choose your words carefully: travel edition
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Choose your words carefully: Travel edition
How word choice can make or break pay-per-click search ads
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Don’t say “free” in a car rental PPC ad – or its evil cousin, “upgrade”.
What other surprising word combos make travel searchers click somewhere else?
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The researchers at Bing Ads recently tackled a couple of big questions about performance for PPC travel ads.
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What combinations of words in the title and description get the highest Ad Quality ranking?*
Does this change depending on what device the audience is using?
*Ad Quality is a calculation which factors in both the clickability (the likelihood of an ad being clicked, agnostic of position) of the ad and other indicators of ad quality. Ads with better ad quality not only have a better CTR, they get rewarded with better ad ranking and lower CPCs than other ads with lower ad quality.
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We analyzed
150,000 ads running on the Yahoo Bing Network.
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These ads generated 50 million impressions.
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1 ad on the Yahoo Bing Network reaches
163 million searchers
5.6 billion monthly searches on Yahoo Bing Network
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We limited our study
to June 2013 to have the richest data to work with.
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Then we broke the travel vertical into 4 categories.
Flights and airlines
Hotels Car rental Cruises
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Critical insights we uncovered:
1. Travel searchers are very specific – and focused on accomplishing their task. Destination, dates and activities are often already determined by the time the searcher begins the hunt for airline tickets, hotel and car rental. Writing PPC travel ads with specific location names is key.
2. User intent as it relates to device is critical. Putting together different ads for mobile and PC is a must, as users on PCs are more likely to be attracted to official sites, while mobile users want to take action from a “book now” interface.
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Mobile is big for Bing travelers
When compared to Google, the Yahoo Bing Network audience is:
20%
15%
more likely to access travel content via mobile browsers at least once a week
more likely to access travel content via mobile browsers 2-3 times in a month
more likely to access travel content via mobile browser ever in the last month
Source: comScore Plan Metrix Site Audience Profile, January 2013. Composition Index compared to baseline internet users
13%
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Here’s how to read a heatmap
Ad description
Ad titl
e
Great Good Insufficient data Poor
Air
Airfa
res
Airlin
e B
rand
Airlin
es
Bo
ok
Call
to A
ctio
n
City
Deals
Dest
inatio
ns
Dis
count
Fare
s
Fin
d
Flig
hts
Fly
Guara
nte
ed
Hug
e/B
ig
Lo
west
No
nst
op
No
w
Off
ers
Off
icia
l Site
Onlin
e
Price
s
Save
Tic
kets
To
day
Tra
dem
ark
Tra
vel
Web
site
Yo
ur
Air
Airfares
Airline Brand
Airlines
Area
Book
Call to Action
City
Deals
Discount
Fares
Find
Flights
Fly
Lowest
Nonstop
Official Site
Online
Save
Tickets
Trademark
Travel
Website
Our study results show that a travel ad with “airlines” in the title and “deals” in the description has high Ad Quality.
Microsoft Confidential
Airlines and flights: Ad performance heatmap
Air
Airfa
res
Airlin
e B
rand
Airlin
es
Bo
ok
Call
to A
ctio
n
City
Deals
Dest
inatio
ns
Dis
count
Fare
s
Fin
d
Flig
hts
Fly
Guara
nte
ed
Hug
e/B
ig
Lo
west
No
nst
op
No
w
Off
ers
Off
icia
l Site
Onlin
e
Price
s
Save
Tic
kets
To
day
Tra
dem
ark
Tra
vel
Web
site
Yo
ur
Air
Airfares
Airline Brand
Airlines
Area
Book
Call to Action
City
Deals
Discount
Fares
Find
Flights
Fly
Lowest
Nonstop
Official Site
Online
Save
Tickets
Trademark
Travel
Website
Ad description
Ad titl
e
Great Good Insufficient data Poor
Microsoft Confidential
Airlines and flights: Top word combos
PC Mobile Tablet
Title Description
City Official/Official Site
Tickets Official/Official Site
City Find
Travel Flights
Tickets Find
Title Description
Find Today
Find City
Book Flights
Flights Airlines
City Lowest
Title Description
Deals Travel
Deals Find
City Travel
Travel Flights
Fares Air
Key insights
- The word “find” in the ad description ranks high when used with almost any travel-related words in the ad title, from “airfares” to “[city name]” to “deals”.
- PC users are much more interested in ads that include “official site” than either mobile or tablet users, which is indicative of the different intent depending on device. PC users have a bigger screen and are more willing to navigate a large, official site. Mobile users go directly to action, clicking on ads that include “book” and “flights”.
