Unwrapping Christmas Travel Trends Whitepaper Nov 2009

November 2009: Here is the next instalment of our Travel research papers. Michael Wicks, our Industry Analyst, looks at the festive season ahead and provides key recommendations which will hopefully enable you to maximise your traffic. For full details, find the paper here: Unwrapping Christmas Travel Trends.

Online insights for the festive period

December is becoming increasingly important for travel consumers. In our latest in-depth look at the search trends within the travel sector we look for opportunities for advertisers to capture a share of the Christmas market and get in pole position for Q1 2010.

Promote your brand over Christmas

· December is becoming an important month for travel consumers as their search activity increases relative to other months

· Query growth is beginning to accelerate

Recommendations:

· Ensure adequate budgets are available in the run up to Christmas to avoid missing on customers either in December or in January

· Do not ignore the peaking traffic in week 52 of the year

The mix of queries changes over the Christmas and New Year period

· The long tail grows in importance in December; consumers are searching across a broader range of queries with additional modifiers

Recommendations:

· Set up more granular Ad Groups that capture more specific requests from customers

· Test different creative strategies to convince the consumer to book ahead of the traditional booking window

· Ensure ad text has a clear call to action

Opportunities arise from drops in Ad Coverage and Ad Depth

· December offers advertisers an opportunity to acquire traffic in a less competitive auction

· Advertisers who do maintain their investment over December will be in a stronger position in January as their Quality Score will not have been negatively impacted

Recommendations:

· Focus on capturing long tail traffic

· Fully understand the value of a pre-Christmas communication with consumers who will book in the New Year

· Query volumes are indicative of interest, so to take advantage of this evaluate value propositions in copy to ensure maximum commercial return

Surfing this Summer Whitepaper June 2009

June 2009: The aim of this research paper written by Industry Analyst, Jonny Cranmer, is to provide data on travel search trends to help in planning for 2009. Our methodology was simple. We looked back over last Summer and analysed travel query trends. We split the period into three sections: Pre-school Summer holidays, Summer holidays & Back to school.

Our findings are referenced against factors we believe had some effect on people's travel related behaviour. We looked at how major sporting events, public holidays, macroeconomic conditions and weather influenced people's online travel research.

The results are interesting, highlighting opportunities where advertiser exposure to online traffic could be increased. For example the adverse weather in August and September 2008 lead to high travel query volumes throughout September, possibly because people were motivated to find some late sun. As our ad depth study shows, advertisers failed to fully capitalize on these searches. You can download the white paper here: Surfing this Summer.

Spring into Summer: April 2009 White paper.

April 2009 Whitepaper. Rashad Sharif, our Industry Analyst, assesses the seasonal trends this Easter and looks ahead to the summer months. Capitalise on seasonal opportunities by downloading the full report here: Spring into Summer.

New Year Revelations White paper December 2008

December 2008: New Year Revelations Whitepaper by Michael Wicks

Insights and opportunities from the online frontier

January is becoming increasingly important to online travel businesses and after the highest ever month in terms of online traffic last year, advertisers are gearing up for the 2009 Q1 peak. In our latest in-depth look at the search trends within the travel sector we look for opportunities for advertisers to capture a share of the Q1 market. To download the paper, please click here: New Year Revelations.

Consumers booking travel are increasingly going online in January

· 12% YoY growth

· 71% MoM growth up from 66% in previous year

· 34% growth in last week of December against previous week

· Correlation with offline spend

Recommendations:

· Modify budgets to accommodate seasonal and daily peaks

· Allocate budgets accordingly over the year, and allow flexibility during peak periods

· Align offline and online investment

Exploring Q1 activity in depth

· Impressions decline more sharply than clicks in the post Christmas period

· High traffic volume is sustained throughout Q1

· Queries rise but clicks fall pre-Christmas as consumers research their holiday purchases

Recommendations:

· Expand keyword lists to cover increasing number of unique search terms

· Keep budgets uncapped throughout Q1 – not just January – to capture the entire opportunity

· Make sure keywords cover research-led queries and that landing page content is relevant

High growth exists in value led keywords

· Customers are increasingly seeking value through their searches

· Auction intensity is increasing for value-led keywords

Recommendations:

· Include 'budget' keywords in key Q1 campaigns

· Emphasise price and value for money in ad text

· Ensure CPCs are competitive in order to show more frequently against 'budget' keywords

Shifting destination patterns: slowing demand for secondary holidays like city breaks

· Travel queries still growing at 20% YoY

· Slowing demand especially for city break and short haul destinations

· Increased demand for domestic holidays

Recommendations:

