Intrepid Travel: Using data driven attribution to drive more bookings

The path to purchase for an Intrepid customer is long, with over a third of the revenue the Intrepid Group generated in 2016 coming from users booking 12 – 30 days after their first visit to the website. With cross-device activity common in the high-value travel sector (Think With Google Research), there was a definite need for a more thoughtful approach to attribution, beyond just last click.

Working with SearchStar

Improving mobile strategy was our priority for Intrepid Travel’s EMEA activity. We utilised Google Analytics Premium to understand the common actions completed by mobile users as a signal of purchase-intent. The majority of these interactions offered the user the ability to sign up for an account with Intrepid Group so they could save their options for a later date. The frequency at which mobile users were opting for this supported the theory that cross-device booking behaviour was common. Once identified, these additional soft conversions were enabled throughout the AdWords accounts so that we could start to optimise activity based on them.

Outside of the additional soft-goals created, a booking conversion was setup and deployed - the conversion pixel was added to all of the Intrepid Group owned websites. By doing this across their MCC we gained access to the previously omitted cross-device reporting and could track booking behaviour across the four owned brands. Suddenly, we could see the extent to which paid search from all devices drove bookings across the family of brands, something that was previously unknown.

It was not only mobile devices that were undervalued, but also specific campaigns and campaign types within AdWords. With last non-direct click being used as the primary performance metric, it was often paid brand activity or other traffic sources that were attributed revenue that originated from a paid generic click. With the new booking pixel in place, we had the ability to adjust the attribution model being reported in AdWords. The change that proved most successful was looking at the performance of prospecting campaigns based on the Data Driven model. This algorithmic model highlighted that throughout 2014/15 paid bookings were being under-valued by 46.7%.

Our multimedia strategy across remarketing, display and video activity spawned as a result of regular collaborative catch ups with Google, Intrepid EMEA and SearchStar. The cost-effective nature of YouTube for reaching our targeting demographic, combined with intuitive targeting options such as InMarket Audiences, were perfect solutions for building Intrepid’s upper funnel.

Steering clear of heavy automation and third party tools and instead focussing on getting real customer insight had given Intrepid a better understanding of the key campaign levers, allowing knowledge of the travel business, Intrepid’s customers, and travel seasonality to drive performance forward.

Results

Driving in more research phase mobile traffic had a dramatic effect on revenue generated across our managed regions. This culminated in January 2017 when digital revenue across the UK surpassed that of both AU and US for the first time since the company’s launch.

YouTube played a significant role in building upper funnel interest in Intrepid. Focusing on making the creative fit for purpose as a TrueView ad ensured strong view rates from launch. The combination of demographic and InMarket Audience targeting proved particularly successful, resulting in completed video views 23% more frequently than the campaign average. Over the course of the video campaign, the Intrepid sale ads received 1.2m views. Organic traffic subsequently saw a 55% increase in sessions year on year, as well as a significant improvement in the quality of this traffic, with conversion rate up 141%.

The expansion into the ‘Rest of Europe’ saw similar success. January revenue across these regions increased by 175% year on year, with some key regions seeing increases in excess of 500%. Cost of acquisition throughout this activity came in under target. The success of this activity has continued since, with the performance growth in January being maintained into the rest of 2017. The EMEA market had been shown to be the largest growth opportunity for Intrepid Global.