We live in an age where we know more about our hospitality customers than ever before.
The question is, how well are you actually using the data available to offer proper incentives to your customers? How often have you seen offers for a hotel you were interested in booking, but found that none of the offers were actually relevant to you?Google Analytics is, of course, a great data source and can provide a wealth of knowledge, if you are able to navigate the information correctly. Marketing teams should work with their digital partners to become extremely familiar with the personas, behaviors and booking trends of their guests.
Top Three Analytics Reports to Start Getting to Know Your Guests
1. Transactions ReportsFound under Conversions > Ecommerce, your transaction history can be the most informative data to improve your current conversion rates.While most hospitality marketers are already monitoring bookings, there are properties that continue to promote packages that don't align with what the data is telling them.We've seen specific instances where a 30% off a stay of 7 nights or more, advertised by PPC efforts, was prominently displayed across a site. If your Analytics tracking is properly set up, the Transaction report can tell you how many nights each booking was for. When looking deeper into the rooms nights, in this case, we saw that only three guests stayed long enough to be eligible for this package.Using the data we had readily available, we were able to inform the client, make the necessary adjustments and optimize the campaigns and site for their specific guests.2. Audience ReportsPerhaps Google Analytics' most informative reports are its Audience reports. These reports include demographics, like age and gender, interest categories, location and much more. Smart marketers won't stop at the surface level data, though.You may be aware that users 35-54 make up the majority of your customers. However, without going deeper into your analytics, you may not have realized that users 55+ actually have higher conversion rates and provide more revenue per transaction.Maybe one of the highest performing pages for this particular demographic mentions family vacations. If they are booking for a family, then you would receive a higher conversion value. With this data now on hand, properties can optimize that page with family vacations in mind, highlighting all of the property features and amenities for families.
Bonus: Google Analytics now offers a new audience segment analysis tool.
You can create audiences based on users who visited certain pages, users who typically convert more, users who came from specific traffic sources, and many other ways potential guests have interacted with your site.Creating an audience segment for individuals who visit a specific package page is a very powerful tool. You can see the top in-market segments/affinity categories of those who visit the page. Think "users who have an affinity for art & theatre" as an audience group that consistently converts higher than any others. As it turns out, the hotel is very close to a well known performing arts center. Now you have a great opportunity to engage these users and create a package that includes tickets to said performing arts venue.3. Referral ReportsFound in Acquisition > All Traffic, the Referral report shows all of the sites that have brought traffic to your site. Analyzing where a site's referral traffic is coming from can help properties gain insights into their own marketing efforts, as well as uncover new opportunities.The referral report can help properties confirm listings on OTAs, social media sites or other popular hospitality referrers like Wedding Wire and The Knot are providing value to the website. They can also provide new partnership opportunities. For example, if there is a local dining guide that commonly sends users to your restaurant page, your property could propose a partnership including a promotion for users who come from that referring site.Properties and marketers should be analyzing their referral sources just like they analyze paid and organic channels.These three reports are a great place to get started but Google Analytics, combined with any other management systems you use, provide a wealth of data that most hospitality marketers only scratch the surface of. Alongside your digital partners, dive deep into your property's data and put yourself ahead of the competition.So time to pull up your sleeves and dive in!
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We live in an age where we know more about our hospitality customers than ever before.
The question is, how well are you actually using the data available to offer proper incentives to your customers? How often have you seen offers for a hotel you were interested in booking, but found that none of the offers were actually relevant to you?Google Analytics is, of course, a great data source and can provide a wealth of knowledge, if you are able to navigate the information correctly. Marketing teams should work with their digital partners to become extremely familiar with the personas, behaviors and booking trends of their guests.
Top Three Analytics Reports to Start Getting to Know Your Guests
1. Transactions ReportsFound under Conversions > Ecommerce, your transaction history can be the most informative data to improve your current conversion rates.While most hospitality marketers are already monitoring bookings, there are properties that continue to promote packages that don't align with what the data is telling them.We've seen specific instances where a 30% off a stay of 7 nights or more, advertised by PPC efforts, was prominently displayed across a site. If your Analytics tracking is properly set up, the Transaction report can tell you how many nights each booking was for. When looking deeper into the rooms nights, in this case, we saw that only three guests stayed long enough to be eligible for this package.Using the data we had readily available, we were able to inform the client, make the necessary adjustments and optimize the campaigns and site for their specific guests.2. Audience ReportsPerhaps Google Analytics' most informative reports are its Audience reports. These reports include demographics, like age and gender, interest categories, location and much more. Smart marketers won't stop at the surface level data, though.You may be aware that users 35-54 make up the majority of your customers. However, without going deeper into your analytics, you may not have realized that users 55+ actually have higher conversion rates and provide more revenue per transaction.Maybe one of the highest performing pages for this particular demographic mentions family vacations. If they are booking for a family, then you would receive a higher conversion value. With this data now on hand, properties can optimize that page with family vacations in mind, highlighting all of the property features and amenities for families.
Bonus: Google Analytics now offers a new audience segment analysis tool.
You can create audiences based on users who visited certain pages, users who typically convert more, users who came from specific traffic sources, and many other ways potential guests have interacted with your site.Creating an audience segment for individuals who visit a specific package page is a very powerful tool. You can see the top in-market segments/affinity categories of those who visit the page. Think "users who have an affinity for art & theatre" as an audience group that consistently converts higher than any others. As it turns out, the hotel is very close to a well known performing arts center. Now you have a great opportunity to engage these users and create a package that includes tickets to said performing arts venue.3. Referral ReportsFound in Acquisition > All Traffic, the Referral report shows all of the sites that have brought traffic to your site. Analyzing where a site's referral traffic is coming from can help properties gain insights into their own marketing efforts, as well as uncover new opportunities.The referral report can help properties confirm listings on OTAs, social media sites or other popular hospitality referrers like Wedding Wire and The Knot are providing value to the website. They can also provide new partnership opportunities. For example, if there is a local dining guide that commonly sends users to your restaurant page, your property could propose a partnership including a promotion for users who come from that referring site.Properties and marketers should be analyzing their referral sources just like they analyze paid and organic channels.These three reports are a great place to get started but Google Analytics, combined with any other management systems you use, provide a wealth of data that most hospitality marketers only scratch the surface of. Alongside your digital partners, dive deep into your property's data and put yourself ahead of the competition.So time to pull up your sleeves and dive in!
Did you enjoy the read?
Get original hospitality industry insights delivered to your inbox. Sign up to receive Screen Pilot’s #TrendingNow Newsletter.
