ASCEND I INDUSTRY

epending on geography, level E-COMMERCE ROI OFFERS of maturity or business model, many airlines are still debating and changing their point of view D in terms of where e-commerce REAL DIGITAL DIGIT$ fits within their organization. They are determining if all functions should reside in an e-commerce area or in some other functional area within the airline. Airlines that achieved a high level of suc- Key Aspects Of A Powerful E-commerce Strategy cess in e-commerce have done so because of their commitment to it as a viable sales channel. This commitment and the By Rodolfo Elizondo and Sanjay Nanda I Ascend Contributors willingness to rework corporate structure to support this new sales channel often has a direct impact on the type of results airlines see from an e-commerce strat- egy. Carriers that embrace it and support it with dedicated resources are able to realize real revenue benefits and a return on investment. Online competition is fierce. It does Photos: Shutterstock not wait for functionality enhancements, reliable shopping experiences or complex Long-term E-commerce Benefits Strategic e-commerce initiatives, such as brand-building social media digital marketing campaigns. Even though strategies, non-targeted display advertising and high-level website launches, generally have an impact e-commerce is not new, many airlines are on brand awareness and recognition and provide long-term benefits. still struggling to find the right balance between functionality and reliability in their By contrast, tactical e-commerce activities There are two critical drivers of website websites while also trying to make market- deal with specific actions to bring about a traffic that airlines can influence — paid search ing decisions that impact both revenue and desired business outcome. They are typically (PPC) or search engine marketing (SEM) and user perception. more measureable than strategic activities search engine optimization (SEO). Both are Competition for an airline’s website chan- because they drive traffic and revenue through tactical in nature but can contribute to the nel has two fronts: online travel agents an airline’s website. Examples include: airline’s brand. (OTAs) and other airlines’ websites. Search engine marketing, By definition, paid search and search engine Consumers do not discriminate as long as Targeted-display advertising, optimization are drivers of search engine web- their needs are met by: Call-to-action emailing, site traffic, while paid display advertising is a The right price, Search engine optimization practices, driver of referred traffic. The right schedule, Fare specials, Reliability, Macro promotions, Paid Search Functionality. Sweepstakes. Paid search is a form of advertising that Depending on the airline’s goals, these ensures a specific website appears in search Tactical Components Of tactical activities can be targeted to a small or engine results when certain keywords are E-commerce broad audience and can also be either short or entered. Most search engines offer a platform Traditionally, digital marketers tend to long in duration. through which advertisers can bid for the right differentiate between two types of adver- to appear under certain desired search results tising activities — strategic and tactical. Sources Of Website Traffic and pay a determined fee if their ad is clicked. E-commerce, specifically for airline websites, These activities are by no means mutually Website traffic is generated by four sources: This is known as pay-per-click advertising. exclusive. On the contrary, they have expo- 1. Search engines —Internet-based search Search engines balance capitalizing profits and is an integral part of a robust sales and distribution nential benefits if executed accurately and engines can be global in nature such as providing users with highly relevant search strategy. So why do so many airlines struggle with effectively together. Google, Yahoo! and Bing; or local, depend- results. offering it? Strategic e-commerce usually entails ing on the geography. larger-scale efforts without a specific action 2. Direct traffic — A website address is entered Managing Paid Search or offering. Some examples include: directly into a Web browser and the user is Managing paid search is no easy feat. It High-level website launches, immediately taken to the desired site. takes a bit of science and ingenuity to hone the Website functionality releases, 3. Referred traffic — A visitor clicks on a link on best results using: Multichannel efforts, another website to access the desired site. Keywords, Informational emails, 4. Email marketing — The visitor clicks a link in Ads, Brand-building social media strategies, an email to access a specific site. Cost-per-click (CPC), Non-targeted display advertising, Each source has particular and well-defined Tracking and optimization. . strategies that can help optimize website Strategic activities usually have an impact traffic. These strategies are most efficient Keywords on brand awareness and brand recognition, when addressed simultaneously through a The base of paid search is predicting for both the airline and its website. These systematic and well-thought-out approach. which keywords an individual might search activities are more general in nature and Each one has its pros and cons and levels of for when seeking the products, services provide long-term benefits. assertiveness. or information that a website offers. For

ascend 27 ASCEND I INDUSTRY ASCEND I INDUSTRY

