In 2018 Advance Travel & Tourism partnered with long time client Visit Vicksburg to increase traveler consideration for the area. The following campaign was deployed throughout the 12 months of the year.
Key Campaign Objectives
- Drive quality site traffic
- Increase visibility in key markets
- Increase new site users
The Solutions
Targeted Display, Video Advertising, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, Social Media Advertising
Targeted Display Advertising
In addition to standard digital display, The Advance Travel & Tourism team deployed a behaviorally-targeted geofence campaign with the main goal of increasing reach among travelers in new markets: Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Memphis, Nashville and New Orleans.
Video Advertising
To support the objective of increasing brand awareness in key markets, Youtube’s Trueview ad platform was used to visually present Visit Vicksburg’s message to potential visitors.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO was deployed using a strategic approach based upon the most up-to-date information about how Google, Bing, and Yahoo rank websites for relevant searches in order to ensure that Visit Vicksburg’s site shows up high in organic search queries related to Vicksburg travel.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Utilizing Google’s sophisticated data, Advance Travel & Tourism implemented SEM to stay competitive and top of mind when users search for travel questions related to Vicksburg, MS and southern road trips.
Email Marketing
5 email newsletters were sent to Visit Vicksburg’s stakeholders and prospects.
Social Media Advertising
Since social media channels are a platform where travelers share their experiences and show support for destinations they enjoy, the campaign utilized paid social to engage with travelers and build Visit Vickburg’s referral base.
Advance Travel & Tourism managed Visit Vickburg’s Facebook ad account with the goal to grow and engage their audience at the lowest costs possible.
Results
- Digital Display – more than 20,000 clicks to Visit Vicksburg website, .8% click-thru rate
- Video – More than 1 million 5-second video views, with 40% completion rate, more than 1,800 users to the site
- SEM – More than 15,900 website visits (6.7% CTR), spending an average of over 1 minutes on the site with 3+ pages per session; 5;6% direct click onsite goal conversion rate
- SEO – 15% increase YOY in organic site traffic, more than 82,200 new site users
- Paid Social – Nearly 7,500 total clicks to site with more than 24k video views
- Key target market growth: 30-80% growth in website traffic and engagement metrics
- More than 340% growth in new targeted landing pages
Visit Vicksburg reported a record-breaking year in 2018, welcoming over 2 million visitors (20% increase YOY). While we can not take credit for all of this, we can say that we certainly helped influence travel consideration for Vicksburg, MS based on our measurable data points.
During the 4 month campaign, we delivered the Visit Sandy Springs ‘Well Played’ 15s video spots over 1.2 million times, and generated an average completion rate of 98%. The engaging videos drove nearly 6,000 direct clicks to visitsandysprings.org. The average increase in site engagement for the target markets was over 200%. Raising the session duration from >15s to <1:00. Organic site traffic in each target market also increased at least 30% on average.
“The success of our campaign with Advanced Travel speaks for itself. We have been very pleased with our partnership with the Advanced Team and feel like they are part of our Visit Vicksburg family. Even with the great success of 2018, we are already hitting benchmarks for 2019 and are eager to see the results of another successful well-run campaign.”
