Santa Maria Valley WEBSITE ANALYTICS REPORT - APRIL 2017

Website and Digital Marketing Analytics Summary

April proved to be Santa Maria Valley’s best performing month for website sessions so far this year with 11,686 total sessions, an 8% increase over last month. Of these sessions, 43% came from paid sources and 27% from organic searches. The website's overall conversion rate remains incredibly strong at 10%, despite the seasonal decrease of our media budget and increase in visitors. Overall, paid digital media played a very large role in driving traffic to the site, and was responsible for 38% of all conversions for the month. Facebook and AdWords continue to be strong paid traffic sources, accounting for 15% and 21% of all April sessions, respectivley. Clicks and impressions increased greatly as paid digital was responsible for 59% of hotel clicks and 37% of getaway entries. Of all our April visitors, 6% provided their email address through a Getaway entry or a newsletter sign up. We were able to capture 555 unique emails this way during the month of April. The number of happy inboxes and monthly newsletter subscribers now total 10,100 and there’s more coming. The Resonate Email Lead Campaign resulted in 653 new emails that will be added to the subscriber database. We received slightly fewer unique getaway entries this month, however 58% of the entries were new to our email list, versus 34% in March. In April, we received 513 unique Getaway entries for the Rodeo and Friends/Family sweepstakes. Santa Maria Valley continued its positive momentum with great PR content and hits about the region in April, focusing on wine, barbecue and travel. Social media posts from large outlets such as VisitCA and two FAM visits were nice wins for the region. The month ended with a bang with a story about Santa Maria Valley being published in the Los Angeles Times. While this story was published organically, it carries an online publicity value of $27,564 and a print value of $21,131.

Santa Maria Valley APRIL 2017 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

TOP 10 CITIES SESSIONS

Los Angeles 2,436 (+1,124%)

Santa Maria 742 (+169%)

San Francisco 487 (+438%)

Bakersfield 387 (+2,115%)

Lancaster 318 (+9,775%)

Palmdale 259 (+13,300%)

Sacramento 218 (+1,657%)

Orcutt 205 (+982%)

San Diego 184 (+497%)

New York 157 (+664%)

TOTAL SESSIONS SESSION % CHANGE BOUNCE RATE

11,686 ⬆470% ⬆5.67%Avg. sessions/day: 389 2,018 sessions in 2016 vs. 11,686 in 2017 60.36% in 2016 vs. 63.78% in 2017

OVERALL TRAFFIC SOURCES

GENERAL WEBSITE KPI’S

April has brought the most sessions to the website this year, increasing by 8% over March 2017. Paid sources accounted for 43% of traffic this month, and organic searches for 27%.

The website’s overall conversion rate remains incredibly strong at 10% for April. Getaway Entries accounted for 55.5% of all conversions, and Attraction Clicks for 26%.

As we saw last month, bounce rates are up and session durations are down over last year; this is likely due to the heavy emphasis on specific, action-oriented paid campaigns (e.g., Getaway Entries and Hotel Clicks), which do not encourage heavy engagement with the website.

We received 513 unique Getaway entries in April, slightly lower than March’s 570 unique entries. In the coming months, we will work with the Santa Maria team to determine the right strategy for Getaway promotion moving forward, taking the decreased paid budget and possible audience exhaustion.