example, an airline would predict that some- Highlight each can provide different types of results. SEO’s value comes from the actual revenue one searching for “flight to city X” would Paid search can generate immediate traffic generated from both organic non-brand and find value in “www.airlineexample.com.” to an airline’s website, and if done correctly, brand search traffic. What is generated is Keywords can be bid on with three levels it delivers impressive ROI numbers and a based on how well SEO tactics have been of precision: To maximize web- very low cost of sales and acquisition ratios. implemented. Broad — Broad search queries include An SEO strategy to capture organic Web Are paid search and SEO for all airlines? words that are similar in meaning or topic traffic is a much longer-term initiative, but it They definitely should be. Both of these to the keyword. site traffic, airlines can also generate a good return. strategies are integral parts of any grow- Phrase — Phrase search queries include Therefore, a Web strategy should ing e-commerce operation. It’s important the keyword. have a clear roadmap and implementa- to analyze and consider the availability of Exact — Exact search queries must be must look to do tion strategies for both paid search and resources and the maturity of the organiza- exact to the keyword. SEO, regardless of how things are currently tion to embrace a new item of expenditure The more precise the predicted search being done or if they are currently actively on paid search. query, the lower the cost of the click for the both paid search and managed. At minimum, SEO should be at the advertiser. Search engines are interested In terms of the strategic value of both forefront of any e-commerce strategy since in making money, but they also want to paid search and SEO, why does all this it is the foundation of Web sales growth for provide the site visitor (or searcher) with the SEO because each matter? It matters because airlines compete the airline. Investing in paid search gives most accurate results. in the same space, and all these tools have airlines an advantage over competitors that Given that the search engine rewards the potential to provide huge competitive might not have the internal capabilities or precision, sophisticated pay-per-click man- can provide different advantages. resources. agement includes prediction of thousands Airline marketing budgets are often lim- Effective paid search and SEO strategies of keywords to pinpoint even the lower- ited and tagged for multiple activities and require great coordination and oversight. frequency search queries that capture a types of results. initiatives. Most of the time, e-commerce is Some organizations become overly reliant in larger share at a much lower cost. not one of the top recipients of marketing their agencies to carry both of these tasks, These keywords are not static, and the SEO Matters Search engine optimization is the foundation of Web sales growth for an airline and funds because airlines have to keep up with which is not always a bulletproof strategy. true skill of paid search is to refine and should be at the forefront of any e-commerce strategy. Its value is based on the actual revenue gener- legacy expenditures in many other areas. Agencies with many accounts and clients redefine keywords based on the clicks ated from both organic non-brand and brand search traffic. Also, Web sales are still a small percentage may mass-produce their campaigns without and conversion they generate. To add an first page. And, most important, 64 percent of total company sales for most carriers. really looking at maximum optimization. additional dimension of complexity, search 2. — The evaluation of the in the family of “vacations in the emirates” select the first three organic search results. They often take advantage of the airline’s patterns vary by culture, geography and relevance of the website to which the ad cost US$0.50 CPC and generate US$5 in Websites will always compete with one Paid Search And SEO Value lack of resources, time or understanding on language. Global carriers must consider points with regards to the keyword. revenue with an ROI of 10 times. Therefore, another for traffic, branding, marketing Paid search is a revenue-generating strat- the subject to deliver mediocre results that, these variables. An example of a high-quality score could more budget should be allocated to the and sales opportunities driven by search egy for any airline, provided that a visitor to to the naked eye, seem good enough. be an ad mentioning “flights to Mexico” con- “flights to Abu Dhabi” keywords. engines. In short, the likelihood of being the site can effectively search for flights, Some organizations decide to create the Ads nected to the keyword “flights to Mexico” clicked depends on the relative position select flights, enter the required passen- knowledge and expertise in-house, which Ads are a second component in paid and linking to www.aeromexico.com. A Search Engine Optimization of each result and the text in the title ger information and make a successful carries the burden of a steep learning curve. search. Paid search ads appear atop and low-quality score would result if an ad Search engine optimization includes and description of the result. Therefore, payment. Either way, airlines must be vigilant and along the side of general organic search mentioned “free flight to Abu Dhabi” con- search results that appear in the core of a the importance of rank and relevance A good way to measure paid search detail oriented when dealing with paid results in a search engine. They appear nected to the word “flights to Abu Dhabi” search page, below the paid search ads and