When people start planning a vacation, they are much more mindful of online travel ads; that is the conclusion from a recent analysis conducted by New York-based MediaMind. This is another powerful indicator of the importance of relevant advertising—people begin to pay attention to ads when they become relevant.

Published: 16 Sep 2011

When people start planning a vacation, they are much more mindful of online travel ads; that is the conclusion from a recent analysis conducted by New York-based MediaMind. This is another powerful indicator of the importance of relevant advertising—people begin to pay attention to ads when they become relevant.

The main question that should occupy advertisers in the field is when is the best time to start advertising to catch users as they start planning their vacation.

To analyse the best time for travel marketers to start their campaigns, MediaMind research analysed annual performance of European Travel Rich Media ads by month. The analysis examined performance of banners in terms of Dwell and Click Through Rate. Dwell Rate accounts for the number of impressions engaged for longer than one second.

The results show that in February user engagement levels start to ascend as users begin thinking about their summer travel plans. Both Clicks and Dwell have a positive growth until May, while towards June CTR is reaching new levels of performance that equals 0.76 percent and Dwell is fluctuating between 6.4 percent and 5 percent. Also in December, before the holiday travel season, engagement increases.

While users start planning early, an analysis of serving volumes shows that advertisers start their massive work for the summer season only towards May. This suggests that advertisers have an opportunity to start their campaigns earlier, and take advantage of spring vacationers and early summer planning and increased attention. In addition, since volumes are relatively low towards the end of the year, travel advertisers have the opportunity to bank on the end of the year increase in attention for the winter holiday travel season.

Overall, May, June, July and December are the most effective and relevant time for Travel advertising. So remember to start your campaign early to get the full attention from users.

(By Lena Berenstein, Research Analyst, MediaMind. The article appeared on MediaMind’s blog).