OUTBOUND CLICKS TO HOTELS + ATTRACTIONS

3783.23% of all sessions resulted in an outbound click to a hotel or attraction

2017

Direct

Organic

$

AVERAGE SESSION DURATION

⬇16.08%1m43s in 2016 vs. 1m27s in 2017

ORGANIC SEARCH SESSIONS

⬆369%679 in 2016 vs. 3,185 in 2017

SESSIONS BY LOCATION

53%

25%

150

300

450

600

Apr. 1 Apr. 15 Apr. 30

Daily Sessions - Apr. 2017 Daily Sessions - Apr. 2016

*

*

Organic

Santa Maria Valley APRIL 2016 vs. APRIL 2017: WEBSITE OVERVIEW

DirectReferral

Paid

Organic

Direct

Referral

2016

Monthly Eblast

Social

Email

Email

Hotels, Attractions, Popular Events, & Demographics APRIL 2017

7 13 20 27 33 40

Outbound Hotel Clicks

Holiday Inn

Fairfield Inn

Best Western

Candlewood Suites

Historic Santa Maria Inn

Radisson

Motel 6

Days Inn

Town and Country Inn

Solaire Inn & Suites

TOP 10 ATTRACTIONS PAGEVIEWS

The Hitching Post 70

Farmers Markets 56

Jocko’s 48

Shaws 46

River Estuary 33

The Pad Climbing Gym 32

Presquile Winery 31

Far Western Tavern 30

Waller Park 29

Point Sal State Beach 28

U Pick Blueberries 28

Woodys Butcher Block 28

OUTBOUND HOTEL CLICKS BY LOCATION

UNIQUE OUTBOUND HOTEL CLICKS UNIQUE OUTBOUND ATTRACTIONS CLICKS UNIQUE EMAIL ENTRIES

135 243 5551.44% of all visitors 2.60% of all visitors 5.93% of all visitors

HOTEL, ATTRACTION & GETAWAY KPI’S

The overall conversation rate for the website remains very strong at 10%, but is down over March’s 11.4% due to the decreased paid digital media budget and the increase in visitors.

Clicks to hotel partner websites decreased by 25% over last month; 59% of outbound hotel clicks this month came from the AdWords campaign, 29% from referral sources, and 9% from organic search.

AdWords continues to be a very effective channel, accounting for the majority of outbound hotel clicks this month. The Hotel & Lodging and Wineries campaigns accounted for the majority of clicks coming from AdWords.

6% of all visitors provided their email address via one of the forms in April, totaling 555 unique emails entires (Getaway or Newsletter) for the month.

Top hotels included the Holiday Inn, Fairfield Inn & Suites, Best Western, Candlewood Suites, The Historic Santa Maria Inn, Radisson, Motel 6, Days Inn, Solaire Inn & Suites, and Town and Country Inn.

Just under 10% of all visitors converted in one way, shape, or form - either via a hotel or attraction click, a getaway entry, or a newsletter sign up.

TOTAL CONVERSIONS TOTAL CONVERSION RATE (BY VISITORS)

933 9.97%Avg. 31/day 7.86% (by sessions)

Santa Maria Valley APRIL 2017: HOTELS, ATTRACTIONS & EVENTS

53%

TOP CITIES CLICKS

Los Angeles 19

San Digeo 5

Bakersfield 4

Fresno 3

Milpitas 3

TOP 10 SITE REFERRALS SESSIONS

santamaria.com 416

cityofsantamaria.org 226

santamariawines.com 45

westcoastkustoms.com 27

sbcountywines.com 25

barbecuebible.com 18

lospadrescounty.net 14

visitcalifornia.com 12

santamariaedc.com 10

countyofsb.org 5

GENDER TRAFFIC BY SESSIONS

3,959

3,251AGE DEMOGRAPHIC BY SESSIONS

18-24 786

25-34 1,675

35-44 1,562

45-54 1,258

55-64 1,093

65+ 581

REFERRAL SESSION % CHANGE MOBILE SESSION % CHANGE TABLET SESSION % CHANGE

⬆44% ⬆1,112% ⬆317%1,131 in 2016 vs. 1,629 in 2017 612 in 2016 vs. 7,418 in 2017 211 in 2016 vs. 880 in 2017

