As we touched on in the previous section, the money-back guarantees are the biggest influence on travel bookings for people in the UK. Last-minute restriction changes throughout the pandemic have forced travellers to return home early, cancel trips or face expensive quarantine restrictions and, in certain cases, flights have been cancelled altogether as foreign countries have placed travel bans on the UK.
Travel restrictions are now at their most relaxed for
UK citizens returning home but list to data uninterrupted international travel is far from guaranteed.
As a result, travellers are increasingly booking trips at the last minute. The best thing travel companies can do to help people book with confidence is cater for last-minute bookings, provide as much flexibility as possible (changing dates) and offer money-back guarantees or free/cheap cancellations.
Use callout extensions in your Search ads to show users that you offer these incentives. Callout extensions allow you to place additional text on your ads to highlight key selling points or benefits of your service, such as flexible bookings and money-back guarantees.
Alternatively, you can use sitelink extensions to link directly to pages featuring trips with flexible bookings or policy pages for money-back guarantees.
#4: Create a sense of urgency with your remarketing campaigns
We touched on remarketing campaigns singapore business phone list earlier as a strategy for reaching organic traffic and beating competitors at the early stages of the travel research and booking process. However, remarketing campaigns are just as effective at the other end of the consumer journey, especially once travellers have shown an interest in specific destinations or offers.
With demand for travel rising and ongoing disruptions caused by the pandemic (and the B-word), you can create a sense of urgency in your remarketing ads by leveraging the so-called fear of missing out.
This is a great way to tempt people back to your website as they browse other websites or re-introduce your offers as they engage with relevant content.
Travellers in the UK have already felt the sting of surging prices and limited availability for domestic trips so use your remarketing campaigns to remind people that prices could rise and places will soon run out (eg: “prices locked until Jan 2022 while places last”).
#5: Go the extra mile to win positive reviews
Throughout the pandemic, travellers austria business directory have faced uncertainty and, even when they’ve managed to get the trip they were hoping for, many have been disappointed by the quality of services.
The Guardian called this year’s domestic holiday season the summer of unhappy campers after thousands of people complained about the quality of supposed “glamping” sites and the reality of some expensive bookings that fell far short of expectations. Elsewhere, customers have said they are fed up with Covid excuses for bad service.
Travel and hospitality companies have raised concerns over a surge in complaints and negative reviews from “angry and impatient” visitors.
Either way, there’s heightened tension between service providers and customers right now and the negative review this often generates can have lasting effects on travel and hospitality bookings. Positive reviews have never been more valuable when travel companies need to stand out for all of the right reasons and customers are increasingly sensitive about the quality of service they receive for their money.
Use this to your advantage by going the extra mile to win positive reviews and deal with customer complaints (within reasonable limits) and use seller ratings extensions in your Search ads to show your review score, as seen below:
We’re not suggesting you tolerate abusive customers or unreasonable demands but the increased value of positive reviews is something worth acknowledging and taking advantage of, wherever you can.
#6: Target leads, not only bookings
With the travel industry getting back on its feet, it’s tempting to focus all of your attention on securing bookings right away. After all, you’ve waited long enough for things to open up and one of the key benefits of PPC is that you can pay to get rapid results by targeting travellers who are ready to book now.
That said, instant gains may not be the best long-term approach for all travel companies, especially if you’re competing against bigger names. While demand is rising for both domestic and local travel, the numbers remain significantly lower than pre-Covid levels, which means travel companies are competing for a smaller market.
