Insights Reveal Campaign Optimization Opportunity for Small Businesses in the Travel Vertical

If you haven’t been keeping tabs on the Bing Community, not long ago they put up a post covering some interesting insights uncovered during a recent consumer survey (conducted by Impulse Research)… from their Search blog:

• 66 percent of Americans are more likely to actually choose their vacation destination based on deals and discounts.  30 percent of survey respondents left paid vacation days on the table last year because they felt they did not have the money to go on vacation.
• The quest for travel deals also takes up a lot of people’s valuable time, with 91 percent of survey respondents cited visiting multiple websites when researching and booking travel and 20 percent spending at least 10 hours researching trips before booking and 59 percent spending a minimum of 3 hours. 
• One-third of survey respondents say they’d rather get a root canal then spend hours doing the research and planning needed to book a vacation these days. 

Couple this data with the insights offered in the Travel section of the Vertical Insights page in our Support Center… 

This is exactly the niche where small businesses can distinguish themselves and compete successfully. Online searches can show you the lowest prices and special deals in split seconds, but the one thing they can’t offer is personalized service from experienced professionals. According to a recent report from Forrester Research, the number of travelers who expressed interest in using a good travel agent jumped to 28% last year, compared with 23% in 2008.⁴ Or as a headline in USA Today summarized the trend: “Weary of online booking, clients return to travel agents.”⁴

…there emerges a clear opportunity for small travel agencies to capitalize on those who’re burnt out on using the web to book their travel plans. 

Back-to-school season brings with it fuller schedules, which means even less time for people to spend trolling the internet for the best deals.  While summer vacation travel is essentially in the books for 2011, there’s no time like the present to start looking at your adCenter campaigns with an eye towards optimizing them in time to capture traffic from the volume increase that accompanies the holiday season.

Stop by the Travel Vertical Insights page for best practices in writing effective ad copy, tips on choosing keywords (including a downloadable keyword suggestion list) and more.

Thanks for reading,

Tina Kelleher, SMB Community Manager

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⁴ USA Today