EyeforTravel: Innovations in Travel Search

Presentations by the following executives…with a lot of good research data to follow:

• Krista Pappas, Microsoft Bing Travel
• Gary Jackson, Google Travel
• Anne Payne, BeDynamic
• Yen Lee, Uptake

Yen Lee of Uptake – “The Long, Fat Tail of Search”

Numbers that really matter

• 73% of consumers search before they make a booking
• They search an average of 10 times
• 86% of leads are generated by organic search (there IS a free lunch)
• Typical travel search is 3.1 keywords
  • It’s becoming more specific: was ‘chicago’…then ‘chicago hotels’…now it may be ‘chicago family hotels’
  • (this means they give us more context now)
  • Always tailor unique content to consumer preferences

Krista Pappas of Microsoft – “Maximizing SEM In a Tough Travel Economy”

• Searchers want more than a URL – they want detailed information
• 5% of search sessions are over 30 minutes…and they account for 50% of time spent on search engines
• Bing is trying to become a ‘travel decision engine’ …experimenting with visual search
• Marketing lessons
  • Test, test, test ad copy variations
  • 18-24 age demographic favors travel metasearch sites
  • Focus on targeting short trips & “staycations”
    • use keywords like “national” “state park” “monuments”
• Keyword behavior is changing.
  • biggest increase in 7-term hotel-related searches
  • expand your keyword portfolios
• Invest in landing pages to support SEO & SEM efforts

Gary Jackson of Google – “Finding the Sophisticated Travel Buyer with Search”

• Economy may be improving, but consumers are now more value-savvy
• Consumers are clicking on more paid ads
• Analysts say search is the fastest-growing segment in online marketing
• Travel queries have increased 40% since 2008
• Search clicks to travel sites are up 35%
• Search funnel: Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Purchase
  • Purchase searches may include brand & a date (ex: royal caribbean europe cruise in 2010)
• Continually learn: use data to optimize
• They’re is a strong correlation between travelers and smart phone usage
• 48% of consumers willing to buy a hotel room via mobile (eMarketer)
• When doing SEO, tag every piece of content and make sure it’s current

Anne Payne of BeDynamic – “Actionable Entertainment Content”

• Aside from groceries, the first place consumers go to before buying a product is the internet
• Is your story useful to your customers?
  • What type of behavior are you trying to achieve?
  • What metrics are important to you? (things need to be measurable)
• Case studies
  • Victoria Inn, Core’s Landing, Rice Lake, Ontario
    • Challenge: no online reservation system, most bookings came from word of mouth
    • Solution: creating content centered around what their customers liked most
    • Results
      • Paid for campaign in 1-2 months
      • Quickly reached top of search results
  • Audley Travel (tour operator)
    • Challenge: most important key words ranked outside Google Top 100
    • Solution: content strategy targeted 1000′s of long tail keyword strings
    • Results: overall traffic increased 142% from search volume & rankings; 372 top-rankings for keywords
  • Radisson Edwardian Hotels (UK)
    • Challenge: PPC had only mediocre results; website lacked direction & was not able to communicate hotel benefits
    • Solution: create content that promoted the uniqueness of the property, local events & seasonal activities
    • Results: 2553% ROI in first month; 3x ROI in first seven months
• Be the source
• Be invaluable

Q&A with Panel

“We treat SEO and SEM very separately. It’s like there’s a wall between them.” – Google

“You cannot have a ‘set it and forget it’ approach to SEO. Constantly create fresh content.” – Microsoft

86% of travel leads come from SEO. 14% through PPC. Are you spending 5x the resources on SEO? – Yen Lee, Uptake

“See SEO as a profit center, not a cost center” – Yen Lee, Uptake

“The two huge things for 2010 will be mobile and local.” – Gary Jackson, Google