In travel, timing is everything.
Travellers need to know the right time to book, the right time to travel and how to save time by booking through travel agents.
Good itineraries and tours rely on perfect timing to align the flight arrival with the airport pickup, to make sure travellers arrive at their hotel within check-in time, and to choose experiences that fit the travellers daily schedule while factoring in meals and transfers.
Placing importance on timeliness is also a critical tool for travel marketers and having real-time, up-to-date data will provide more certainty that your ads are reaching the right people.
You need to get your available inventory in front of people who are looking to buy now so you know your business is presenting the right message to the right traveller at the right time.
To make sure you get your message in front of travellers who already have their credit cards in their hands, make sure your data isn’t stale.
The easiest way to target the right travellers is to make sure you have the right data.
Say you own a hotel that has vacant rooms in Sydney tonight. Clearly, there is no point showing travellers an offer for a sale that takes place in three days when you could target someone who wants to book tonight instead.
Likewise, if you need to fill a seat on a flight from Sydney to Hong Kong next week, it would be pointless advertising to someone who is looking to take off tomorrow. Without using the right data in a timely way, this will only lead to wasted ad spend.
Data is key
To achieve the highest probability of closing a sale, it’s essential to use deterministic intent data, which is factual and can be determined without question.
When travellers are planning a trip, the average path to purchase includes searching for accommodation options a day or two before buying a flight. This is critical deterministic data for airlines.
Using this information to target a traveller for flight offers to the destination where they have searched for accommodation gives the airline a better chance of making the sale.
In short, the advertiser knows what the traveller wants next without the traveller needing to search for it. Removing the number of touchpoints required to convert the traveller into a sale will mean less opportunity for the traveller to ‘disappear’ through the path to purchase.
Audience 360, Australia’s leading publisher of first-party data, has data partnerships with webjet.com.au, webjet.co.nz, Click Frenzy, as well as others, to deliver transparent, verified and real-time marketing opportunities to meet advertisers’ needs.
Travel companies can use this data to target people in market searching for flights, hotel accommodation and experiences who are ready to buy right now.
The result is higher conversion rates, higher profits and less wasted advertising spend.
In today’s shrunken COVID-affected market, few travel companies can ignore the competitive advantage of having the right data partner.
Get the most up-to-date info on your target audience HERE.
Featured image source: iStock/AnsonLu
