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Travel and Tourism Marketing: The Digital Guide

Posted on by Coegi

The travel and tourism marketing is rebounding as the industry surges above pre-pandemic levels.

Are you taking advantage of it?

This digital guide to travel marketing gives you everything you need to know before launching a campaign. 

How to Succeed at Travel and Tourism Marketing

Travel books and printed pamphlets are a thing of the past. Now, it’s time to lead with digital tactics.

Today’s travelers are finding inspiration for trips on digital channels. Younger travelers in particular are taking this a step further by shifting to mobile devices over desktop, looking to the brand’s website or Instagram to get a sense of what they can expect. 

To reach the modern traveler, brands need to create a seamless experience across digital channels from awareness to check out/visit.

You’ll also need to create a strategic, customized approach to target your optimal audience on the most impactful channels.

Your Guide to Success

Download this guide to learn how to:

  • Leverage the latest travel and tourism marketing trends
  • Create the optimal media mix for your brand with the most impactful channels
  • Implement cookieless solutions to reach your target audience
  • Measure the ROI from omnichannel travel marketing campaigns

Ready to take off?

View and download the guide below!

The Return of Travel and Tourism Marketing

After the tumultuous years of the pandemic, travel and tourism is finally experiencing a surge in demand. Travel digital marketing spend dipped 51% in 2021 but is now growing by 14.2% in 2022. An additional 12.1% increase is expected in 2023, according to eMarketer. 

Pathmatics Travel and Tourism Marketing Spend Data

What do travel and tourism marketers need to do to prepare for this opportunity?

Lead With Digital Tactics

Travel books and printed pamphlets are a thing of the past. Today’s travelers are finding inspiration for trips on digital channels. Younger travelers in particular are taking this a step further by shifting to mobile devices over desktop, looking to the brand’s website or Instagram to get a sense of what they can expect. 

As the saying goes, “not all who wander are lost.” Allow yourself to experiment, becoming smarter by letting continuous learning guide your marketing strategy. The best way to do that is to start with digital, where flexibility and agility allow for quick learnings and pivots.

Digital marketing is the perfect petri dish to test out tactics and creatives before making a major investment. For example, you can run a short-form video ad on social media and identify which creative is performing best. Then, use those creative learnings to inform a more premium CTV placement or Cable TV buy with an added layer of confidence.

Is your travel brand ready for a digital-first marketing strategy?

Here’s your digital housekeeping checklist to prime your digital travel and tourism marketing for success:

High Impact Travel and Tourism Marketing Channels 

When choosing travel marketing channels, consider these four aspects: 

  1. Budget: If budget is limited, maximize spend on fewer channels. If you have more dollars, consider diversifying, testing something new or incorporating premium placements. 
  2. Audience: Identify where your audience is most active and receptive to advertising. 
  3. Customer Journey: Understand how your customers behave, and shape your advertising around their decision making process. 
  4. Storytelling: Include highly visual channels that allow storytelling to tap into their emotions. 

To keep pace with digital-first users, prioritize your digital marketing efforts on these key digital channels: 

Facebook

  • According to Pathmatics data, Facebook is the leading social media channel for Travel/Tourism ad spend. Explore various ad formats to help lead your traveler down the funnel, such as Facebook Lead Ads. Tailor educational resources to unique audience groups to establish trust and consideration. 

Endemic Travel Sites

  • Travel blogs and sites are highly valuable for travel brands. 59% of families use travel websites to plan vacations. Another 13.5% of leisure travelers use travel blogs to plan trips. Use these sites establish brand awareness and trustworthiness among potential travelers. 

User-Generated Content 

  • UGC is used by 58.2% of travelers for planning leisure travel. Word of mouth is, and always will be, the most impactful form of marketing. Encourage customers to leave quality reviews on your site or other travel pages to boost your brand status. In addition, encourage users to create content FOR you. 

Paid Search

  • Speed and agility are crucial for travel brands. You need to appear as a top option for during the research and discovery process. Optimize a combination of branded, unbranded and competitive paid search terms. This will help you show up for relevant, high value queries.

Twitter

  • Twitter is especially effective for targeting luxury and business travelers on a platform where users are highly engaged, especially surrounding news and business. To expand your targeting pool, use the platform’s AI to find follower lookalikes from competitor brands.

Online Video 

  • While a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is priceless. Online video placements across YouTube and Display allow brands to tell a rich, visual story. YouTube offers various travel category targeting options such as Business Travel, Family Travel, and Frequent Travel. You can also layer these with geo targeting to narrow in on your core audience. 

Connected TV

  • Connected TV amplifies online video by placing it on the largest screen in the household. It’s one of the most impactful visual mediums travel brands can use, while offering more flexibility and addressability than linear TV. CTV ads are a great option to reach family travelers or promote kid-friendly destinations. 

Influencer

Instagram

  • Instagram is a go-to source of inspiration for Millennial and Gen-Z travelers. Travel brands can build community by interacting with users through various formats – reels, stories, and posts. Use post comments, story polls, and Q&As to start a conversation with interested travelers. Avoid being overly curated and don’t be afraid to use trending phrases, sounds or hashtags. 

Pinterest

  • Travel engagement on Pinterest is at an all time high with travel-related searches increasing by over 60%. Pinterest is primed for planning and purchasing, and can facilitate real bookings. This platform is a great place to hone in on ‘Travel’ and ‘Foodie’ audiences. 