0

450

900

1350

1800

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+

PAGE PAGEVIEWS

Getaway 4,238

Homepage 1,975

Things To Do 1,714

Events 1,658

Hotels & Motels 1,230

Wine Country 1,117

Getaway Confirmation 722

The Scoop on Santa Maria Pinquito Beans

597

Attractions 573

Plan Your Trip 505

% MALE TRAFFIC % FEMALE TRAFFIC

45.09% 54.91%3,251 visits from men 3,959 visits from women

TOP PAGES BY PAGEVIEWS

Santa Maria Valley APRIL 2017: DEMOGRAPHICS, CONTENT, & REFERRAL TRAFFIC

Organic Search & Facebook Performance APRIL 2017

Google Ranking Improvement

KEYWORD GOOGLE RANK IMPROVEMENT SINCE LAUNCHSanta Maria Barbecue #8 93

92 Santa Maria Style Barbecue Santa MAria California Map

#10 91

Santa Maria California Map #10 91

Santa Maria Wineries Map #10 91

Santa Maria Wine Tasting Map #10 91

Santa Maria Map #10 91

Sant Maria BBQ #11 90

Santa Maria Downtown #12 89

Santa Maria Things to Do #4 44

Santa Maria Valley BBQ #1 23

TOP SEARCH IMPRESSIONS IMPRESSIONS

santa maria 23,900

santa maria bbq 1,096

things to do in santa maria 1,046

santamaria 1,028

pinquito beans 888

santa maria valley 647

santa maria california 591

things to do in santa maria ca

533

santa maria grill costco 497

santa maria .com 443

TOP 10 CITIES SESSIONS (YOY)

Santa Maria 373 (+183%)

Los Angeles 346 (+416%)

San Francisco 285 (+459%)

Orcutt 145 (+867%)

Lompoc 102 (+437%)

San Diego 62 (+1450%)

San Luis Obispo 44 (+175%)

Arroyo Grande 40 (+233%)

San Jose 39 (+225%)

Sacramento 30 (+900%)

ORGANIC SEARCH VISITS ORGANIC TRAFFIC % CHANGE (YOY) ORGANIC HOTEL CONVERSION RATE

3,201 ⬆371% 0.42%Average search visits per day: 107 +84 average search visits per day 12 outbound hotel clicks from organic

ORGANIC SEARCH KPI’S

While some paid metrics are down this month due to the strategic decrease in budget, organic search metrics continue to rise. Organic traffic increased 21% over March 2017 and 64% over February 2017.

The most popular search term is still “Santa Maria,” serving 23,900 impressions in Google’s search results. Santa Maria bbq remains the #2 search term, serving 1,096 impressions.

The site appears in search results for "santa maria grill costco” due to a 2012 blog post about Santa Maria Grills.

The website was seen 101,576 times in Google’s search results in April, up 16% over last month.

ORGANIC ATTRACTION CONVERSION RATE ORGANIC GETAWAY CONVERSION RATE

2.96% 1.06%84 outbound attraction clicks from organic 30 getaway entries from organic search

AVERAGE SESSION DURATION

⬆27%1m23s in 2016 vs. 1m45s in 2017

BOUNCE RATE

⬇24%74% in 2016 vs. 56% in 2017

Santa Maria Valley APRIL 2017: ORGANIC SEARCH

ORGANIC SESSIONS BY LOCATION

53%

25%

ANALYSIS

The paid Facebook campaigns continue to drive significant traffic to the website, accounting for 15% of all sessions in April.

Facebook metrics are down slightly over March. This could be an indicator of possible exhaustion of our Facebook campaign audiences. In the coming months, we will adjust our ads and work with the Santa Maria team to explore new or broadened audiences where strategically appropriate.

The Santa Maria Valley Facebook page gained 524 new likes due to the Facebook Page Likes campaign.

POST REACHREACTIONS/COMMENTS/

SHARESPOST CLICKS

Strawberry season is upon us and with that comes an abundance of delicious and sweet berries in the #santamariavalley. Head over to #upickblueberries and gather organic, spray free

strawberries and blueberries by the basket or bucket. Delicious!#letsgettogether690 15 17

In case you're looking for any new reasons to check out Santa Maria-style barbecue, here are eight good ones from BBQ Industry. #santamariastylebbq #letsgettogether #santamariavalley

525 6 19

We are so thrilled that the tri-tip (and wine and hotel stay) were seared in to the Los Angeles Times' memory! Writer, Irene Lechowitzky, shares her Santa Maria Valley finds. #letsgettogether

#bestbeefever #santamariastylebbq #santamariavalley375 10 6

MomUncorked is a blog about food, family and travel. Naturally we were excited when we saw the Santa Maria Valley wine country provided Beth, the voice behind the blog, with some tasty

inspiration! #santamariavalleywine #letsgettogether317 4 7

#SantaMaria Fave 5's: Special Events in and around Santa Maria! 293 1 12

FACEBOOK PAGE LIKES SINCE MAR. 1 PEOPLE REACHED ENGAGED USERS

+515 213,991 4,822total page likes on Apr. 30: 4,739 Avg. 7,133/day 2.25% engagement rate

