Performance-Based Marketing in Travel & Hospitality

The travel and hospitality industry has seen dramatic changes in the last few years that impact how and when people interact with brands. Historically, the industry has leaned on traditional marketing channels like print publications, linear TV, and radio to reach current and prospective customers. But that marketing strategy is less measurable and requires audiences to move to a separate channel for further research and consideration, often resulting in lower engagement rates and minimal attribution.

With the convergence of TV, digital and other channels—not to mention the rising customer desire for a seamless experience—marketers are under enormous pressure to meet customer demands, stretch every dollar, and justify marketing investments. Many brands are incorporating more data-driven channels like digital display and search into their marketing mix where new opportunities for addressability and outcome-based performance marketing programs are emerging. This next generation of the AdTech ecosystem presents more options for creating integrated experiences, especially for those brands looking to reach audiences at scale and achieve less-risky, measurable returns on marketing investments.

One example is the use of QR codes and CTV. Matterkind recently worked with a client in the travel industry to employ a campaign using unique QR codes displayed on CTV ads to provide a more streamlined jump to mobile. After scanning the QR code on a mobile device, the person is taken to a webpage with more information, where interest can convert to a booking. In that same 30-second spot, viewers were able to engage directly with the creative, providing an aesthetic travel experience they’d been longing for after two years of no travel. By creating a truly integrated, engaging experience with the ads they were watching, viewers got much more than they would’ve from watching a commercial on linear TV. This strategy positioned our client to be a better resource in the search for vacation options.

Extending the use of these emerging capabilities, additional work with this client helped to combine typically distinct channels to optimize outcomes and lower costs. By integrating data across two different teams, addressable and SEM, we were able to drive a more holistic and efficient campaign. We identified placements that would drive the most bookings across those teams and executed a low-risk, fixed-cost-per-booking model. This increased bookings more than 20%! The approach created a more robust ROAS, because the client paid a single CPA instead of a separate CPM for display and CPC for search. It also deduped for the overlap between partners in the same channel, allowing the client to re-invest the otherwise wasted advertising dollars to realize even more bookings.

Our client was able to see that our unique, integrated approach was really working for them and offered a high return on ad spend. By diversifying strategies and streamlining the viewer experience, we were able to act strategically to drive bookings and prevent any wasted marketing investment. At a time when travel and vacation plans seemed to change based on the news cycle, these more predictable approaches to customer engagement brought in more bookings at a lower rate.

To learn a few more ways marketers can take advantage of these new outcome-based trends and techniques, click here to get a copy of our Six Outcomes of A New Generation of Performance Marketing POV paper.