TikTok

  • No other social platform enables the potential virality or mass reach as TikTok. Users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the app, and 90% of TikTok users use the app multiple times daily. Although TikTok has a strong younger presence, 51% of users are now 30+. The app is growing in popularity amongst millennials with disposable income for travel. DisneyParks has over 4M followers on TikTok and Delta Airlines gained nearly 19.5M views in the initial 36 hours of their first TikTok campaign.

Retail Media

  • Activating first-party shopper audiences through retail media networks is a great way to reach travelers. For example, the Marriott Media Network uses search and reservation data to serve relevant ads to consumers.  

DOOH

  • Digital out of home spend is soaring as people are traveling again. Screens in airports, inflight video, taxi cabs, bus stations, billboards near attractions, and more can place your brand in front of traveling audiences. DOOH is a great tactic to educate users once they are at a destination. 

Local Partnerships

  • 78% of survey respondents want to support local small businesses when they travel. State and city tourism brands can leverage this trend by partnering with local artists, chefs or businesses. Thise partnerships can drive travel consideration and boost awareness for both parties. Consider unique creative options like how-to videos, downloadable guides, or co-branded social posts about the partnership. 

Ad Targeting for Travel and Tourism Audiences

It’s important that you don’t create a one-size-fits-all approach when marketing to future tourists. Consider who your existing traveler base is, and identify attributes to qualify other individuals in your prospecting audience. From there, tailor messaging to drive education and consideration. 

Are they solo travelers seeking adventure? Young families looking for a cost effective, kid-friendly trip? Foodies wanting luxurious and avant garde dining experiences? Create profiles to understand these individuals from a 360-degree perspective. Build as many personas as makes sense for your brand. 

Personalize Messaging 

Next, personalize your messaging to meet their unique motivations, behaviors and interests. Speak to each group differently and adjust visuals to resonate with their interests. If you’re looking to reach the adventure seeker, show fun activities like zip lining, hiking, concerts, etc. If you’re speaking to the budget-friendly family, showcase the value of the experiences you offer, without a major bill.

Reach Your Travelers Throughout Their Journey

To reach today’s consumers, brands need to create a seamless experience across digital channels from awareness to check out/visit. 

An omnichannel strategy is vital to keep a loyalty loop and encompass all phases of the customer journey. Use your marketing mix to show up at key moments in the consumer journey from planning to experiencing. ThinkWithGoogle identified four core micro-moments in the travel process: Dream, Plan, Book, and Experience. 

  • Dream – Spark inspiration and educate during the dreaming phase
  • Plan – Provide helpful information and build trust
  • Book – Offer a compelling value proposition and enable seamless transaction
  • Experience – Ensure the visit is positive and meets expectations. Follow up with post-visit marketing to keep customers engaged. Encourage reviews and social media posts during and after. 

Measuring Travel and Tourism Marketing Campaigns

Create a Data Terminal

It’s easy to get absorbed in the performance of individual channels. However, this causes campaigns to quickly turn from strategic to tactical. Instead, manage your advertising holistically within one dashboard. Doing so allows you to share and optimize performance trends and learnings across tactics. By looking at the data from a macro lens, you can identify important signals and weave a cohesive story. 

Check your unnecessary baggage 

Marketers need to ensure they are looking beyond vanity metrics to identify trends that signal success. It is especially important to synchronize data sets as we prepare for cookie deprecation. Instead of solely looking for direct attribution, explore a variety of business and media metrics over time. This will unveil unique learnings and better show the incremental impact of advertising.

Onboard advanced measurement 

When media metrics do not answer your business questions, layer advanced measurement tactics, on top of traditional media efficiency metrics. These data points will provide a more robust view of marketing’s impact on business goals. 

https://www.insiderintelligence.com/chart/241007/types-of-ad-measurement-andor-research-that-will-become-more-important-cookieless-world-according-us-marketers-agencies-sep-2020-of-respondents

For tourism brands, foot traffic lift is especially impactful in providing a clear view of how advertising drove incremental increases in visitors.

Refuel with continuous learning

When creating a marketing strategy, it’s critical to fuel ongoing campaign learnings to answer key questions and improve results for future initiatives. 

At Coegi, we combine a measurement strategy and a structured learning agenda. This ensures we are optimizing campaigns toward business goals while also continuously improving. 

Key Takeaways for Travel and Tourism Marketers 

  1. Lead with digital tactics to reach the growing audience of travelers 
  2. Lean into highly visual channels such as social media and online video
  3. Understand your unique audiences and tailor ads to their consumer journey across channels 
  4. Implement a comprehensive measurement strategy to see the impact of your campaigns

For more strategic insights and campaign activation, contact Coegi to set up a meeting with our travel marketing experts. 

Gain Finance Consumer Trust with Thought Leadership

Posted on by Maggie Gotszling

You’re often asking your finance consumers to make major decisions – getting a mortgage, opening a child’s college fund, investing in their future… the list goes on. While the majority of financial consumer touchpoints have moved to digital formats to create convenience, it can also create more confusion. Less human interaction with financial advisors and customer representatives means the online content has to work even harder to gain finance consumer trust and influence decision making. 

That’s where thought leadership comes in. 

