ioh webinar sept 2014 complete for pdf
TRANSCRIPT
Increasing Direct Bookings Tips & Best Practices Sept 16th 2014
Frank Reeves Founder, CEO
@AvvioTweets
About Us
+£10m p/m Hotel Direct Bookings
11 years In Partnership
Our Mandate:
DELIVER GROWTH IN DIRECT BOOKINGS FOR CLIENTS
350 Live Clients (UK, IRL)
Who do we work with?
The rising costs of customer acquisition
‘Since 2009, customer acquisition costs, i.e., all
sales, marketing and distribution, have outpaced
hotel revenue growth’
Hospitality Asset Managers Association, August 2014
The rising costs of customer acquisition
• Distribution costs have risen twice as quickly as hotel revenue.
• If current trends are maintained, the hotel industry is severely
exposed if (or when) volumes slow down – so action needs to be taken
now to reduce distribution costs.
• Brands more reliant on commissionable/third-party bookings will
struggle for profitability.
• Funds should be spent on enhancing the direct brand.
How?
Agenda
Part 1 Growing Direct Business
Traffic
Website
Booking Engine
Part 2 The Changing Landscape
Mobile
Payments
Part 3 Tips, Takeaways, Q&A
Part 1
Growing Direct Business
@AvvioTweets
Direct Business
£
Traffic
Website Booking Engine
Direct Business
£
Traffic
Website Booking Engine
Traffic
What are the primary sources of traffic for hotels?
Organic Traffic Unpaid search engine listings 40%
Paid Traffic Google Ads, Meta Search etc. 30%
Direct Direct browser, auto-complete etc. 15%
Referral Listings, representation etc. 10%
Other Email, Affiliate Campaign etc. 5%
Organic Traffic
SEO Best Practices for Hotels
Content is King
• Content is main focus for SEO
• Growing depth of relevant/interesting content key to online visibility
• Social Sharing of Good Quality content
Engagement – Healthy User Signals
• High Click Through Rate (CTR)
• Lower Bounce Rates
• Longer Time On Site
Technical Performance
• Speed: fast load times essential
• Content keywords: relevance and expansion
• Presence of meta tags: such as <title> and <description>
Speed
57% of hotel shoppers will wait 3 seconds or less before abandoning
because of speed alone
Less than 1 second
1 second
2 seconds
3 seconds
More than 4 seconds
Expectation
Abandonment Threshold
5%
2%
15%
8%
30%
16%
33%
31%
14%
43%
PhoCusWright Travel Site Performance study
Paid Traffic
Pay Per Click (PPC) Best Practices for Hotels
Use Cost of Acquisition (COA) Approach • Understand total cost of direct bookings
• Aim for 10% Cost of Acquisition from PPC Channel
• Traffic Budget = Conversion Rate x ABV x COA - ie. 2% x £200 x 10% =£0.40
• Channels: Google, Bing, Facebook, Affiliate Marketing, Twitter etc.
Meta Search • Cheaper than OTAs
• Expensive traffic, Conversion is essential
• Channels: Trivago, TripAdvisor, Google HPA, Kayak, Hotels Combined, Kelkoo etc.
Mirror Marketing http://www.tnooz.com/article/online-travel-agencies-mirror-marketing-PPC/
• OTAs driving up cost of brand name traffic by 30%+
• Ensure position 1 for brand name
• Use Book Direct & Promote Benefits
Direct Business
£
Traffic
Website Booking Engine
April 10th 2014
Website
Is Booking.com the most persuasive Website in the World?
Website
Book Direct Benefits
• Best Rate Guarantee, Benefits, Selling Techniques, Active not Passive
Full Screen Imagery: focus on visual sell
• Use TripAdvisor reviews to reinforce positives through images
A/B Testing
Responsive Design
• Mobile first, Universal Analytics
Special Offers that Deep-Link to improve conversion
Web Design Best Practices for Hotels
Book Direct Benefits
A/B Testing
A/B Testing
Goal Increase of 44.14%
Heatmap Testing
Responsive Design
Direct Business
£
Traffic
Website Booking Engine
Booking Abandonment
98%
Selling Techniques & Book Direct Benefits
Benefits – Guarantee – Urgency - Value
Booking Conversion Funnel
Understand Lost Business
Price Only Test
A/B Testing through Booking Engine
Price + Value Test
A/B Testing through Booking Engine
Goal Increase of 70.36%
• A/B Testing
• Heat-Mapping
• Market Segmentation testing
• Booking Engine Design
• Rate Effectiveness & Optimization
• Display: image size, book now etc.
• Sales messaging
• Personalisation
• How many Rooms/Rates
• Booking Path
• Optimized Navigation
Multi-Variate Testing
Conversion Optimisation
Direct Business
£
Traffic
Website Booking Engine
Part 2
The Changing Landscape
@AvvioTweets
Mobile is Growing, Desktop declining
Growth on queries in
Q4 2013 in the Hotels category 12% -6%
Desktop Queries *
+46% Smartphone Queries *
+64% Tablet Searches *
* Year on year within the same period
Mobile - Google Report
Mobile – Our Data Set
50% Traffic coming from Mobile
Tablet traffic 30% higher
than Smartphone
9am - 5pm 4x more bookings than 8pm-10pm
pro-rata, overall traffic higher
in evenings driven by mobile
46days Lead in on Mobile vs. 61 on desktop
69% Conversion on Tablet vs. 31% on Mobile
compared to desktop conversion
87% Email now opened on Mobile
overall open rates are definitely dropping
Payments
Part 3
Tips, Takeaways, Q&A
@AvvioTweets
Tips and Take-Aways
1. Visitors
• 40% Organic Traffic • 30% traffic from PPC • Cost of Acquisition approach to PPC. 10% Channel • MetaSearch Channels • Speed: Apdex.org or Pingdom)
2. Website
• Book Direct Benefits & Selling Techniques • A/B Testing • Imagery & Responsive Design
3. Booking Engine
• Conversion Optimisation • Conversion Funnel, KPIs & Abandonment • A/B Testing • Book Direct Benefits & Selling Techniques
4. Mobile
• Now 50% of Traffic • Consider PPC & Email • Both a conversion and a research/influence channel • Payments
