Breaking new barriers in targeted advertising

By analysing how travellers are interacting across multiple sessions, sites and devices, marketers can better understand how to approach their customers. EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta investigates

Timing and relevance are two key words for marketing professionals as they look to understand and intelligently fine-tune their advertising strategy. Knowing where and when to place an advert as well as ensuring its relevance is key. A person is more likely to click on an advert from an online travel agent, for example, if they are talking about their next trip on a social network like Facebook than they would if they were playing an absorbing game of Temple Run.

As Mohamed Hussein, regional director, Internet Marketing – MEA, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, points out, the travel industry has been striving not only to understand the consumer during the research and decision-making process, but also to influence behaviour.

So how can this be achieved? It is important to first understand travellers and how they plan their trips across multiple sessions, sites and devices. Secondly as customer behaviour evolves the technology needs to respond too.

Put it into practice: get in there first

One of the first things to be aware of is the customer’s first online musings over travel options; you should be aiming to have your brand seen and heard in the very first stages of their consideration. Admittedly in any purchase decision people are likely to seek out and value the opinions of friends and peers over the voice of a brand or business. However, social networks like Facebook and Twitter have made it easier for travellers to see both official brand content as well as get feedback of their friends and family within one platform. Stepping in as early as possible is invaluable throughout the process as personal recommendations work alongside the brand’s official content to enrich and verify it. In the final stages of their decision the focus would be on a targeted message depending on whether the traveller is, for example, looking for family-oriented holiday or is an unmanaged business traveller.

So with ever evolving search capabilities, what is being done to assess the intent of travellers while they are on social networks?  And what should brands be doing to ensure the information is utilised to make ads more relevant?

1. Understand the mindset

The significance of evolving behaviour and understanding travellers isn’t only restricted to messaging or ads. 

“The seismic shift in traveller behaviour due to mobile and social media trends creates opportunity for those companies who make themselves relevant to the customer at the two moments of truth – when they are considering and planning, and when they want to book. Modeling across device and channel around these key moments is a fundamental opportunity area,” says Matthew Crummack, president at lastminute.com, answering a query about how OTAs can build their position in the areas of travel planning and booking journey. 

Today gathering data about web users’ behaviour is not a challenge anymore, says Hussein. In fact digital marketers can now test and learn how audiences respond to different types of content, how they act within diverse platform natures and even predict their surfing behaviour between multiple platform types.

What this means:

·         Brands can now apply on search engines and social networking platforms a broad set of data parameters – from copy style to various kinds of call-to-action, from different media formats to the various products offered.

·         Based on how web visitors interact with those data parameters, companies can identify the patterns and understand the intent of web visitors across different platform types.

2. Analyse data for appropriate advertising

Considering multiple sessions, sites and devices, ads, have to be specific in order to make an impact. Knowing ‘when, where and on what device’ is key.

Mobile users are often found to be in a distinct phase of the research and shopping process compared to tablet or desktop users. For campaign effectiveness, it is important to analyse behaviour patterns; in this case it would mean mapping mobile traffic. For instance, for a date specific promotion the lead times for mobile searches can generally be shorter than other channels. So this information would alter your media buy from a timing angle.

The extent to which advertisers are tailoring their mobile ads as per the funnel of the purchasing process is worth noting. According to Rick Mulia, VP Media and Advertising Solutions at travel search engine Wego, one interesting usage pattern we’ve seen is that 70% of the hotel searches coming for mobile are for accommodation for the current day. “So it’s very much answering an immediate need to find a hotel room. For us, it means working with partners that can offer last-minute deals and have real-time room availability and partners that can complete the full transaction on mobile.”

Mulia’s tips for how best to execute mobile ads:

·         Do keep your ads simple, fast and context-relevant. Rich media ads don’t make sense in most mobile scenarios.

·         Do ensure users can complete the full transaction from their mobile.

·         Don’t assume creatives that worked on the PC web will work on mobile. Test, optimise and test again.

·         Do ensure customer privacy is being upheld as your biggest priority.

Despite the opportunities, the process of planning and buying for mobile ads has room for improvement. Mulia points to a big issue that is currently being addressed: advertisers’ investments in data management platforms and the real-time bidding ad space need to be integrated with their mobile strategies. But the biggest priorities, he says, are “unifying profiles and ensuring privacy.” This is central to Wego’s mobile strategy.

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