New research suggests how travelers are interacting with online ads. A top finding: Many companies are leaving money on the table by failing to target smartphone searches for online travel agencies and aggregators.
Smartphone travel searches have higher click-through-rates and drive consumers to the relatively lower cost-per-click model used by these third-parties. So smartphone ad campaigns to target these users can be cost-effective.
Being smarter about mobile ads matters because there has been a 43% year-over-year increase in the number of smartphone searches related to travel.
To match demand, digital ad spending is forecast to rise 15.4% this year, compared with last year.
The following fresh data on how to plan campaigns comes from a particular ad network, Bing Ads. Yet it is relevant even for companies not using that advertising network for their digital marketing campaigns.
Bing is bigger than before
As context, Bing Ads says it runs 30% of all searches in the US through Yahoo and Apple platforms.
More impressively, Search Engine Watch reports:
"In mid-April comScore reported that for the first time Bing reached a 20% search market share in the US.
Adding in the 12.7% of U.S. searches conducted on the sites of its search alliance partner, Yahoo, and the Yahoo Bing Network’s effective search market share is now nearly a third."
Advertisers such as Hotels.com, Travelocity, Southwest Airlines, and Royal Caribbean had higher click-through-rates (CTRs) on the Yahoo Bing Ads network, says keyword advisor Adgooroo.
Some excerpts from Bing Ads research:
Smartphone click-through-rates (CTRs) are higher
"The CTRs for all OTA/Aggregator related searches is between 11% and 16%.
For smartphone searches, the CTR is even higher – between 14% and 19%. These high CTRs show that consumers are eager to click on search ads when looking for an OTA/Aggregator....
With high CTR and low CPC, OTA/Aggregator advertisers need to consider bidding on their own brand terms in order to prevent losing mindshare and conversions to competitors bidding on those terms....
For flight search, autumn is a key opportunity. Click-through rates on smartphones for travel searches have been the highest in autumn of the four seasons. Yet cost-per-click rates tend to be low in this season....
For car rentals and other ground transportation, summer has the most click-through rates....
Bing Ads research has shown that bidding on one’s own brand terms results in higher click yield, along with a decrease in the click yield for competitor ads....
In other words, brands get more clicks and keep competitors at bay. The research also found that bidding on the most prominent ad spot (“main line” or ML1) is particularly important for smaller advertisers....
"If you're a travel brand that hasn't done so already, adding Location and Call Extensions will drive relevant traffic to your mobile (or mobile-friendly) website, storefront, or reservation line, allowing consumers to easily contact you to learn more or make a reservation....
Location extension can help you target ads that highlight last-minute deals and discounts for mobile consumers....
Advertisers with mobile apps can also add App Extensions to encourage mobile travelers to install their apps....
Within Sitelink Extension ads, deep links featuring the name of your brand or "airlines" as keywords were top performers, but were also among the least used by advertisers.
Other relatively untapped terms with high potential were Offers, Airfare, Cars, and Vacations...."
See the Bing Ads travel deck on SlideShare, also embedded here: