the smallest strand. People searching for York's attractions converted best of any strand, ahead of the higher-volume parking and day-trip searches. Those searching were the most likely to swap the car for a Park and Ride site.