Thought leadership is any form of content shared by a subject expert with their audience to build credibility, trust, and loyalty. Some of the core benefits of thought leadership for finance brands are: 

  • Greater online visibility – For example, SEO ranking for long form content addressing top consumer banking questions and concerns
  • Competitive differentiation – Providing new insights, opinions, or research to stand out from other finance brands
  • Increased customer lifetime value – High value content establishes relationship building that keeps your brand top of mind

Build a reputation

Having a well-crafted and regularly updated blog on your website is a fantastic place to start building an organic reputation. To further increase your thought leadership efforts, establish publisher content partnerships to create a name for yourself in the industry. Look at high value placements your audience over indexes for, such as Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, etc.

Then, use these three factors to evaluate publishers: 

  1. Audience: Does the demographic match your core audience? Will your content be relevant to these readers?  
  2. Content Quality: Is this a highly reputable and trusted source? 
  3. Distribution: Does the readership number align with your target reach as well as budget? 

Find a sweet spot of high reach and high composition to drive the best results.

Think outside the box

Premium placements do come with price tags for the brand value and readership volume. However, there are other lesser utilized channels brands can find success in. Some great examples are Reddit and Quora. Both of these channels are informal, but trusted resources for people searching for answers to specific questions. You can show up in a more casual way on these channels, but still provide high quality information and build rapport with niche finance audiences. 

To really hone in on thought leadership at your financial organization, consider video and audio. Visual and audio content formats are supreme when it comes to engagement, recall, and retention. Consider alternative forms of content such as: 

  • Podcasts – starting your own, or appearing on others 
  • Informational videos on YouTube 
  • Live-streamed videos on LinkedIn

Humanize your finance brand

Thought leadership content humanizes brands in an industry that can seem cold and impersonal. Through content, you can guide your customers through their finance journey. 

That said, you must not lose focus of what’s most important: the customer, not highlighting your brand. Relay empathy – show an authentic understanding of your customer. Let them know you understand the topics they need more information on and the hurdles they are facing when it comes to financial decision making and planning. 

Walk in your customer’s shoes

Before you start touting what you think are the most important benefits your brand offers, stop to listen and learn about what your customer really desires. Is it financial freedom? Business success? Peace of mind? Security in their child’s future? 

Think about where your customer is now and where they want to be. Then, use your thought leadership and creative messaging to facilitate that transformation. 

Support your customers’ needs and concerns

As a financial brand, you undoubtedly have a large range of consumers with an even larger range of needs. From commercial and retail banking to financial services and advising to retirement planning and investing – there are ample opportunities to share information and gain finance consumer trust, ultimately growing your business. 

To understand these needs, make sure you stay on top of trends. Understand what is likely top of mind for your core consumers:

  • Is there an impending recession making older adults rethink retirement? 
  • Is there a housing market boom driving a demand for mortgages? 
  • Are there global crises affecting the stock market and investment decisions? 

Whatever is going on externally, use challenges as a way to serve as a trusted resource and help them navigate what can be overwhelming financial decisions. 

This is not a sales pitch

Wherever you are posting thought leadership, share your knowledge and expertise, not your sales sheet. The content you create should be relevant to a specific consumer issue that is tangential to the solutions or services you provide. Once you’ve established credibility and authority, you no longer have to sell yourself. The consumer will be convinced already – and if not, they were unlikely to ever convert. 

So whether your goal is to improve industry recognition, differentiate from competitors, or enhance customer lifetime value, give thought leadership a try. And remember these keys to gain finance consumer trust through your content: 

  • Use publishers with the right reach and audience composition
  • Be creative with your content formats
  • Keep your content authentic and readable
  • Understand customer needs and concerns 
  • Avoid giving a sales pitch

For more strategic insights to improve your financial marketing strategy, view our Ultimate Guide to Financial Marketing.

Coegi’s Ultimate Guide to Finance Marketing

How to Drive In-Store Sales With Digital Advertising

Posted on by Coegi

CPG brands operate in a highly competitive industry which requires marketing efforts across various media channels to ultimately drive in-store sales. While in-store activations are important in driving purchases, digital touchpoints ahead of store visits are critical in the customer journey. In the article, you’ll learn how to use digital advertising to directly impact sales revenue by answering three key questions:

  1. How can CPG brands use digital advertising to stand out?
  2. How can brands prime audiences to make in-store purchases? 
  3. How can you measure the impact of digital media on in-store sales?

How Can CPG Brands Use Digital Advertising To Stand Out?

Consumers are inundated with ads every day. It’s important to be strategic with your creative messaging and media placements to ensure your ads are impactful and not disruptive. By carefully curating a strategy focused on the consumer experience, you have the ability to drive meaningful moments rather than creating noise.

  • Be discovered. Get in front of potential customers early in the discovery phase. Use search and commerce channels to show up where consumers are actively looking for products.
  • Be memorable. Create intriguing story lines of what the product or brand can do for users beyond basic utility.
  • Be different. Showcase your unique value proposition to stand out among competitor products. 
  • Be loyal. Re-engage your current customers and nurture them to, in turn, stay loyal to your brand. Use follow up offers, new product suggestions, and special promotions to show your appreciation and build up that relationship. 

How Can Brands Prime Audiences To Make In-Store Purchases?

To drive in-store sales, you need to establish awareness and consideration before that shopping trip. However, crossing the boundary from ad impression to ‘add to cart’ can be challenging. Use targeted messaging and effective frequency exposure across channels to make sure your product is included on the shopping list. 

  • Reach users across various media touch points from social to display to CTV with an omnichannel strategy.
  • Use loyalty card data to understand frequency and cadence of purchase to serve your ads in the right place at the right time. 
  • Understand how many interactions are needed before a new customer will remember and purchase once in store. 
  • Keep previous customers engaged with relevant messaging and offers to maintain brand loyalty. 

