Photo Credit: Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel

Travel searches are rebounding as travelers are daydreaming about future trips, researching destinations and hotels, and booking long-awaited getaways! Did you know that (according to Google) ”the average traveler spends 13% of their time online conducting travel related activities”? People are spending days, even months researching their next destination and planning their next trip online! As you’re looking ahead at how to best spend your advertising budget, you need to think strategically and truly understand how people are planning trips in 2021. Here at DAE & Co, we offer digital media buying services that are a great option for hotels and tourism businesses looking to reach travelers at every touchpoint!

What Is Media Buying?

In the world of advertising, media buying refers to the process of finding and purchasing ad space on the right channels at the right times to reach the right audience. Digitally, media buying is focused on finding the right mix of websites, social media channels, apps, streaming sites, and other digitally connected screens and devices. To really drive a high ROI, you can’t just rely on perfect placements, you also need strong branding, targeting, and the right messaging in your ads to really drive reservations and bookings.

Why Should I Consider a Digital Media Buy?

If you’re not already using media buys as part of your marketing strategy, you’re missing out. Consumers are spending the most time with mobile media. Digital media plans should reflect this device trend. Overall, ad spend on Connected TV and digital video went up in 2020, your ad strategy should be keeping up.

If the shift towards online media buys isn’t enough to sway you, the blocking of third-party cookies should be. Apple, Google, and Mozilla have either announced new policies or have protections in place that block third-party cookie tracking across their browsers in an effort to increase both user privacy and transparency in data. Without the proper framework in place, this could affect your advertising’s ability to reach target audiences, attribute results, and monitor brand safety and viewability metrics. Luckily, most media buys offer tracking and targeting options that aren’t reliant on cookies.

At DAE & Company, we have established strong relationships with leading publishers and technology partners to ensure that our clients’ ads are successfully served to their intended audiences, as well as accurately attributed and monitored. We utilize a variety of targeting strategies, outside of traditional third-party data, to reach our clients’ target audiences. We are ready for ongoing industry changes in relation to privacy and data and will continue to effectively and strategically serve our clients.

What’s Your Process?

We have direct access to 10,000 premium publishers for worldwide reach or a local focus with access to over 25 ad formats. We have competitive rates and low minimums with full transparency and site-level reporting.

• Target: Leverage our best-in-class location data and advanced target techniques to build custom audiences. Some examples include outdoor enthusiasts, family travel interests, or road trippers. Hone in on your target market even further by layering in additional targeting, such as income level, age, and gender.
• Run: Put our experienced team to work to ensure a successful and turnkey campaign delivery.
• Report: Get full transparency on results. We present the metrics that actually matter – bookings, revenue, and return on ad spend.
• Engage: Consult and work alongside our team of experts throughout the entire campaign lifecycle.

Digital Media Buy Placement Options

We offer a suite of unique ad units across standard, video, high impact, and native executions with a goal of transforming the online environment to grab the attention of potential travelers and increase performance for advertisers.

• Connected TV (CTV)
• Streaming Radio/Music
• Podcasts
• Standard Display
• Pre-Roll Video
• Digital Out of Homes (DOOH)
• Native Advertising
• Social Media

Tell Me More About the Targeting Options

We use sequential messaging to drive awareness through upper-funnel formats (CTV/Audio), and retarget ad viewers/ listeners with lower-funnel formats (display/ native) to drive action. By leveraging first-party data, we can engage users and build advanced lookalike models. We’re able to build customizable audiences using specialized targeting tactics that rely on data sources other than cookies.

By mixing the right ad unit with each stage of the user’s planning process, we can effectively influence choices about where to travel and stay. You can reach travelers early in the planning process and get them thinking about your destination for their next vacation, then continue to engage them with more specific messaging as they get closer to finalizing their plans.

DAE & Company provides a wide variety of targeting capabilities that allow us to effectively reach and scale towards niche travel audiences for our hotel clients. These targeting tactics are sourced from over 180 second-party data, third-party data, and verified offline data partners. By bringing together cookie-based insights and IP-based tactics, we offer a unique, custom-layered approach to effectively pinpoint each brand’s target audience.

Alright, I’m Convinced, How Do I Start?

That’s great! We’d love to get started on a strategic plan just for you! Get in touch using our contact form, and we’ll set up a time to talk!