September 05, 2019
While January is usually the time when retailers are coming down from the Christmas and Black Friday rush, for the travel sector the New Year is the busiest period in the industry.
After spending big on Christmas gifts, trudging through blustery weather, returning to work and spending maybe a little too much time with family, come January, people are ready to book the holidays they have been dreaming about for months.
For the travel industry, to make the most of the January peak booking season, your brand needs to make sure you are front and centre for potential customers in the months prior to the New Year. By harnessing the power of audience-building and remarketing in Google Ads, your brand can be supported to achieve bumper bookings come January.
Holidays are high-consideration purchases, meaning people tend to take time to research destinations, accommodation and activities at great length before making a decision. Because of this, audiences often begin planning their holidays in December, sometimes as early as November, even if they don’t actually book until January.
For marketers and advertisers, this means holiday campaigns should be live and budgets in place to catch holiday deamers early. One advantage to getting your campaigns set up to meet your customer early in their purchase journey is that CPCs will traditionally be lower in the research phase, meaning a bigger bang for your buck during these months.
Source: Google insights for “luxury travel”.
As well as organising spends and offers, In-Market Audiences are key this time of year. Google is able to identify users who have recently reviewed travel brand offerings, and are also in the midst of their dreaming and planning process but haven’t stumbled upon your brand yet.
Where In-Marketing Audiences help with putting your brand in front of the right people, Remarketing lists help to keep those audiences already aware of your brand engaged and aware of your latest news and offers.
We recommend that you get your remarketing plan in place so Google can quickly learn and help adapt swiftly as traffic increases. Play with a mixture of All Website Visitors, Destination Viewers, Cart Abandoners and Converters. Apply these to Display ads, but also layer them into your traditional search campaigns.
Stay top-of mind over the festive season by utilising YouTube ads (i.e. banners) with punchy brand USPs. It is also important to include your holiday deals in these bumper ads. You can then create remarketing lists from the YouTube viewers, and apply bumper bids to promotional search campaigns, closing the circle on your customer’s digital journey.
With a wealth of experience in helping travel brands succeed during this crucial period, speak to the AGY47 team today to find out how we can help your brand stay in the mind of your potential customers.