How Can You Measure The Impact Of Digital Media On In-Store Sales?

It can be complicated measuring online and offline channels and tying media spend back to brick and mortar purchases. Thankfully, there are measurement tactics and tools we can use to showcase ROI. 

Here’s how we approach measurement at Coegi:

  • Use advanced measurement tactics to uncover sales lift from your media.
    • Measurement partners like Catalina, IRI or Ibotta help connect the dots of ad exposure to in-store sales.
  • Look at success through the lens of incrementality. Test how product sales change year over year when an ad is in market versus out of market. 
  • Consider external factors like seasonality to make decisions based on non-media data.

In essence, shift the conversation from vanity metrics and click through rates because those don’t equal sales. 

Want to learn more about how to create a best-in-class media strategy for your CPG brand?

We’ve got you covered. View the complete CPG Digital Marketing Playbook here.

 

Use Instacart Advertising to Drive Sales | Webinar

Posted on by Coegi

CPG brands, are you taking advantage of the power of Instacart advertising solutions? 

Benefits of delivery provider advertising

Delivery apps offer robust first party data,  allowing brands to target in-market audiences interested in your products. Grocery and alcohol brands can leverage display and sponsored product placements with Instacart advertising to drive purchases while audiences are actively shopping. 

View the webinar below from Coegi and Instacart to take advantage of the power of Instacart to drive consumer product trials and repeat purchases.

Why use shopper marketing?

Creating shopper marketing campaigns is a win-win for brands and retailers. Retailers gain more shoppers and brands receive better shelf-space and visibility in return. Additionally, brands benefit from simplified product discovery for their products. To do this effectively, it is important to understand the consumer shopping journey, reaching them in between shopping visits and at a frequency that makes sense given the cadence of shopping for the product.

Leverage delivery provider data

Delivery provider ads are a strong shopper marketing option for brands highly focused on ROAS and driving attributable sales. These solutions help facilitate quick conversion and minimize point of purchase friction. Serving ads in delivery platforms, such as Instacart or UberEats, creates closed-loop reporting so brands can connect marketing directly to in-platform sales.

In this webinar, our Instacart representative outlines the strategic solutions available on the platform. Along with Coegi’s panelists, they discuss best practices you can use to reach your audience and drive CPG sales through the Instacart platform.

View the webinar to learn:

  • How consumer trends and external factors are driving delivery growth
  • What opportunities are available for brands with Instacart advertising
  • How to leverage Instacart ads to drive product sales
  • Strategic insights for maximizing results of Instacart campaigns

After viewing, if you have further questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Coegi for more insights on how to activate a shopper marketing campaign!

The CPG Digital Marketing Playbook

Posted on by Coegi

Ready to take your CPG digital marketing strategy to the next level?

 Download our comprehensive guide to CPG advertising today. 

The world of CPG marketing is exciting and bursting with growth opportunities. In fact, e-Marketer reports retail and CPG will be the top industries for ad spend growth in 2022, both expected to increase by more than 30% year-over-year. With these opportunities comes significant competition, but strategic CPG marketers can create smart media plans that build meaningful impact with their most qualified audiences.

In Coegi’s CPG Playbook You Will Learn How To: 

  • Understand and leverage the latest digital marketing and ecommerce trends impacting CPG brands
  • Create the optimal media mix by understanding the most effective channels for CPG advertising 
  • Implement cookieless solutions to reach your target audience on digital channels
  • Measure the results of omnichannel CPG marketing campaigns

How to reach your target CPG audience with digital marketing? 

Leverage consumer data to gain a robust understanding of your customers and apply cookieless targeting methods to future-proof your strategy. Do in-depth audience research accompanied by channel testing to determine the optimal media mix for your brand. 

How to create the optimal CPG marketing channel strategy?

How can your marketing support your overall sales strategy? Incorporate key e-commerce and digital marketing tactics into a holistic marketing strategy placing your brand at every customer touchpoint, while also optimizing for reach and addressability. 

How to measure the results of your omnichannel marketing?

In this playbook, we outline the tools, technologies, and techniques needed to showcase meaningful CPG marketing ROI. Learn how to activate the right data partners, align your marketing with business goals, track incremental results and, finally, create a customized measurement framework for your brand. 

Download the CPG Digital Marketing Playbook now to level up your strategy. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us to set up a discovery call. 

What CPG digital marketing channels will give your brand the most bang for your buck? 

CPG brands typically lead the way in adopting new marketing tactics, so it’s important to stay ahead of the curve.

The Top 10 CPG Marketing Channels

Social Video

Video ads are one of the most engaging mediums to capture user attention. As a result, video produces meaningful marketing results on social platforms. In particular, short form video is impactful in driving both branding and performance goals in as little as six seconds. 

Why is social video effective for CPG brands? 

CPG video ad spend will increase by 38% in 2022. Video-first channels such as YouTube, TikTok, and now Instagram are excellent because consumers choose to visit these platforms to learn and be entertained. Think how-to makeup tutorials for beauty brands or recipe videos for food and beverage brands. 

How to use social video successfully: 

Use short-form video to show your brand personality and bring messaging to life. Additionally, show your product or service in action, demonstrating real-life use cases. Finally, make optimize your video for mobile viewing and follow other creative best practices outlined here. 