TOP APRIL FACEBOOK POSTS BY CLICKS (BOOSTED & ORGANIC)

PAID REACH

208,15397% of reach is via paid Facebook channels

55

110

165

220

2,250

4,500

6,750

9,000

Apr. 1 Apr. 15

Daily Reach (Impressions) Daily Engaged Users

WEBSITE VISITS FROM FACEBOOK

2,21421% organic & 79% paid

Santa Maria Valley APRIL 2017: FACEBOOK PERFORMANCE

53%

25%

PAGE LIKES CAMPAIGN

CHANNEL IMPRESSIONS PAGE LIKES CONVERSION RATE COST PER LIKE SPENT

Facebook - Page Likes 84,729 524 0.62% $1.43 $749.07

Getaway Entries & Newsletters APRIL 2017

AGE RANGE GETAWAY ENTRIES

GETAWAY CONV. RATE

18-24 17 2.16%

25-34 72 4.30%

35-44 76 4.87%

45-54 111 8.82%

55-64 138 12.63%

65+ 39 6.71%

UNIQUE GETAWAY ENTRIES GETAWAY CONVERSION RATE LIFETIME GETAWAY ENTRIES

513 5.26% 3,300Avg. 17 getaway entries/day with email at 48% 2,426 Unique Entries

g

Santa Maria Valley APRIL 2017: GETAWAY ENTRIES

GETAWAY ENTRIES BY TRAFFIC SOURCE

GETAWAY ENTRY KPI’S

AdWords and Facebook have the highest Getaway conversion rates of the paid promotions, with the exception of the Elksrec display ads; these ads brought 165 visitors to the site, 59% of whom completed an entry form.

We received slightly fewer unique getaway entries this month, however 58% of the entries were new to our email list (vs. 34% in March.)

The top visitor locations included Los Angeles and San Francisco. The entries from New York City and Conneaut, OH came from the April Fresh Take newsletter. The majority of Santa Maria visitors originated from the Elksrec display ad, and the remaining came from email and referral sources.

The majority of entries came from the April emails, followed by AdWords, Facebook and Elksrec ads. The Elksrec and email channels had the highest conversion rates by far at 59% and 48%, respectively.

To date, 41% of all unique contest entrants have opened an email, 21% have clicked on at least 1 link in 1 email, and 4.5% have unsubscribed. This demonstrates the getaway entrants could be a very engaged audience.

In April, we received 243 Friends/Family entries (47%), 95 Rodeo entries (19%), and 175 entries to both categories (34%).

GETAWAY % BY FEMALE ENTRY

77%

53%

25%

TRAFFIC SOURCE SESSIONS GETAWAY ENTRIES

GETAWAY CONVERSION RATE

Google AdWords 2,404 63 2.62%

Paid Facebook 1,765 56 3.17%

Paid Display, Audio, Video (Resonate)

693 5 0.72%

Elksrec 165 97 58.79%

Email 527 252 47.82%

Organic Search 3,201 34 1.06%

Referral 1,075 11 1.02%

Direct 1,258 60 4.77%

Social 477 12 2.52%

GETAWAY % BY MALE ENTRY

23%

13 27 40 53 67 80

Getaway Entries by LocationLos Angeles

San Francisco

Santa Maria

Lansing

New York

Lancaster

Conneaut, OH

Lompoc

Bakersfield

Oxnard

TOTAL CONVERSION RATE

Santa Maria Valley APRIL 2017: EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

SUBSCRIBERS OPENS CLICKS

10,100 1,603 321up 0.19% over March (10,081) down 20% over March (1,993) down 27% over March (442)

53%

25%

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

EMAIL KPI’S The April newsletter went out to 10,100 subscribers. The overall click through rate for April was 3.2%, a dip from March’s 4.4% but still well above the travel industry benchmark of 2.17%.

Getaway entrants made up the vast majority (84%) of people who clicked on a link in the April email. The unsubscribe rate dropped from 2.37% to 1.57% with April’s email. To date, 41% of all unique contest entrants have opened an email, 21% have clicked on at least 1 link in 1 email, and only 4.5% have unsubscribed.

