Many years ago, if you wanted to book a trip to go on holiday or for business, you would need to visit your local travel agency. Nowadays, when people are thinking of going on a trip, they start their search for travel destinations on search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.). Having a robust paid search strategy is critical to ensure that you can get in front of your target market when they start their travel planning on search engines.
There are many competitors out there, like Expedia & Bookings.com, who have massive budgets and take a commission for all bookings that originate from their travel websites. If you are paying 12% – 20% for travel leads, then a focused PPC campaign could possibly produce a better return.
Effective PPC Strategies for Travel and Tourism Marketing
PPC plays a crucial role in the travel and tourism sector. Crafting an effective PPC campaign involves understanding the unique needs of travel marketers and tourism companies. To optimize PPC advertising for the travel industry, it’s essential to focus on keyword selection, targeting the right audience, and ensuring your ads are mobile-friendly.
Creating a successful PPC campaign in tourism marketing starts with selecting the right keywords. This includes high-intent, long-tail keywords that are specific to your travel business and resonate with your target audience. Additionally, making bid adjustments based on demographics, location, and seasonality trends can significantly improve your ad’s performance and increase the likelihood of someone clicking on your ad.
Conversion optimization is key in PPC for the travel industry. This involves ensuring that landing pages are engaging and mobile-friendly, as many users plan their travel on mobile devices. Google Ads and Facebook Ads offer robust platforms for targeting potential travelers, but it’s a great strategy to create separate campaigns for different travel services or destinations to tailor your messaging and drive conversions.
In tourism PPC, it’s vital to consider factors like search volume, seasonality patterns, and competition from other travel agencies. Using tools like Google Display Network and SEMrush can help you stay ahead of the competition and offer insights into search engine optimization (SEO) to complement your PPC efforts. Remarketing campaigns can also be a powerful tool in tourism marketing, helping to re-engage users who have shown interest but haven’t yet made a booking.
PPC in the travel and tourism industry requires a blend of strategic ad placements, precise targeting, and ongoing optimization to achieve the best results. By focusing on these key areas, travel businesses can build brand awareness, attract lots of traffic, and ultimately, see a great return in terms of bookings and ROI. Collaborating with a full-service digital marketing company can further streamline your campaigns and optimize them for success.
Tourism & Travel Industries That Can Benefit from PPC
Car Rental
Almost everyone planning a holiday or trip needs to rent a car. What better way to market your car rental business than with pay-per-click advertising. With PPC you’ll be able to market your business to prospects who are not only looking for car rentals but airports and hotels too. You’ll need to ensure that you have a targeted PPC strategy and a plan in place to retarget customers who have visited your website but have not made a purchase yet.
Hospitality
Using PPC to target phrases like “Hotels near me” can get your hotel in front of a searcher at exactly the time your target audience is looking for your establishment them to click on your ad.
Airlines
In the travel business, approximately 90% of people book their airline seats online. This is good for the airline industry as a whole, but how does your flight booking business reach these potential travelers with all the online competition? PPC provides the means for your airline to target the right potential travelers instantly.
Tourism
The best way to get in front of tourists is through pay-per-click advertising. Tourism websites can use a number of pay-per-click channels to reach their target market.
- Google Ads
- Microsoft Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Twitter Ads
- Instagram Ads
- And the Google display network
Why You Need a PPC Specialist for Tourism
If you are not an expert at digital marketing campaigns, especially with regards to PPC marketing and advertising, you can spend a lot of marketing dollars without getting the desired results. SEO can produce results, but it can take a while to get the conversion rate you need. With PPC, you can win new potential customers faster because of the instant nature of this advertising channel.
Building Brand Awareness for Tourism with PPC
Running a PPC campaign can attract a lot of people to your travel ads, but when they don’t click, it doesn’t mean that they are not interested. They may just not be ready to purchase at that moment. In fact, your ad has made them aware of your brand, and they will remember your brand and are likely to purchase it over others when they are in a buying phase.
Conclusion
Travelers and tourists start an online search to help them when they are looking for products, services, experiences, or attractions. You need to show up in the search engine results to stand a chance to get more bookings. PPC advertising gets your brand at the top of search results where you can stand an equal chance of getting their business.
Frequently Asked Questions, Answered
1. How can pay- per- click help travel and tourism?
When done correctly, pay-per-click (PPC) can help your travel and tourism business generate credible leads. PPC visitors are likely to click and buy from an ad when their search intention has been completely satisfied.
2. Should I use display ads for my travel agency?
Using display banner ads is one of the best online marketing tactics to use for the travel industry. Displaying an ad for a hotel on the white sands of a beautiful beach could create the best results and might be the way to get a click when someone searches for hotels.
3. How can I stay up-to-date with PPC for the travel industry?
To stay ahead of the competition, you must stay educated on the tourism marketing industry. Fortunately for you, Google’s digital concierge who can advise you on travel tactics and industry news. Subscribe, receive inspiration from others, and stay up-to-date on changes to drive your paid search development and success.