Social Commerce 

48% of all social media users made a social commerce purchase in 2021 and 77% of Millennials and Gen-Zs use social media to shop. These purchases are being driven by trends such as live commerce, in-platform shopping tools, and improvements to in-app purchasing processes. 

Why is social commerce effective for CPG brands? 

Today, product discovery is taking place on social media. Platform algorithms optimize to showcase brands and sponsored posts in ways that feel organic to the user. CPG brands can cash in on the opportunity to position their product in front of engaged audiences by using various social commerce applications to find their niche consumer groups. 

How to use social commerce effectively:

Explore various ways in which your brand can be discovered on social media, whether through promoted product posts, influencer live streams, or social marketplaces. Then, create a seamless purchase process and have a measurement and pixel strategy in place to capture the resulting sales. 

Read more: Social Commerce 101

 Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing ad spend will surpass $7B in 2022. These digital creators are both storytellers and social media experts, well-versed in creating authentic messaging which resonates with their followerships.

Why is influencer marketing effective for CPG brands? 

Influencer marketing is not just an awareness play. Creators are increasingly driving the social commerce landscape. Tactics such as livestream commerce, discount and affiliate codes, and shoppable posts support down-funnel conversions for CPG brands, while also building brand affinity and trust.

How to use influencer marketing successfully:

Allow creators to make authentic content that is not overly scripted. Social media users want to see relatable content which feels authentic to the platform they are on. Learn from the social expertise of influencers and their cultivated communities.

To learn how to choose the right influencers for your brand, watch this video.

Connected TV

As of 2021, there were nearly 214 million CTV users, and that number is projected to increase to 230M by 2025. With the proliferation of cord-cutting, connected TV is becoming a dominant channel in the digital advertising space. 

Why is CTV effective for CPG brands? 

Connected TV advertising delivers high impact video content on the largest screen in the household. CPG brands can showcase their products and tell their brand story with greater flexibility than traditional TV, while also achieving incremental reach. It also allows for greater addressability through contextual and behavioral targeting, so CPG advertisers can speak to refined audience groups.

How to use CTV advertising successfully: 

Communicate your message with quick 15-30 second ad placements that are visual and compelling to your target audience. Also, be strategic with your channel selection. Rather than running only on one platform, such as Hulu, maintain appropriate frequency and extend reach with cross-channel integrations. 

Listen to our CTV podcast episode: The Future of TV 

Digital Out of Home (DOOH)

According to the OAAA, Americans now spend 70% of their time outside of the home, an increase of 50% over the past two decades. As audiences become increasingly mobile, DOOH is making its way back as a staple in omnichannel marketing plans. 

Why is DOOH effective for CPG brands? 

DOOH placements are a great way for CPG brands to achieve mass market reach with greater flexibility, improved targeting, and quicker activation. Brands can test and swap creatives to cater messages to core audiences and contextual placements. Additionally, you can control spend by only showing up when and where an individual is most likely to convert. 

As more digital screens become available, the DOOH inventory options and contexts are only rising. For example, food and beverage brands can advertise on grocery store screens, gas station kiosks or bars to drive quick purchases. 

How to use DOOH advertising successfully:

Understand the format and scale that your message will be delivered in. Additionally, use a clear font and a simple message to convey your message in the 3-6 seconds. 

Learn more: The Digital Out of Home Primer 

Paid Search

Paid search gives brands the opportunity to have preferential placement on search engine results, while only paying for click-based engagements. Ad spend in this channel increased 39% in 2021 and is expected to rise in 2022. 

Why is paid search effective for CPG brands? 

This channel is particularly important for CPG brands seeking to drive eCommerce sales. 40% of all product searches begin on search engines, so PPC is the key to being discovered by new, in-market audiences. 

How to use paid search advertising successfully:

Support your paid search efforts with organic website search engine optimization.  30.5% of eCommerce traffic comes from SEO, so it must go hand-in-hand with PPC to support your overall search strategy. 

SMS Marketing

Nearly 300 million US consumers will redeem short message service (SMS) coupons in 2022. As a result, SMS marketing is rapidly growing due to its effectiveness in driving quick, inexpensive conversions and high engagement rates. 

Why is SMS messaging effective for CPG digital marketing?

Many CPG marketers now use SMS as a strong purchase driver. After being alerted about a special sale or new release, customers are prompted to redeem a discount code, view a new product drop, or check out a new sale. This can push audiences to complete a purchase they have been considering. In-message links and discount codes also offer a more clear way to track attributable conversions.

How to use SMS marketing effectively:

Tie SMS marketing into loyalty programs to facilitate a value exchange with customers. You are then able to collect their contact information. In turn, they receive your special offers, coupons, and are the first to know about new offerings. Lastly, make sure you are compliant with the TCPA guidelines. 

Amazon Advertising Platform

Amazon Ads is expected to exceed $32 billion in revenue by 2023, accounting for an estimated 76.2% of US eCommerce ad spending in 2021. It is the undisputed leader in eCommerce with a wealth of valuable consumer data. 

Why is Amazon advertising effective for CPG brands?

Amazon offers multiple ways for CPG brands to engage with its vast audience by advertising on-site or across the open internet. The platform data provides visibility into millions of consumers’ shopping behaviors. There are various ad formats for point of purchase advertising as well as opportunities for awareness and consideration tactics that will ultimately lead to increased sales. 

How to use Amazon Ads successfully:

Utilize real-time data to target in-market audiences with Sponsored Product Ads. Additionally, expand your reach with lookalike audiences who are similar to your best customers to enhance awareness and consideration.

