Travel is Taking Flight! Is Your App Marketing Ready?

With travel norms easing around the world, we are seeing a renewed interest in the travel segment. Summer 2022 would probably be the first time in these two years when we get to see a sense of normalcy in both domestic and international travel, as flights resume, vaccines pick up pace for young and old, and people’s pent up demand for traveling make them flock to the travel apps. According to the latest research by a travel portal, more than 80% Indians are ready to travel again. Keeping that in mind, Team MAAS has compiled a short step-by-step travel app marketing guide especially for you. Read on to find out what’s going to up the game for travel app marketers this season. 

Top Channels for User Acquisition

• OEM channels for scale during installation stage
• Premium/direct apps on MAAS exchange
• Programmatic channels

Top Creatives for Maximum Impact

• Banners with sizes 320*50, 300*250, 320*480, 480*320
• Native 1200*627
• Rich media creatives
• Video creatives

3-STEP ACTION PLAN FOR TRAVEL APP MARKETING

Reignite interest in your app

What: Focus on brand awareness campaigns while the demand is hot to capitalize on the renewed consumer interest in travel.

How: Go big on your ad campaigns to reignite interest among both new and existing users. As people begin to travel again, be loud and clear about your messaging, app’s offerings and USPs. Consistent brand messaging that brings a sense of security to consumers to apprehend their hesitancy to travel will go a long way in building brand loyalty and retention. Communicate empathy, trust and convenience which are some of the things that a user is likely to look for as they plan to restart travel.

Pro Tip:  Start with social and rich media creatives to create brand awareness among new users who are yet to install your app, as well as renew interest in existing users who have not used the app in a long time. Have clear CTAs to invite the user to explore your app and lead them to purchase.

Go a step further with your targeting

What: With post-pandemic travel, it is important to take a relook at who your audience is as travel preferences have changed. Customers now look for different wants from their travel experience such as high safety and sanitization, staycation and workacation experiences, and those places which are open to vaccinated travelers, for instance. Understanding where the travel is picking up, among which demographics, and economic groups is one way to evaluate who to target. Targeting efficiently will help you to stay ahead of the competition while also keeping your ad costs low.

How: Consider user choices and target them based on their interests, location, and travel style. Use customer intelligence to profile users and drive engagement and high-scale conversion using first-and third-party data across connected devices. Dynamic segmentation allows you to entice the users with smart offers, improving conversion and retention rates. Set up campaigns to reach people who have already taken an action on the app or those who have an intent to travel.

Pro Tip: Go beyond audience targeting and work with an ad partner who has the right tools to know your audience better. A better approach to target is by using personas-based recommendations.

Stay on top of your metrics

What: Raising your engagement involves staying on top of the user metrics. By understanding what metrics to look for you can accurately measure and track those who converted, but also tackle cart abandonment rates more efficiently. 

How: Work with your ad partner to know what KPIs you must look at. This will allow you to dive deeper into data analytics and get a bigger picture.

Pro Tip:  Some KPIs that shouldn’t be ignored by a travel app include average session length, user sign ups, frequently searched categories, engagement rates across categories, etc.

If you are looking to ramp up your mobile UA efforts in the hotels, ticket bookings and overall travel category, please feel free to reach out to us at marketing@maas.affleprojects.com or you can directly schedule a demo right here!