On average, a fifth of travel consumers visit a social media
site immediately before purchasing a vacation according to new research from
EyeforTravel and Jumpshot.
Social media domains continue to be visited late into the
travel funnel, with users regularly connecting with a social media site within
15 sites of their final purchase destination. This was one of the findings from
EyeforTravel’s Understanding the Travel Consumer’s Path to Purchase
white paper. This used clickstream data gathered
through research partner Jumpshot’s panel of more than 100 million customers,
tracking consumers who made a purchase on an airline, hotel or Online Travel
Agency (OTA) brand in Brazil, Germany, India, the UK and US.
In all countries and purchase paths measured, social media
sites were visited in at least 15% of the cases, rising to just under a quarter
of those booking on OTAs in the UK and US.
Additionally, 6% to 12% of consumers visited YouTube in
their pre-purchase path, pushing the usage of social media up further.
The white paper notes that travel marketers should “continue
to view social media as a useful marketing tool up until the point of purchase,
but with a focus on programmatic advertising targeting offers that will attract
clicks in the latter sections of the funnel. This is especially so because
there is a strong possibility that a brand can pick up considerable tracking
data in these latter stages to fully personalize an ad.”
The white paper details the how, where and why of the
decisions people make before they book, and identifies what travel brands
should be doing to capture market share.