View our blog post: How to Drive Full-Funnel Advertising Results on Amazon 

Retail Media

Retail media refers to media placements owned by retailers using their first-party POS data. These can be executed on retailer sites or programmatically on social and display channels. This channel now accounts for one in every eight dollars of digital ad spend. 

Why is retail media marketing effective for CPG brands? 

Retail media is now the third largest digital advertising channel in the US, making it a pivotal part of any CPG strategy. Brands are seeing more full-funnel implications of retail media’s high value shopper audiences. CPG advertisers can take advantage of eCommerce site ads as well as programmatic placements to find retailer audiences and take them from awareness to point of purchase with closed-loop measurement. 

How to use retail media advertising successfully:

Use retail media in a holistic, connected plan. Connect media across social, ecommerce and DTC channels to ensure they are supporting each other and driving customers through the funnel.

Read to learn more: Retail Media’s Impact on the CPG Marketing Mix

High Impact Display

Display ads served programmatically or purchased via direct buys offer CPG brands the opportunity to make a splash with their broad awareness and consideration campaigns. 

Why is display advertising effective for CPG brands? 

Display provides a great opportunity to drive engagement by helping stop the scroll and generate interest. CPG brands can also use high impact display ads to retarget audiences who have interacted with the brand’s website or social channels. This keeps your brand top of mind. Plus, it helps support campaign efforts as customers move through the purchase funnel. 

How to use high impact display successfully:

For CPG brands, we recommend using dynamic creative for personalized and interactive offers which drive measurable actions, rather than standard banner ads. Create various creative collateral tailored to your unique audience groups. 

To learn about additional channels and tactics for CPG brands, download the complete CPG Digital Marketing Playbook. 

Targeting Tourism Audiences With CTV Advertising Campaigns

Posted on by Coegi

The Brief

A state tourism client tapped Coegi to implement a CTV advertising campaign with the primary goal of driving awareness. We used a test-and-learn bidding strategy to identify optimal bid numbers across platforms. This allowed us to allocate the client’s budget across the most impactful CTV channels. Using this strategy, we achieved more even spend, higher unique views, and improved cost efficiency.

Highlights

2.75MM
Total Views

470,867
Unique Reach

$0.31
Cost per Unique Reach

Challenge

In programmatic CTV advertising campaigns, platforms will often optimize spend distribution towards total views. This oversimplification causes premium placements like Hulu to consume a disproportionate amount of the budget.

That risk was actualized when early reporting showed 99% of campaign spend going to Hulu and only 1% driving views on other high-indexing channels. As a high-impact platform, Hulu was important, but we wanted to ensure we were using other channels to expand the audience reach and maintain cost efficiency. 

Solution

Our specialists manually adjusted and optimized bids across different channels to create an even spend distribution. The goal was to identify the “sweet spot” that would give each strategic channel an appropriate amount of the budget.  Once the optimal channel mix was identified, the spend evened out to be 60% in Hulu and 40% distributed among other channels.

By serving ads to more niche channels such as Travel Channel, HGTV, and Discovery, we were able to reach key audience segments and boost overall ad performance. This generated 2,750,490 total completed video views, a cost-per-view of $0.05, a unique reach of 470,867 and a post-per-unique-reach of $0.31. 

Premium CTV channels can consume a disproportionate amount of budget. Correcting these standard optimizations with a manual test-and-learn strategy is necessary to find the ideal budget spend and maximize cost efficiency.

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Driving Crypto Fund Creation for End of Year Giving Campaign

Posted on by wpengine

The Brief

Endaoment, a tax-exempt community foundation focused on driving social impact, engaged Coegi and Wachsman to develop a marketing strategy that would scale their reach and drive conversions during the end of year tax season. The agency partners collaborated to create a customized media mix with a crypto-based audience-first approach that leveraged programmatic display, paid search, LinkedIn, Twitter, and a direct buy to drive exceptional results for the team.

Highlights

3.9M
Cross Platform Impressions

1,246
Conversions

5.76%
Search CTR

Challenge

The end of the year is a critical time for the brand. Both taxes and giving are top of mind. As such, Endaoment engaged the Coegi-Wachsman team to develop a strategic marketing approach. They needed to simultaneously build awareness, educate key crypto audiences, and drive new fund creations. Plus, they needed to build and execute this full funnel strategy within two months. 

 

Solution

Coegi started with in-depth audience research using our agnostic tech stack to determine how to reach niche cryptocurrency owners. We used research partner, Resonate, to more fully understand Ethereum enthusiasts and owners. Those insights informed our channel selection. We used display, search and social channels, while implementing sequential messaging to lead consumers down the funnel.

Display and social campaigns were a cost-effective way to support and move crypto audiences through the consideration/education funnel. We focused on LinkedIn and Twitter as our primary social platforms as they are where crypto enthusiasts tend to spend most of their time. Search, a high-intent channel, was expected to be effective in driving action and generating web page visits from qualified audiences. Using keywords related primarily to end of year tax deductible donations, this tactic proved to be successful.

There were over 3.9 million impressions served cross-platform to highly qualified audiences. The campaign resulted in nearly 7,000 key website actions. This was an over 50% success rate from the 13,000 clicks on the ads. This reinforces that the ads were being clicked by highly engaged audiences who were motivated to further understand the brand’s offerings. In several cases, they created or donated to a fund immediately. Success was reinforced with Google Analytics metrics showing above benchmark metrics related to pages per session, session duration, and bounce rate.

