Summer is a little over a month away and digital consumers are just a search, scroll, and click away from taking advantage of the flexibility that the season grants, as many take a break from their day-to-day and book the perfect getaway. As one of the largest industries, projected to reach $2.4 trillion in the next ten years, digital marketers need to ensure they are up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies, especially as consumers continue to utilize online booking capabilities. Nearly half of travelers begin trip planning with a search engine, 30% on social media and 23% watch videos, so utilizing the power of digital advertising and ensuring your brand is front-and-center in the planning process is key. It’s essential for marketers/media planners to understand the different types of travelers, how they are deciding where to go, when they’re booking and how to reach them in order to execute a winning programmatic campaign. So, Digilant has complied an infographic, based on industry research and insights, outlining the answers to all these questions.
Download the infographic here.
Part 5: The Power of Programmatic – Next Steps
The power of programmatic is unmistakable when it comes to the travel industry. Consumers peruse through apps, websites, and social media accounts when trip planning and the amount of information they come across is overwhelming. They are overloaded with clutter from advertisers, influencers and friends at all times of the day. Simplicity is difficult to come across amidst streams of mass messages. And consumers are discouraged. To ease their frustrations, your brand needs to reach out to targets in individualized ways at the right places and times. Programmatic makes this possible by matching the most accurate travel ads to the most promising groups of consumers in seconds.
Why Programmatic? What’s the Use?
Employing programmatic techniques means targeting audiences as accurately as possible. It’s an automated process that digitally purchases ads, serving the right campaigns to consumers based on past browsing habits. It’s an area of advertising that is booming and becoming a necessity across industries. By 2022, about 90% of mobile display ads will be processed programmatically. And 78% of travelers are downloading more, (or the same amount) of travel apps this year than they did in 2018. Tech users grow and tech applications only continue to advance. To keep up — especially in the travel industry, where tech is heavily relied upon — programmatic must be used to successfully catch the attention of consumers who rely on their mobile devices and laptop screens.
How Can Programmatic Engage With Travelers?
When it comes to travel planning, the customer journey is a lengthy, exhausting one. To simplify lives and make a profit, begin to track and act on programmatic campaigns with the following in mind:
Optimize Your Creative: Visuals speak louder than words in the travel industry. Today’s tech allows marketers to reach out to consumers with data in mind. They have extensive access to names, past browsing histories, locations, and so on. Using these past engagements to fuel stronger, more personalized ads in the future can assist in amplifying interest (Read more about optimizing creative with DCO here). Programmatic makes the development and successful delivery of these ads more than possible. And by mixing these abilities with mobile, your company has the ability to make great impact upon summer 2019 travelers.- Mobile is the place to be: 46% of travel brands feel like they haven’t invested enough in mobile tactics. Another 16% of brands have strayed away from mobile marketing entirely. Regardless of where your company stands, consider the immense power of social media upon today’s tourists. They are always using their phones. They travel with them and rely upon them. Advertising on mobile, is becoming the best way to communicate with travelers in 2019. To not invest would mean missing out on reaching massive groups of prospective consumers.
- Use Your Voice: More and more, consumers are coming to terms with the idea, and beyond that, the benefits of artificial intelligence and chatbots. Millennials and Gen Z consumers believe that chatbots of digital assistants would make the booking process easier and business travelers are already actively using voice assistants to check-in to their flight or check the status of it. So, consumers are already expecting to be able to connect with a voice – real or artificial – during travel, making it essential that your brand is prepared for this capability.
Make sure you are all set for the 2019 summer travel season by ensuring your programmatic plans are reaching their full potential. Interested in learning how Digilant can help with your next programmatic video buy? Contact us here.