becomes more than evident with these results across airlines and channels is to search and SEO. The digital marketing similar to search results and link to a Web but linked to a credit card application. results. Results in this section of a search industry metrics. It is clear that all efforts use ROI and cost of sale. They help show space is extremely dynamic and airlines page. The higher the quality score of an engine are not paid. They earn the spot must be made to capture that premium how the performance of the paid search need to be nimble enough to cope with Ads should entice the searcher to click advertiser’s website, the lower the CPC an based on a series of factors. organic search results page real estate. activity evolves and help compare perfor- rapid changes in both competitive and digi- but should also be informative to avoid advertiser can successfully bid for a click. Search engine optimization is a collec- mance in different markets. tal environments. a unwanted clicks. For example, if the des- In addition, search engines, regardless of tion of strategies, tactics and best practices Airline Web Strategy Airlines can expect an ROI of 500 percent tination page of an ad is an email sign-up the amount of the CPC bid, will not mislead that maximize the likelihood of a website With a deeper understanding of paid to 2,500 percent. These figures depend page, the words “sign up” should be searchers. appearing in search results from a search search and SEO, how do they fit into an on the competitive environment of the specified in the ad to maintain a high con- engine. The way a search engine finds airline’s overall Web strategy? airline as well as the experience and time version rate from click to sign up. There Tracking And Optimization information on websites is by performing To receive the maximum amount of the airline has been playing in this space. has to be relevance in the call to action. Optimizing a paid search campaign is a “crawl” and indexing every page on the website traffic from a paid search cam- However, it is possible that some airlines Ads can target an individual based on possible given that every single keyword Internet. Search engines attempt to emu- paign, airlines must constantly devote will experience a decrease in ROI as more certain variables such as geography, time and ad group can be tracked and custom- late human behavior, trying to understand attention to optimizing the selection of money is put into the practice, but this of day, language, demographics, device ized all the way to a sales conversion action. what each Web page is about and to whom keywords used, as well as assess the threshold is a long way from most airlines’ used and repeat viewer of ads. This is also possible given that a campaign- it would be relevant. bidding strategies being used for those current paid search expenditures. bidding platform offers complete control of Companies have a goal to increase fre- keywords. Layered on top of that, they Cost of sale makes sense only when Cost-Per-Click all these components. These tools can help quency of their website’s appearance in must also be aware of other marketing compared internally against other channels Paid search media is purchased on a maximize return on investment by effec- search results to include website traffic by activities such as route launches and rather than across airlines and regions. Even cost-per-click basis. The advertiser bids a tively optimizing a paid search campaign. choosing important keywords and under- promotions to ensure paid search activi- though cost of sale figures may sometimes maximum willingness to pay for a click on To do this, choose a statistic as a goal for standing the methods search engines use ties are aligned with larger marketing seem high for the Web sales channel, paid its ad if an individual searches for one of optimization and align a bidding strategy and to determine a website’s relevance. objectives. search has a double purpose. It generates its keywords and its ad is displayed. The tactics to target that statistic. Each page of organic search results Like paid search, SEO is also very tacti- revenue but also contributes to brand build- Rodolfo Elizondo is business consulting search engine uses an algorithm to deter- Airlines primarily want to maximize their displays 10 positions ordered by rank. cal in nature. It is critical to ensure that ing and brand exposure. If the airline is engagement director and Sanjay mine which ad it should display for which revenue and keep a close eye on cost of Although search engines find millions of the tactics implemented in an SEO plan able to generate more revenue with less Nanda is senior vice president of search query based on two main factors: sale. For example, keywords in the family results for each search query in millions of are also aligned with the larger marketing investment, it means the campaigns are delivery and consulting for Sabre 1. Willingness to pay — The advertiser’s of “flights to Abu Dhabi” cost US$1CPC pages, only a few of these pages are ever objectives of the airline. being optimized correctly. Airline Solutions®. They can be maximum amount committed if the ad is and generate US$20 in revenue with an considered. More importantly, 90 percent To maximize website traffic, airlines must SEO’s value is easier to define and it contacted at rodolfo.elizondo@sabre. clicked; ROI of 20 times. On the flipside, keywords of all searchers click on results found in the look to do both paid search and SEO because is as or more important than paid search. com and [email protected].

28 ascend ascend 29