In the competitive world of travel and tourism marketing, the stakes for effective strategies have never been higher. With consumers bombarded by countless options, the significance of performance marketing has skyrocketed.

So, what exactly do we mean by performance marketing? It’s marketing that focuses on a data-driven approach, allowing for precise audience targeting and budget efficiency. Basically, you only pay for the actual results you achieve. 

Wondering how you can improve your travel marketing efforts? Keep reading or jump to…

• Understanding Performance Marketing
• Key Performance Marketing Strategies 
• How To Implement A Performance Marketing Plan
• Measuring and Optimizing Performance: How GeistM Can Help
• GeistM Travel Client Case Studies

Understanding Performance Marketing

Performance marketing focuses on maximizing return on investment (ROI) by allocating budgets based on performance metrics and adapting campaigns swiftly. Most travel companies’ marketing campaigns will focus on results such as clicks, bookings, or inquiries. How effective a campaign is depends on your ability to measure and optimize performance in real time.

“Performance marketing works when advertisers connect with either agencies or publishers to design and place advertisements for their company on any number of performance marketing channels — social media, search engines, videos, embedded web content, and more. Instead of paying for an advertisement in the traditional way, these advertisers pay based on how well their ad performs, by measuring number of clicks, impressions, shares, or sales.”

– Simple Learn

Key Performance Marketing Strategies for Travel and Tourism Companies include:

• Paid Advertising: Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns on search engines and social media platforms allow travel companies to target specific demographics, capitalize on high-intent users, and achieve immediate visibility in competitive markets.
  
  
• Content Marketing: By crafting compelling articles, videos, and static content that inspires, informs, and entertains audiences. This can foster brand loyalty and encourage user engagement, ultimately driving bookings and customer retention. According to Semetrical, content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing, and generates three times as many leads.
  
  
• Affiliate Marketing: Travel and tourism companies can collaborate with influencers, publishers, or other brands and agencies to expand their reach, tap into new audiences, and benefit from third-party endorsements.
  
  
• Email Marketing: Tailoring email campaigns allows travel businesses to nurture leads, build relationships, and drive conversions by addressing individual preferences and interests.
  
  
• SEO Strategies: Implementing search engine optimization (SEO) tactics empowers travel brands to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), attract organic traffic, and capitalize on current travel trends and consumer behaviors.
  
  
• Performance Marketing Agencies like GeistM: By utilizing our publisher network and our talented content and creative teams, we can create content that helps your company with third-party endorsements, rank higher on SERPs, capitalize on high-intent users through paid advertising, and more.

“While one merchant might decide only one area is appropriate for their performance marketing strategy, others might use multiple areas within the larger ‘performance marketing’ umbrella to fulfill their business goals.”

–Big Commerce

How to Implement a Performance Marketing Plan

1. Set clear goals and objectives

Before diving into a performance marketing strategy, it’s crucial to establish clear goals and objectives. Whether it’s boosting booking conversions or growing brand awareness, defining specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals sets the foundation for effective campaign planning and evaluation.

2. Choose the right channels for your target audience

Selecting the most appropriate channels for your target audience is essential. Depending on the demographics, interests, and online behaviors of your target audience, you may choose to leverage a mix of digital channels such as search engines, social media platforms, email marketing, and native networks. 

3. Budget for performance marketing campaigns

Allocating sufficient resources to your campaigns is necessary to reach your target audience, and achieve your desired outcomes. When budgeting for performance marketing campaigns, consider factors such as advertising costs, technology expenses, agency fees (if applicable), and potential return on investment (ROI).

4. Craft compelling offers and creative elements

Whether it’s a limited-time discount, a value-added package, or an exclusive perk, the success of campaigns often relies on crafting compelling offers to capture the attention and interest of potential travelers. Creative elements such as ad copy, visuals, and landing page design must be engaging and persuasive in order to drive engagement, bookings, and ultimately, revenue growth.

Measuring and Optimizing Performance: The GeistM Method

Tools and techniques for tracking performance

To effectively track performance, it’s crucial to utilize a robust set of tools and techniques across various marketing channels. Implementing tracking pixels, conversion tracking codes, and analytics platforms allows for real-time monitoring of campaign effectiveness and measurement of key performance indicators (KPIs).