Overall, our campaigns performed at or above expectations and created the user involvement aligned to the brand’s goals.

5 Marketing Tactics to Drive Travel Bookings

Posted on by Coegi

The travel marketing industry is rebounding as stir-crazy leisure travelers, vacationing families and business travelers are eager to explore new places and experiences. How can travel and tourism brands ensure they are incorporated in those travel plans? 

Here are 5 ways to drive travel bookings:

1) Show Up In The Research Phase

The purchase funnel for travel brands is shrinking as travelers are shortening the trip planning process. 

Speed and agility is crucial for travel brands to ensure they appear as a top option for their relevant audiences during the research and discovery process. Optimize digital discovery and drive travel bookings by doing the following: 

  1. Optimize paid search presence to show up for relevant, high value queries
  2. Activate audience search retargeting on display and social to stay stop of mind as the customer moves from research to the planning and booking phases
  3. Work to gain quality reviews on owned websites and travel sites

2) Segment Customers To Provide Personalized Offers

Carefully segment your existing customer list and use AI to inform personalized messaging to each group. Understand their unique motivations and deliver the offer most likely to resonate with them. 81% of consumers say personalized experiences are very important when vetting travel and hospitality brands. 

So, consider who you are talking to. Are they solo travelers seeking adventure? Or young families seeking a cost effective, kid-friendly trip? Or are they foodies looking for luxury and avant garde dining experiences?  

Once a trip is completed, the customer journey should not end. This will leave you constantly scrambling to find new audiences to fill your funnel rather than cultivating brand loyalty. Instead, explore how you can entice past travelers with a new trip or experience based on their past interest. 

3) Adjust Creatives And Channel Placements To Reflect Your Target Audience

It’s important that you don’t create a one-size-fits-all approach when marketing to future travelers. Consider demographic attributes such as age and lifestage to choose the most impactful channels to reach them on when making travel plans. 

Key stats and trends shaping the travel and tourism industry today

Not accounting for differences in media consumption and sources of authority will inevitably cost your brand dollars. Instead, carefully tailor your campaigns to reach audience segments on the channels they are most active on and deliver the style of content they trust and are already seeking out. 

4) Look Beyond Standard Media Metrics To Gauge Success

How can you measure the results of these campaigns and make sure your carefully tailored campaigns are driving the desired results? Simple media metrics, like impressions and clicks, often do not tell the whole story. For travel brands, incorporating advanced measurement studies such as foot traffic lift can provide a clear view of how marketing tactics impacted incremental increases in visitors. 

5) Use Non-Media Data To Understand The Travel Climate

In a 2020 report, Google analysts stated that traditional data and analytics for travel patterns “do not account for more immediate upper funnel demand drivers, such as the progression of COVID-19, government travel sanctions, and dynamic flight availability.” Using more advanced, macro-level data can help brands gauge the travel climate from an industry-wide perspective. 

Coegi worked with a tourism client to create a proprietary data solution to track Covid-19 and consumer interest in travel using CDC data and real-time interest indicators. We used this tool to score geographies based on the safety and likelihood of travel within each region. This allowed for real-time insights to inform media buys and campaign flighting strategy and media planning. 

For more strategic tips to drive travel bookings, view our complete Travel and Tourism Marketing Guide. 

Drive Travel Consideration by Leveraging Local Collaborations

Posted on by Coegi

The Brief

A travel and tourism client proposed a collaboration with a local chef to boost traveler consideration for their location. Using a cross-channel social media strategy, our teams saw strong results across Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest with below benchmark CPAs for this co-branded campaign.

 

Highlights

126
Tour Guide Downloads

800K
Instagram Post Engagements

2.47%
Facebook CTR

Challenge

Our travel and tourism client tasked Coegi with executing a co-branded, mid-funnel campaign to boost website traffic as well as increase awareness. We were given high quality ‘how-to’ video creative from the popular chef. By presenting this to targeted audiences in mid-funnel campaigns, we were able to drive travel consideration among key audience groups.

Solution

We used a multi-channel paid social media strategy to target each platform’s specific audiences. Pinterest encapsulated the ‘foodie’ audience, while Facebook and Instagram’s goal was to drive the large travel audience to their site. Both platforms included look-a-like and retargeting segments to reach engaged users. Success was based on key website actions such as landing page views and post engagement.

This multifaceted strategy provided strong results. The Instagram and Facebook campaign achieved a CPLPV of $0.67 that came in well below our benchmark of $1.83. In addition, we also saw a 2.47% CTR, well above the 0.90% benchmark. The Pinterest campaign, despite having a smaller percentage of the budget, generated nearly 1.7MM impressions with a post engagement rate of 1.27% including 1,365 pin saves.

Key Learnings

  • Well-curated and professional creative catches eyes. This pushed our audience down the funnel quicker than most – generating 126 Tour Guide Downloads.
  • By partnering with an authentic, trusted figure such as a local chef or celebrity, travel brands can boost their image and drive audience engagement. 
  • Using “how-to” style Pinterest posts have a higher likelihood of being saved. This ultimately drives site traffic and brand awareness.

Reaching the Next Generation of Farmers

Posted on by Savannah Westbrock

Reaching the next generation of farmers is an increasing concern in agriculture marketing. As those in the world of ag are well aware, the average age of farmers is far higher than most industries, creating concerns about the future of global production. In North America, reports indicate the average age of all farmers to be between 57 and 60, with even the newcomers to the field largely over the age of 45. However, the latest USDA census shed light on a positive trend: over a quarter of new producers were below the age of 35. 

