How does conversion tracking differ for travel advertisers on Bing Ads?

Conversion tracking for travel advertisers on Bing Ads has some unique considerations compared to other industries due to the nature of the travel purchasing cycle, customer behavior, and the variety of actions that can be considered conversions. Here's how conversion tracking differs for travel advertisers on Bing Ads:

1. Longer and More Complex Sales Cycle
Travel purchases, such as booking flights, hotels, and vacation packages, tend to have a longer decision-making process compared to other industries. Travelers often research multiple destinations, compare prices, and evaluate different options over several weeks or months before making a final decision.

Conversion Tracking Implications:

Multiple touchpoints: Travel advertisers need to track multiple touchpoints (e.g., searches, visits to various pages like flight options, hotel details, or package deals) before a final booking.

Micro-conversions: These could include actions such as clicking on a "Check Availability" button, viewing a flight or hotel details page, or signing up for email alerts or newsletters. Even though these actions are not direct purchases, they indicate user intent and are important in tracking the customer journey.

2. Different Types of Conversions
Travel advertisers deal with different conversion goals based on the type of service being offered. These conversions could include:

Flight bookings: Conversion tracking for actual flight reservations.

Hotel bookings: Tracking when a user books a hotel room.

Vacation packages: Monitoring when customers purchase a complete travel package, including flights, hotels, and activities.

Lead generation: For destinations or travel deals where a direct booking is not yet completed, collecting leads (e.g., email sign-ups, inquiries) is essential.

Search queries or itinerary saves: Users may not book right away but save their search or request more information. These are valuable micro-conversions for retargeting.

Conversion Tracking Implications:

Travel advertisers need to define what constitutes a "conversion" at different stages of the customer journey—whether it's a booking or an intermediate action like a lead or inquiry.

3. Cross-Device and Cross-Platform Tracking
The travel industry is heavily reliant on cross-device behavior. Customers may begin researching their trips on mobile devices and later complete bookings on desktops or laptops. Bing Ads' cross-device tracking helps capture this behavior by linking the same user across different devices.

Conversion Tracking Implications:

Travel advertisers need to track conversions across various devices to understand the complete customer journey.

This helps to measure the effectiveness of different types of ads and platforms (e.g., mobile search ads vs. desktop ads).

4. Attribution Models
Due to the long and complex sales cycle in travel, users often interact with multiple touchpoints before making a conversion. Attribution modeling helps travel advertisers understand the impact of each touchpoint along the customer journey. For example:

First-click attribution: Understanding which initial search or ad interaction sparked interest in a trip.

Last-click attribution: Seeing which final action led to the booking (e.g., after researching multiple options, a user clicks on an ad for a specific hotel).

Linear attribution: Giving credit to all touchpoints along the journey, which is particularly useful for longer decision-making processes in travel.

Time decay attribution: Giving more credit to touchpoints closer to the time of the conversion, helping to focus on the most recent engagement.

Conversion Tracking Implications:

Travel advertisers need to leverage multiple attribution models to accurately track the journey of users who take longer to book their travel. This enables better decision-making regarding ad spending and optimization.

5. Seasonal and Price-Sensitive Factors
Travel planning is often seasonal, with peak travel times influencing customer behavior. Additionally, travel purchases are often price-sensitive (e.g., booking a flight in advance vs. booking last-minute).

Conversion Tracking Implications:

Travel advertisers need to track time-sensitive conversions, such as bookings made during specific promotional periods or holiday seasons.

Dynamic conversion tracking based on seasonal changes in demand can help advertisers optimize campaigns to capture higher-value conversions at the right time.

Ad campaigns for travel offers or discounts can be optimized based on conversion data tied to specific timeframes (e.g., low season vs. peak season).

6. Lead Generation for Travel Agencies
For many travel agencies or service providers (like tour operators, hotels, etc.), the booking process is not always direct, and lead generation plays a major role. Rather than immediate bookings, travel agencies often look to generate leads such as:

Requesting quotes for travel packages.

Signing up for newsletters or alerts about deals.

Filling out contact forms for more information.

Conversion Tracking Implications:

Travel advertisers may prioritize tracking lead-related actions rather than direct purchases. These can include form submissions, clicks on "request a quote," or sign-ups for email notifications about specific destinations or offers.

7. Custom Conversions Based on User Behavior
Travel ads often cater to highly specific audiences with custom interests, such as business travelers, family vacations, or luxury travel. Custom conversions allow travel advertisers to track specific actions based on user behavior:

Interest in specific destinations: Users who search for a specific city or country can be considered for specialized remarketing campaigns.

Package interest: Tracking interest in bundled offers, such as hotel + flight packages or all-inclusive vacation deals.

Travel-specific filters: Using criteria such as booking class (e.g., economy vs. first class), hotel ratings, or special preferences to define conversion actions.

Conversion Tracking Implications:

Travel advertisers must define custom conversion goals that align with different traveler intents and segments to optimize the ad targeting and retargeting efforts.

8. Dynamic Remarketing for Travel
Travel customers often browse multiple options before booking. For instance, someone may look at flights, then switch to considering hotels, or later look at car rentals. Dynamic remarketing uses conversion tracking to re-engage users based on their previous activities on the website, showing personalized ads for:

Specific flights, hotels, or car rental options they viewed.

Offers or discounts for packages they explored but didn't book.

Ads that remind them of destinations they've shown interest in.

Conversion Tracking Implications:

Travel advertisers can create remarketing lists based on users who engaged with specific parts of the site, allowing for more personalized and relevant ad targeting.

9. Tracking Offline Conversions
For travel, offline conversions are common. A potential customer may visit the website to check flight prices or hotel availability and later book over the phone or in person at a travel agency.

Conversion Tracking Implications:

Offline conversion tracking allows travel advertisers to capture bookings made through offline channels and tie them back to their online ad campaigns.

Conclusion
In summary, conversion tracking for travel advertisers on Bing Ads is unique because of the complex customer journey, involving research across multiple touchpoints and devices. Key differences include:

A longer sales cycle with multiple interactions before conversion.

The need to track a variety of conversions (e.g., bookings, leads, price checks).

Cross-device and cross-platform tracking.

Custom attribution models to accurately capture the impact of each step in the journey.

Dynamic remarketing based on specific travel interests or behaviors.

By leveraging these insights, travel advertisers can better optimize their campaigns, improve their targeting, and ultimately drive more bookings and leads.