From paid social and native advertising to search engine marketing (SEM) and connected TV (CTV), GeistM offers a comprehensive suite of tracking technologies and transparent reporting, providing clients with actionable insights into their marketing ROI and empowering them to optimize strategies for success.

Analyzing data to understand customer behavior

Analyzing data is essential for gaining consumer insights and managing campaigns efficiently. GeistM excels in data analysis. By leveraging sophisticated data analytics tools and techniques, GeistM’s Growth Team identifies high-value customer segments, optimizes audience targeting strategies, and makes data-driven decisions to maximize ROI for our clients.

A/B testing for continuous improvement

A/B testing (or split testing) involves experimenting with different ad creatives, messaging, landing page designs, and promotional offers to identify the most effective combinations. By measuring key metrics such as click-through rates (CTRs) and conversion rates (CORs), GeistM helps clients achieve their goals, whether it’s customer acquisition, return on ad spend (ROAS), or brand awareness.

Adapting strategies based on performance insights

Adapting strategies based on performance insights is crucial for staying competitive in the landscape of performance marketing. By closely monitoring campaign performance and KPIs, GeistM identifies trends, detects opportunities, and addresses challenges, allowing clients to achieve their business objectives and stay ahead of the competition.

“All good marketing starts with a plan, but all great marketers know how to change the plan when the time is right. Don’t let your marketing be held back by an inability to adapt.”

–Forbes

GeistM Travel Client Case Studies

A travel client came to GeistM looking for profitable ROAS growth. They needed help maintaining CPAs (Cost per acquisition) below $120 on Meta. Over the course of 18 months, GeistM employed various strategies, including content creation and targeted audience analysis, to achieve an average CPA of $95 and a ROAS of 2.85, significantly improving the client’s performance. Read the full case study here.

Conclusion

In the fast-paced world of travel and tourism marketing, mastering performance marketing strategies has never been more important.

From paid advertising to content marketing, affiliate marketing, email campaigns, and SEO tactics, a well-crafted performance marketing plan can drive bookings and customer engagement while optimizing budget efficiency. 

With the expertise of a performance agency like GeistM, you can unlock the full potential of performance marketing, leveraging data analysis, continuous optimization, and adaptive strategies to achieve unparalleled success. 

So, contact us today to learn more about how we can help your travel company’s ROI.

Written by: Emma McHugh

Have you ever stumbled across a social media post that you didn’t initially realize was an ad? Chances are, you’ve been exposed to User-Generated Content (UGC) and Influencer Marketing without even realizing it.

In today’s digital age, authenticity reigns supreme. UGC and Influencer Marketing serve as two powerful tools for brands to connect with audiences in a genuine and impactful way. From unboxing to day-in-the-life videos, everyday consumers and social media influencers are reshaping the way brands are driving engagement and how they’re perceived.

Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know about UGC and Influencer Marketing:

What Is UGC?

UGC (User-Generated Content) is a style of photography and video typically shot using an iPhone, providing an unpolished, authentic vibe. The results offer a glimpse of what a product or service actually looks like in a real-life situation. Rather than deal with the expenses and hassle of a professional photoshoot, UGC is an affordable and successful method of creating compelling assets for social.

What Is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer Marketing involves partnering with content creators who have strong online presences and loyal audiences of potential customers. Think of influencer marketing as mini celebrity endorsements. This strategy can help you build brand awareness and generate more conversions by reaching a variety of audiences. Users can be more likely to convert if someone they follow and admire endorses the product. Because influencers specialize in crafting digital content, they can produce ads that seamlessly blend in with users’ feeds. 

*An important note: Influencers can create UGC-style ads, but not all UGC needs to originate with influencers. 

Read Our Other blog: Could Influencers be the key to great marketing?

UGC vs. Influencer Marketing:

UGC is a highly affordable and agile strategy for brands to create engaging content. Influencer marketing, on the other hand, can require more budget depending on the size of the creator. 

