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Bright On Travel: Optimise to convert and keep your customers and Google happy

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Bright On Travel: Optimise to convert and keep your customers and Google happy

 

By Travolution
By Travolution

Optimising for conversion rather than driving traffic volume must be travel firms’ main priority to make their marketing budgets sweat.Paul Holdgate, the newly-recruited head of digital at Brighton-based agency CWTdigital told the first Bright On Travel event this week that travel has been too focused on last click.

The half-day conference was organised by CWTdigital to coincide with the annual month-long Brighton Digital Festival and supported by Travolution as media partner.

Holdgate said: “Google has made it absolutely clear through its two latest updates that will no longer tolerate any spammy links or content.

“What I propose is you stop chasing the algorithm and develop a consumer-centric approach.

“Take a step back and map out the customer journey – think about every stage from that first inspirational content point.

“Travel is so competitive we tend to focus on the last click, but what we need to do is sow the seed earlier.

“Your consumer wants content served to them through the right medium, the right platform and at the right time in their journey. Central to this approach is personalisation.”

Holdgate, who previously worked for Tui Travel’s specialist division, said websites should be respected in the same way by online retailers as shopfronts on the high street.

He suggested firms ban talking about offline versus online marketing and hone in on the targets and customers they need to be profitable.

At Tui, while driving traffic was important, optimising conversions was the key focus as marketing funds were tight and it was important to make them work hard.

“Rather than just focus on driving quality traffic, let’s get the percentage conversion right up and this will impact directly on your bottom line targets.

“Do not waste the opportunity, patch up the holes,” said Holdgate.

Delegates were advised to put user testing at the heart of their businesses, and apply analytics to understand what does and does not work.

“Back up findings from analytics and expert review and also expose the opportunities that you would never have thought about,” he said.

Companies should also continually involve product and marketing teams in a feedback loop to prioritise those products that drive most revenue, Holdgate added.

“Is conversion rate optimisation the new search engine optimisation? For me it’s the same thing. Have the right content and tone and you will have happy customers and please Google.”

– See more at: http://www.travolution.com/articles/2013/09/27/7124/bright-on-travel-optimise-to-convert-and-keep-your-customers-and-google-happy.html#sthash.tkQMFzjl.dpuf

Google remarketing and metasearch are Travolution board’s hot tips for 2014

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Google remarketing and metasearch are Travolution board’s hot tips for 2014

By Travolution

By Travolution

Google’s new Remarketing Lists for Search Ads is already starting to have an impact on marketing budgets, according to a leading agency working in travel.Speaking at last week’s Travolution editorial advisory board meeting, Nishma Robb, iProspect chief client officer, predicted this will be one of the key trends for 2014.

She said the agency is already seeing clients increase budgets for next year but are looking at how search is interwoven with display.

Robb said the remarketing capability currently being rolled out by Google was already seeing firms focus on optimisation.

“It’s encouraging businesses to get smarter about analytics and conversion. We will now be able to prove [the effectiveness of campaigns] through technology.”

This is what Google says about Remarketing Lists for Search Ads:

“[It] provides yet another opportunity to optimise your search campaigns by letting you tailor your keyword bids and ad text for your highest value prospects – people who have visited your website in the past – when they’re searching for what you sell.”

Google estimates that conversions online run at between 2% to 4% of visits, and in travel where customers visit in excess of 20 sites before committing that figure is usually a lot lower.

A Google Think Insights post said: “In standard search campaigns, your bids, ads and keywords are the same for every search and every searcher.

“But if you knew which searchers represented higher value prospects, you might want to bid higher, show on broader keywords or present different ads to these customers to improve your results.

“Remarketing lists for search ads lets you do just that. You can use your existing remarketing lists to more effectively reach past site visitors so you can get more conversions and potentially better ROI.”

Robin Frewer, Google director of travel and finance, said the functionality will enable travel advertisers to target certain customers according to particular insight into aspects of product they have shown an interest in.

He said Customer Parameters will be “really powerful for remarketing to customers with a specific interest in specific destinations, dates or product types” and will help travel firms increase the accuracy and therefore the profitability of their advertising.

Frewer predicted that there will be a shift to measurable, performance-based marketing activity and that this has already seen more focus on brand building online, which is becoming increasingly more accountable.

Another area the board picked out to dominate in 2014 was metasearch, with this sector expected to make big in-roads into the traditional beach market.

Kayak and, increasingly Tripadvisor, are expected to have a major impact in this area the former having already launched package price comparison and started offering its own packages under a deal with On Holiday Group.

Former Traveltainment UK managing director, Andrew Nicholson, said: “There is still a lot of brand equity in the meta play.

“Players in meta dominate flights, are very aggressive in hotels and beach will be the big market they tackle next. Definitely volumes are going through the roof.”

Ian Brooks, Puregenie managing director, said he could see travel metasearch sites coming to dominate as they do in other sectors like financial services.

 

Google says shift to mobile warmed up as Britain basked

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Google says shift to mobile warmed up as Britain basked

By Travolution
By Travolution

The recent warm weather in the UK has help to accelerate the move away from desktop search to mobile, according to Google.Giving an update this week at the latest Travolution Editorial Advisory Board meeting Robin Frewer, Google’s director of travel and finance, said mobile growth was continuing.

Tablet growth is particularly marked at 100% year on year, said Frewer, while mobile is growing at 70%. Overall, mobile now accounts for just over 40% of travel searches on Google, with tablet accounting for 18%.

“This is driving people to think about mobile in a different way,” Frewer said. “While it was sunny people were willing to travel and they were searching but they might start on a mobile and finish on a desktop.”

Tracey Cheffey, executive producer at Travelzoo, said in the first week of June the site saw a 40% increase in mobile traffic.

Operations and IT director at Attraction World, Russell Parr, told the meeting that mobile traffic, including tablet, was now at 30% compared to just 12% a year ago.

Frewer said the warm spell had seen demand for travel reduce but Parr said that there were good signs for 2014 with a significant shift to early bookings.

And Andy Washington, Expedia UK managing director, said the online giant had seen signs of the short-haul Mediterranean market come back after an initial dip.

“The market has come right back. Even though we have had hot weather there is still pent up demand that will keep the market up.

“One tour operator I looked at has 1,600 holidays to sell in the next week, one had 1,600 to sell the next day. There is still plenty of availability in the school holidays. Prices are pretty good.”

Washington added that during the slump at the start of the heat wave – which On Holiday Group chief executive Steve Endacott claimed was as high as 20% – mobile traffic dropped by half that of desktop.

Mark Maddock, UK managing director of lastminute.com, said the switch to mobile has been most acutely seen for its lifestyle product including restaurant, spa and theatre bookings. He said this was sitting at 60% and outpacing mobile share in travel.

– See more at: http://www.travolution.com/articles/2013/08/02/6968/google-says-shift-to-mobile-warmed-up-as-britain-basked.html#sthash.QVSn8faW.dpuf