The Resonate Email Lead Campaign resulted in 653 new emails that will be added to the subscriber database. We expect to receive approximately 2,500 emails through this campaign by the time it ends on May 30th.

SUBSCRIBER LIST

RECIPIENTS OPENED OPEN RATE

CLICKED CTR BOUNCED BOUNCE RATE

UNSUBSCRIBE UNSUBSCRIBE RATE

Monthly Newsletter

List9,750 1,536 15.68% 312 3.20% 47 0.48% 154 1.58%

Yosemite Leads

249 56 21.62% 7 2.81% 10 4.02% 3 1.20%

CA Visitor Guide

41 11 25.00% 2 4.88% 3 7.32% 1 2.44%

Paid Digital Media APRIL 2017

CHANNEL IMPRESSIONS CLICKS CTR AVG. CPC SPENT GETAWAY ENTRIESGETAWAY

CONVERSION RATE

Google (Search) 75,441 2,515 3.33% $1.44 $3618.77 114 4.83%

Display 764,799 754 0.10% $6.59 $4971.19 N/A N/A

Display - Remarketing

13,157 57 0.43% $1.50 $85.52 5 8.77%

Facebook - Getaway Entries 174,098 4,346 2.50% $0.17 $747.99 55 1.27%

CLICKS AVERAGE COST-PER-CLICK IMPRESSIONS

8,494 $1.51 1,221,268vs. 7,521 in March vs. $1.42 in March vs. 743,449 in March

Santa Maria Valley APRIL 2017: PAID DIGITAL MEDIA

PAID SEARCH & DISPLAY CAMPAIGNS

CHANNEL VIEWS AVG. CPV COMPLETIONS COMPLETION RATE CLICKS CTR SPENT

Resonate - Video 96,957 $0.02 61,403 63.33% 282 0.29% $2326.97

Resonate - Audio 12,087 $0.02 136 1.13% 16 0.13% $290.09

PAID VIDEO & AUDIO CAMPAIGNS

PAID DIGITAL KPI’S

April resulted in 8,494 clicks across all media channels, including Display, Paid Social, Video, and AdWords, — a 13% increase over March. Paid digital media played a larger role in conversions this month, and was responsible for 38% of all conversions. Paid digital media was responsible for 59% of outbound hotel clicks in April, 37% of Getaway Entries, and 29% of outbound attraction clicks.

The average cost-per-click (CPC) increased by 9 cents month-over-month, but the average cost-per-thousand impressions decreased by $3.88. We are very pleased with these numbers, given that the majority of the digital budget in April was devoted to impressions-based campaigns (display).

The AdWords campaigns continue to perform very well, with an increase in impressions, click-through-rate (CTR), and conversions in April, as well as a decrease in CPC. The sharp increase in total impressions is due to the return of the display campaign, which ran for only half of March but all of April.

We can expect most digital paid metrics to decrease as the paid advertising budget decreases in the high season. We are very pleased with the efficiencies gained in the paid digital media over the last 6 weeks.

CHANNEL IMPRESSIONS PAGE LIKES CONVERSION RATE

COST PER LIKE SPENT

Facebook - Page Likes 84,729 524 0.62% $1.43 $749.07

FACEBOOK PAGE LIKES CAMPAIGN

Santa Maria Valley APRIL 2017: PAID TRAFFIC ON-SITE BEHAVIOR

TOP PAGES PAGEVIEWS

Getaway Giveaway 3,088

Hotels & Motels 934

Homepage 880

Wine Country 858

Things to Do 625

Attractions—Wine 284

Getaway Confirmation Page 253

Events 238

Attractions 220

Wine Tasting Guide 72

TOP 5 CITIES SESSIONS (MOM)

Los Angeles 1,542 (+11%)

Lancaster 325 (+21%)

Bakersfield 280 (-13%)

Palmdale 219 (+36%)

Sacramento 164 (+%)

PAID SESSIONS % TRAFFIC CHANGE VS. LAST MONTH BOUNCE RATE

5,082 ⬆0.49% ⬇2.05%Average sessions per day: 169 +6 average paid sessions per day 73.20% in Apr. vs. 74.73% in Mar.