Microsoft Confidential
Car rental: Ad performance heatmap
Ad description
Ad titl
e
Great Good Insufficient data Poor
Airp
ort
Bo
ok
Bra
nd
Call
to
Act
ion
Car
Car
Siz
e
Cheap
Deals
Fre
e
Gre
at
Hire
Lo
w/L
ow
est
No
w
Off
Off
icia
l
Onlin
e
Price
Po
int
Quic
k
Rate
s
Rent/
Renta
l
Rese
rve
Save
Savi
ng
s
Sp
eci
als
To
day
Tra
dem
ark
Up
gra
de
Weeke
nd
Weekl
y
Yo
ur
Airport
Brand
Call to Action
Car
Cheap
City
Deals
Discounts
Free
Great
Hire
Off
Official
Online
Price Point
Rent/Rental
Savings
Specials
Trademark
Upgrade
Weekend
Weekly
Microsoft Confidential
Car rental: Top word combos
PC Mobile Tablet
Title Description
Off Low/Lowest
Weekend Specials
Weekend Online
Weekend Quick
Weekend Price Point
Title Description
Rent/Rental Specials
Brand Specials
Car Specials
Price Point Specials
Car Weekend
Title Description
Weekend Specials
Weekend Online
Weekend Quick
Trademark Deals
Weekend Price Point
- Consumers won’t be duped: The words “free” and “upgrade” in any car supplier ad will not be good for clicks.
- “Weekend” is king of the keywords regardless of device when it comes to car supplier PPC ads. For mobile, “specials” is especially hot.
Key insights
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Hotels: Ad performance heatmap
Ad description
Ad titl
e
Great Good Insufficient data Poor
Best
Bo
ok
Bra
nd
Call
to A
ctio
n
City
Deals
Do
wnto
wn
Fam
ily
Fre
e
Gre
at
Guara
nte
ed
Ho
tel
Lo
west
Luxu
ry
No
w
Off
icia
l
Price
Po
int
Rate
s
Renta
l(s)
Reso
rts
Ro
om
(s)
Save
Suites
To
day
Tra
dem
ark
Vaca
tio
n
Best
Book
Brand
Cabin
Call to Action
City
Deals
Downtown
Great
Guaranteed
Hotel
Luxury
Official
Price Point
Rates
Rental(s)
Resorts
Save
Suites
Trademark
Vacation
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Hotels: Top word combos
PC Mobile Tablet
Title Description
City Save
City Room(s)
Rental(s) Save
City Official
Rates Rates
Title Description
City Brand
City Guaranteed
City Great
City Call to Action
Trademark Rates
Title Description
Rental(s) Save
Call to
Action
Room(s)
Rental(s) Rental(s)
Vacation Today
Deals Today
Key insights
- “Luxury”, in either ad title or ad description, gets low marks except when used in combination with a hotel brand name. This is in line with shifting spending habits across the US since the economic downturn.
- “Family” in the ad description attracts a lot of attention when used with either a brand name or a price point.
Microsoft Confidential
Cruise ships: Ad performance heatmap
Ad description
Ad titl
e
Great Good Insufficient data Poor
%
All-
Incl
usi
ve
Bo
ok
Bra
nd
Call
to A
ctio
n
Cru
ise(s
)
Deals
Exc
lusi
ve
Gre
at
Larg
est
Lo
catio
n
Lo
w/L
ow
est
Luxu
ry
New
No
w
Off
ers
Off
icia
l
Price
s
Rate
s
Sail
Sale
Save
To
day
To
urs
Tra
dem
ark
Vo
catio
n
Yo
ur
%
All-Inclusive
Book
Brand
Call to Action
Cheap
Cruise(s)
Deals
Exclusive
Great
Largest
Location
Luxury
New
Offers
Official
Sale
Save
Tours
Trademark
Vocation
NoVar
Microsoft Confidential
Cruise ships: Top word combos
PC Mobile Tablet
Title Description
NoVar Call to Action
Cheap Cruise(s)
NoVar %
NoVar Your
Sale Today
Title Description
Cruise(s) New
Official Deals
Cruise(s) Sale
Trademark Now
Trademark Location
Title Description
All-Inclusive Deals
All-Inclusive Cruise(s)
Deals Largest
All-Inclusive Call to Action
Cruise(s) Sale
Key insights
- Two high-ranking words for ad title in the cruise suppliers category indicate a savvy market who knows what to expect in this category: “all-inclusive” and “sale.”
- Regardless of device, ads indicating a bargain (“sale”, “deals”, even “cheap”) get a lot of attention in this category.
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Before you pour this awesome info into your search ads, consider
three important things:
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ONE Test. Then test again. Test some more.
Testing is critical to understanding your ad copy performance across devices, categories and time periods.
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TWO Use ad extensions like Sitelinks.
Understand the value of Sitelink lift and the impact it could have on an entire account. Implement and spread to all your ads.
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THREE Scale your execution to all your ads.
Develop a framework for understanding the clickability of your ads and executing top performers on a large scale.
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Now that you know what makes a strong PPC travel ad, consider this:
15 million searchers exclusively used the Yahoo Bing Network to conduct travel searches. This audience is not reached on Google.1
More cost-effective paid clicks within Travel are found on Bing, 23% lower in cost than Google.2
1 comScore US qSearch (custom), March 2013 2 AdGooroo, Yahoo! Bing PPC Performance Metrics, What Search Marketers Need to Know About “The Other Search Engine,” March 2013
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