Although UGC is a relatively simple concept, there are nuances and advanced approaches you can take to optimize results. UGC Creators are individuals who specialize in crafting authentic content that can be used by brands in their paid social strategy. They charge significantly less than influencers; with influencers, you’re paying for exposure and the ability to reach a new audience. 

With UGC creators, content is created for your brand, and your brand only — it’s not posted on the creators’ channels. Generally, the brand has full control over what is created based on the brand’s strategy and content goals.  

Influencers are valuable to brands because of their online presence. The bigger the following, the higher the cost, but also the higher the chances a product or service is seen by a new audience. Promoting products in their own distinct style that their followers know and love makes influencers’ content easy to engage with.

Influencers generally post the ads they create to their own personal accounts in order to reach their particular audience. With UGC, brands post the content directly to their own feeds in order to build credibility and trust.

Also Read: The Importance Of Images – UGC Vs. Professional Photos

Which Strategy Is Right For You?

UGC

UGC works well for lifestyle products that consumers use daily. By portraying products in a natural setting, the end result feels more organic and native to users’ feeds. This strategy can also help third-party reviews appear more authentic and trustworthy. 

UGC — whether created in-house or with an agency like GeistM — gives your business more control over the final output. We work with creators to create engaging content based on clients’ needs and goals. From the script to the final edit, creators work closely with our expert team to ensure the final content piece will resonate with audiences.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is an exceptional strategy for brands trying to break into niche markets. Many influencers focus on one specific topic, like fashion, fitness, food, or wellness. Because their followers share a similar interest, brands can reach audiences that precisely match their desired demographic. When influencers showcase products, consumers can develop a more positive association and intensify their connection with the brand.

Influencers are categorized based on follower count:

1. Nano-Influencers:1K–10K followers
2. Micro-Influencers: 10K–100K followers
3. Macro-Influencers:100K–1M followers
4. Mega or Celebrity Influencers:1M+ followers

Each of these groups have their own pros and cons. Nano and micro-influencers tend to have more engaged followings and charge much lower rates. Granted, their reach will be much smaller, but the higher engagement rates will make up for it. A recent study found that micro-influencers generate a 6% engagement rate on Instagram, compared to mega influencers’ 1.97% engagement rate.

Despite their high cost, partnering with macro and mega influencers also has a number of unique benefits. The first one obviously being their massive reach — getting millions of eyes on your product is invaluable for any brand. This can be great for quick sales and even garner earned media attention if the collaboration is large enough. 

GeistM Tip: Before partnering with an influencer, always check their engagement rates. Many large creators’ follower counts are not indicative of their actual reach (an account with 1 million followers that only averages a couple of hundred likes on each post is a red flag). So in order to ensure you’re getting your money’s worth, double-check whether their engagement adds up.

Overall, micro-influencers are definitely a more cost-effective option, so we only recommend partnering with macro and mega influencers if you’ve got large budgets or a specific goal in mind.

Key Takeaways:

• UGC is a cost-effective strategy for creating authentic, native content for paid media
• UGC is about creating content for a brand’s platform only — it’s not posted on the creator’s channel
• Anyone can take UGC, but brands can hire UGC creators and agencies for specific needs.
• Influencer marketing allows brands to tap into niche markets and build brand awareness.
• Influencer marketing is about exposing a brand, product, or service to a new or different audience.
• Influencers aim to “influence” their audience to purchase or use a product or service, UGC involves creating content for the brand’s own use — hence the cost difference.
• Micro-influencers offer high engagement rates for lower budgets, while macro and mega influencers provide massive reach.

Why Choose GeistM?

Are you interested in UGC or influencer marketing but don’t know where to start? GeistM is here to help. Our Growth Marketing experts will guide you based on your business and goals. We’ve developed hundreds of marketing strategies across dozens of industries and attained thousands of customers for our clients.

Our in-house creative team excels at creating beautiful UGC that will generate maximum engagement and conversion rates. We also regularly collaborate with UGC creators and influencers to help our clients’ reach specific demographics. With these tailored strategies, we pride ourselves on producing authentic content that drives serious results.

So, instead of struggling to figure this all out yourselves, contact us today!

Written by: Simon Kuflik