PAID DIGITAL BEHAVIOR KPI’S

All engagement metrics (bounce rate, session duration, and pages per session) for paid digital visitors are up month-over-month, and traffic remains steady.

The top page for paid digital media visits continues to be the Getaway Giveaway landing page, as that has been the biggest focus of paid digital efforts. The Hotels & Motels landing page moved up significantly, taking the #2 spot, due to the Hotel & Lodging AdWords campaign.

The majority of paid traffic continues to come from our target markets, with Los Angeles having the highest concentration of visitors.

As the high season approaches and the paid digital media budget continues to decrease, we can expect to continue to see a downward trend in our digital media metrics over the Summer before ramping back up again during the Fall.

In the coming months, we will work with the Santa Maria Valley team to prioritize and focus the limited digital budget.

AVG. SESSION DURATION AVG. PAGES PER SESSION

⬆3.77% ⬆3.51%0m55s in Apr. vs. 0m53s in Mar. 1.77 pages in Apr. vs. 1.71 pages in Mar.

PAID SESSIONS BY LOCATION

53%

75

150

225

300

Apr. 1 Apr. 15 Apr. 30

Daily Paid Sessions - Apr. 2017 Daily Paid Sessions - Mar. 2017

Elksrec Display Ad Elksrec Display Ad

Elksrec Display Ad

Public Relations APRIL 2017

Santa Maria Valley Media Update APRIL 2017 PR AND CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The Santa Maria Valley continued its positive momentum with great PR and content hits about the region, focusing on wine, barbecue and travel. Facilitation of two FAM visits, continued pitching of travel and food & wine writers, and social media posts from large outlets such as VisitCA were wins for the region. The month ended with a bang with a story in the Los Angeles Times, which was also on point in terms of messaging Santa Maria Valley’s brand pillars.

HERE ARE THE SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE MONTH:

• Susan Righetti, Far Western Tavern is a guest on the SoCal Restaurant Show, hosted by a writer that attended a recent FAM to the Santa Maria Valley. SoCal Restaurant Show has 4,515 Instagram followers, 837 Facebook likes and 3,457 Twitter followers.

• Noozhawk runs Santa Maria Firing Up Barbecue Throwdown to Benefit Kiwanis Kids. Noozhawk receives 103K unique visitors per month.

• BBQ Industry interviews Wayne Stahl of the Santa Maria Elks Lodge and runs the article, 8 reasons why Santa Maria BBQ is next-level. BBQ Industry is a fairly new site and has a growing audience. Currently, it has 1,669 Instagram followers, 152 Facebook likes and 132 Twitter followers. Their articles have been averaging 500 impressions (by the end of the year each article should have around 3,000 impressions).

• The Los Angeles Times runs an article, After a weekend escape in Santa Maria, the tri-tip will be seared into your memory. The story has an online publicity value of $27,564 and their website receives 24MM unique visitors per month. The printed version has a publicity value of $21,131 and has a reach of 459K (source: Cision. Cision’s publicity value calculations are based on length of the story, the type of media in which it appeared, and the number of impressions for the individual article).

• Caleb Granski of Moxie Café and Jon Karlos Macias from Ca’Del Grevino are guests on the SoCal Restaurant Show, continuing Santa Maria Valley’s presence on the weekly show.

• Life-Uncorked pens an article, Santa Maria Style BBQ Takes Center Stage at Far Western Tavern.

• VisitCA posts an Instagram Story on their recent visit to Santa Maria Valley.

• The blog, Mom Uncorked pens two articles on the Santa Maria Valley, Santa Maria Valley: Where Wine and BBQ Reign Supreme and The Wines of California’s Santa Maria Valley. The writer attended a recent FAM to the Santa Maria Valley. Mom Uncorked has 2,500 Instagram followers, 2,299 Facebook likes and 2,147 Twitter followers.

• They also posted about the Santa Maria Elks Rodeo.

215+ EINewswire pick-ups on Kites and Spirits Will Soar April 23 at the Discovery Museum’s Free Family Kite Festival

215+ EINewswire pick-ups on First Time Barbecue Festival Launches in the Santa Maria Valley

VisitCA Instagram Story

VisitCA Instagram post