PAID SEARCH IN THE TRAVEL SECTORJIM BANKS

GLOBAL HEAD OF BIDDABLE MEDIA

CHEAPFLIGHTS

”

“3 Golden Rules for travel paid search

@jimbanks #FOS16

IF YOU RISK NOTHING..

• Always be testing hypothesis

• Always seek out new betas

• Don’t be afraid to make mistakes

@jimbanks #FOS16

BE A NINJA

• Don’t be obvious – Don’t name your Campaigns –“Top 10 keywords” unless you are throwing your competition a curve ball

• Use the human factor – Man will win over machine, every time.

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

ZIG VS. ZAG

• Don’t do something just because Google or Bing says so (NSS)

• Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) can be great… or horrible

• Use dedicated PPC landing pages – Strip it down

• Don’t just import Google to Bing and think you are done

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

THE ANOMALIES OF PAID SEARCH FOR TRAVEL

• The biggest competitor for travel advertisers is Google

• Typical best practise techniques for paid search don’t apply

• The value of the “head” terms is huge

• Most advertisers lose money – so having strong SEO is vital

• Brand bidding is a pandemic

• The halo effect of organic and paid together is greater in travel than other sectors

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

HOW TRAVEL SEARCH USED TO BE…..

I want to go somewhere

Book tickets

TRAVEL SEARCH IN 2016….

Desire

Research

BookExperience

Depression

SO WHICH OF THOSE 419 ARE THE MOMENTS THAT MATTER ?

@jimbanks #FOS16

B2C OR B2B

• B2C typically 2-3 vacations a year

• B2B typically 2-3 vacations a year & a number of business trips

• Both increasingly involve mobile as facilitators in the decision making process

@jimbanks #FOS16

NUMBER 1 AIM OF ALL TRAVEL ADVERTISERS

Reduce dependency on Google

@jimbanks #FOS16

WHAT WORKS

• Cross promotion – Flights to hotels, flights to car rental

• App promotion – Universal App campaigns

• Day-parting – 168 hours a week

• Weather

• Device modifiers

• Location targeting

• Form Factors – iPhone 4 vs. iPhone 6S

• Value Track Parameters

• Labels

@jimbanks #FOS16

WHAT DOESN’T WORK

• Review extensions

• Bid management tools

• Extensions generally

@jimbanks #FOS16

WHAT MIGHT WORK

• Comprehensive sitelinks

• The human factor

• Local knowledge

• Campaign based activity

@jimbanks #FOS16

THE TROJAN HORSE

MOBILE / APP STRATEGY

• More than average number of visits via mobile

• Less friction to get to search results

• Personalisation

• Track activity cross-device - UID

• NO dependency on search

@jimbanks #FOS16

COOL THINGS

• Ad customizers

• DSA

• Facebook to Google & Google to Facebook

• Bing

• Remarketing

• Custom Audiences from List

• Behavioral segmentation@jimbanks #FOS16

AD CUSTOMISERS

@jimbanks #FOS16

DSA (DYNAMIC SEARCH ADS)

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

@jimbanks #FOS16

CUSTOM LOOKALIKE AUDIENCES (TIERED OF COURSE)

@jimbanks #FOS16

SUMMARY

• Paid search in travel turns best practice on it’s head

• It’s almost entirely moving towards apps and mobile web

• It’s becoming almost entirely pay to play

@jimbanks #FOS16

THANKS

JIM.BANKS@SPADESMEDIA.COM+1 347 674 5789@JIMBANKSHTTP://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/IN/JIMBANKS