On Facebook, brand awareness audiences made up of frequent travelers in La Cantera’s top fly markets (which include locations like California, Colorado, and Florida) are used in each flight. Most recently added – users who have an interest in San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country to reach users who are already familiar with the resort’s location and ensure more qualified traffic. La Cantera also retargeted website visitors who are also parents for its family summer vacation ads.
In Google, brand campaigns are targeting the United States and Canada while unbranded efforts focused on users with top 10% income over the age of 25. With the use of In-Market for Search Audiences, La Cantera increased bids on users that are in-market to travel to San Antonio.
The first step in research was to determine which type of ad copy is best suited for which audience. Experiments with offer-based ads, experiential-ads and standard location and official site ads were performed. That test ran for multiple weeks and it was determined that the offer ads performed poorly while the experiential ads were the most engaging amongst our luxury brand shoppers.
New experiential ads were created within both brand and unbranded campaigns while pausing all offer based ads. After letting these ads for many months, La Cantera analyzed where the conversions were coming from. Looking at location, demographics and income, they were able to determine where they wanted to spend the bulk of the funds and then allocated budget to top performing campaigns and audiences. La Cantera broke out specific campaigns tailored to local Texans, offering them Texas resident only specials and personalized, local ad copy. Then, they created a new campaign exclusively for returning users on the Google RLSA list, allocating additional funds for high ROAS, as well as messaging that connected with users that have already been to the website.
While these ads ran, the team continued to make optimizations to bids and budgets based on audience changes through seasonality of the property. Additionally, adding on new Google Betas opportunities like “In Market” and “Custom Intent” audiences, which allow the targeting of users who have a specific intent in mind, such as searching “hotels or resorts in San Antonio, TX”.
The key objective in messaging was to highlight the experiences at the resort, such as custom spa treatments, scenic vistas, memorable moments and amenities on-site at the resort. Instead of pushing 15% off in the ads, the goal was to connect with users who were not price shopping, but instead, looking for a luxurious vacation for their family or romantic escape. By breaking out keywords for romance, family, resorts, etc., La Cantera was able to customize and personalize the messaging to appeal to their interests and needs.