Encouragingly, younger generations are indicating an interest in careers in agriculture. The fastest growing age range for new farmers overlaps with older Millennials and, due to demand from the younger Gen Z population, public universities have steadily increased their offerings related to agriculture, food sciences and sustainability for the past 3 years. 

New Opportunities For Agriculture Marketers

For agriculture marketers, this presents a fresh audience who are engaging with emerging technologies, agribusiness resources, and the modernized tools needed to shape the future of their farms. Brands who adapt their marketing strategies to reach these digitally native individuals can establish significant value for the future of their brands. 

Creating content to reach the next generation of farmers is an exciting opportunity for marketers, but don’t assume everyone in this age group is reachable with a one-size-fits-all media strategy. Though they may be united as the next generation of farmers, the current batch of “under 35s” span two generations: Millennials and Gen Z. Despite being close-ish in age, Millennials and the college-aged Gen Zs use media very differently. Agriculture marketing strategies must reflect these differences using personalized, curated approaches to reach their maximum potential.

Speaking To Millennial Farmers

 You may still picture Millennials as young adults, but they now range from being in their late twenties to early forties. So when you picture a Millennial interested in ag, you should be picturing the “Millennial Farmer,” Zach Johnson, a 37-year old father of three who manages 2,600 acres and a popular YouTube account documenting farm life. Johnson and his fellow 30-somethings make up a group we would personify as the ‘Established Young Farmer’. 

They are an ideal group to reach with branded articles, invitations to industry events or webinars, and specific product and service promotions related to their farms. Though not as seasoned as their farming mentors, the Established Young Farmer is just that, established, so marketers can openly use detailed language and concrete examples of the benefits of their offerings without worrying about losing them. This audience is ideal for any advertiser wanting to highlight their offerings related to new technologies, developments in livestock medicine or crop treatments, farm finances, and farm management tools. 

Millennials have spent their entire lives adapting to new technology and are the highest educated generation to date. Many of these farmers are managing aspects of their operations that previous generations may have relied upon a business partner to handle. Additionally, this audience’s unique position of being new to the industry without being new to adulthood allows marketers the chance to speak to decision makers who are open to testing new brands and emerging technologies. 

Shift To Digital To Reach Millennial Farmers

Like their older counterparts, these Established Young Farmers are reachable via terrestrial media, but the most cost-efficient path to engagement will be tapping into the digital environments this generation is native to. They’re still active users of Facebook, but are also heavier users of newer channels like streaming audio and streaming video. Don’t forget, this is the generation who almost unanimously “cut the cord” in the 2010s, so connected TV is a better avenue to reach them than cable. There was a noted exception to this trend in rural areas as the financial barrier to dependable high-speed internet access played a key role in CTV use, but this is a decreasing concern in the 2020s as the pandemic accelerated this need.

In summary, the Millennial Established Young Farmers have a few years of experience under their belts, are open to new ideas for their farms, and are reachable with cost-efficient digital media. There’s little reason to not include them in your current marketing strategies to form a long-term relationship with the immediate next generation. For brands looking further into the future of farming, let’s discuss the Emerging Agriculturalists of Generation Z. 

Speaking To The Agriculture-Interested Gen Z

With the new farmers entering the ag workforce in their 30s and 40s, it’s not surprising to currently see little representation of Gen Z in the field. This generation spans individuals born from the late 90s through 2010, and currently owns the youth and young adult cohort of 18-24 year-olds.  Over half of Gen Zs with farm backgrounds plan to one day take over their family operations, while over 70% of Gen X farmers expect their Gen Z children to take over. 

While it’s true many Gen Zs will not enter the ag workforce whatsoever, it’s also important to consider the disciplines of study within Agtech, Biotech, and Climatology that were not available to previous generations. Knowing this group’s entryway to a career in agriculture may not be the farm, we’re calling this audience the ‘Emerging Agriculturalists’. 

The Emerging Agriculturalists are still deciding their futures after graduation. They’re in an ideal life stage to receive educational content and connect with industry professionals at events or online. Many are interested in tech-forward content and hearing professional testimonials or blogs to help them conceptualize the real world implications of emerging technologies. Interestingly, this generation has a more favorable opinion of GMOs and are less likely to sustain from animal agriculture compared to Millennials, so they may be a more receptive audience for thought leadership in these areas. 

Use Social And Video To Reach Gen Z Agriculturalists

Another key differentiator between Millennials and Gen Z’s is their social media habits. Despite its best efforts, Facebook is viewed by this group as a “Boomer social network made for old people.”  However, marketers can still take advantage of Meta’s broad reach to find Gen Z on Instagram, where they are more active.

 Video content on traditional channels, such as linear TV, may not reach Gen Z at all – they are primarily “cord-nevers,” and have spent their formative years with vertical video on social platforms like Snapchat and now, TikTok. YouTube and CTV are still viable channels for repurposing more traditional content, but marketers should embrace this generation’s preference for more authentic, influencer-style placements. Look to the hashtags #farmlife and content creators like @MommyFarmer for inspiration.  

One thing is true for both of these generations of future farmers: the digital landscape allows for many cost-efficient opportunities to serve them tailored messaging for a personal touch. Connect with a Coegi strategist to develop a curated plan to reach the next generation of farmers. 

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