· Ensure maximum keyword coverage for high demand destinations

Consumers are increasingly engaging longer and more specific searches

· 3 to 5 worded queries growing twice as fast as shorter terms

· "Tail" category now growing fastest

Recommendations:

· Build coverage on longer, niche keywords

· Create specific ad texts tailored to niche searches

Consumers are increasingly researching and purchasing travel products online

· 70% of consumers have researched and purchased a travel product online

· Only 27% research online and purchase offline

· Only 38% of consumers do any form of research offline

Recommendations:

· Run online campaigns in conjunction with offline campaigns to reinforce message during consumer research phase

· Direct traffic to educational sections of websites

August 2008: Bank Holiday Getaway by Jon Armitage
A look ahead to the late summer opportunities

As the tail-end of summer approaches, we look ahead to the final opportunities to drive the last minute bookings and examine the value of implementing a short-term, bank holiday focused strategy. For full details, download the whitepaper here: Bank Holiday Getaway.

Understanding the Bank Holiday opportunity

Search volumes continue to be strong throughout August with levels on a like-for-like basis down only 2% on July. In the 2 weeks preceding the bank holiday weekend, queries enjoy a gradual rise whilst CPCs decline presenting an opportunity for claiming cost-effective additional late summer bookings. The hotels sector enjoys the biggest and earliest rise, whilst CPCs in the packages sector drop off most dramatically in August.

Bank holiday traffic

Bank holiday related keywords offer a potential source of cheaper, incremental traffic in August as their volumes surge in the 2 weeks ahead of the holiday weekend. Ad depth on these keywords is considerably below the travel average, providing the opportunity for advertisers to secure a top position in the auction at a lower cost. We attach a keyword pack targeting the bank holiday period for you to consider for this period.

Destination performance

Despite concerns regarding the economy, long-haul destination query volumes have continued to grow strongly. Query volumes relating to Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and the Caribbean continue to perform well fuelled by the development and promotion of these destinations. However, one trend relating to the economic slowdown we have witnessed has been a slowing of city destination related queries. Growth of these have underperformed expectations suggesting that whilst consumers continue to book their main holidays, they are potentially cutting back on weekend trips away

Searching For Sun White paper June 2008

June 2008:

Searching for Sun

Search strategies for the summer lates

Approaching the summer lates market, we are experiencing a very different travel market online than in previous years. With reductions in industry capacity, soaring oil costs and travel business bankruptcies, there will be opportunities to claim online share through paid search for those advertisers willing to shift budgets to the digital space. We look back to 2007 to identify potential query patterns and examine the year to date to gauge the likely impact of the industry's new challenges. For full details, download the whitepaper here:Searching For Sun.

Learning from 2007

• July represents the peak traffic month of the year, 6.4% higher than January in 2007

• Weekly queries peak in early summer, at the start of July yet remain above January levels throughout July and August

• Opportunity within packages with 9% sector query outperformance and capacity cuts creating available auction inventory

• Opportunity in late summer as CPCs fall

Recommendations

• Ensure budgets are in place for peak annual traffic

• Ensure bidding is most aggressive at the start of the period

• Allocate budget for late summer bookings opportunity when efficiency is greater

• Assign budget for late August Bank Holiday weekendEnsure budgets are in place for peak annual traffic

Understanding the new challenges of 2008

• Queries in 2008 are increasingly aligned with holiday periods; post- Easter surge in searches coincided with school holidays, peaking in the 7 days up to 12th April at 39% y-o-y growth

• Missed opportunity post-Easter as queries grew yet investment remained flat

• Search efficiency greater in the shoulder periods in 2008

Recommendations

• Anticipate query growth of over 30% over the summer when setting budgets

• Claim excess search inventory arising from industry capacity reductions

• Optimise positioning by varying CPCs in cost-effective shoulder periods

• Anticipate aggressive CPC bidding at peak times with less industry capacity and consequently higher lates prices

Growth

• City break destinations such as Paris and Barcelona have retained their popularity YTD

• Long-haul destinations consistently resilient amidst economic concerns

• North America and Middle East destinations (both up 20%) have witnessed the strongest growth

Recommendations

• Expand keyword lists for local attractions and city areas and test creative messaging forcompetitive city destinations

• Ensure budgets, keyword lists and ad creatives are suitable and tailored to the high growth regions

May 2008 Whitepaper: Banking On May

May 2008: Targeting the seasonal travel opportunities in Spring by Jon Armitage

The Spring season offers an important time for travel advertisers to target customers ahead of the summer market, and with key shorter-term breaks during the two bank holiday weekends and the school half-term holiday period. By examining the trends and lessons from 2007, we see that May and June offers a key uplift in online customer behaviour with important consequences for search marketing programmes. Download the full whitepaper here: Banking on May.