Revinate Total Website Integration (TWI) is an industry-leading marketing tracking system. With the assistance of your web developer to implement Revinate code, TWI is the ONLY technology that tracks a phone call from any Online Marketing effort to the property management system to show voice revenue from those marketing channels. It improves ROI campaign tracking by combining Offline and Online revenue for Total Revenue, and accurately ties this revenue back to the original marketing source that generated the lead. Total Revenue ROI tracking provides marketing decision makers the “big picture” when evaluating the success of their campaigns. The business results are confident reallocations of your marketing spend that align with your overall strategic goals. The following section will cover who and what we are tracking and why it is imperative you incorporate TWI into your overall marketing strategy.
Why incorporate Revinate TWI into your marketing strategy?
In 2014 Revinate teamed up with HeBS Digital to conduct a case study and presented the study to the HSMAI (Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International) Digital Marketing Strategy Conference. The study found that 70% of the people who searched for hotels using their mobile device ended up booking through the voice channel. As mobile device usage continues to grow with the advancement of smart phones, the trend to complete a reservation via the voice channel continues. The key takeaway from this collaborative case study was that an understanding of true marketing ROI requires a combination of both online and offline revenue tracking systems.
A review of how most of the industry (without Revinate) is currently evaluating the success of online marketing campaigns indicates that ROI is measured using a combination of “conversions.” Conversions are generally described as behavior a user exhibited on your website that holds a presumed monetary value to your business. For example, you allocate a $200 value to a guest that spends 15 minutes on your website, visited 10 pages, and filled out a contact us form. Google Analytics would then “credit” a conversion to somebody who had one of those “actions.” With online bookings you are likely tracking a confirmed acquisition on your booking engine or again counting a confirmation page as a “conversion” if your booking engine is not interfaced with Google Analytics or another web analytics service.
This is a good start, but consider the direct booker sales process a bit further:
- What percentage of them book online vs. offline?
- How much of your bookings are arriving at your website via a paid search and then decide to pick up the phone?
- How many of them fill out a contact us form or “convert” but never actually stay?
Revinate data shows that 70% of revenue that can be tied to online marketing sources are booked offline. This begs the question- are you using an industry standard measurement tool to make expensive marketing decisions with only 30% of the revenue picture? Offline revenue coupled with online for Total Revenue will give you the Big Picture and a competitive advantage that only Revinate can provide.
Small Picture vs. Big Picture
The examples below illustrate the small picture vs. the big picture of Revinate TWI Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). First, we will examine online booking data alone.
Small picture - Online booking data
Based on trends, looking at this online booking data, what are the top three campaigns? Which low performers should you stop spending money on?
- Top Performers – Google PPC BRL Terms and Google PPC Bend Resorts Vacation (these are the top performers because of the high Return on Ad Spend).
- Lowest Performers – Google PPC Brand Terms and Google PPC Special Events (these are low performers because of the low Return on Ad Spend).
Small picture – Offline booking data
Looking at the offline booking data, what are your top three campaigns?
- Top Performers – Google PPC BRL Terms, Google PPC Bend Lodging, and Google PPC Brand Terms
- Lowest Performer – Google PPC Bend Resorts Vacations
In the first table, looking at online results only, you may be tempted to pause Google PPC Brand Terms. However, after reviewing the second table, you would have potentially just turned off one of your highest offline performing campaigns.
Big Picture – Total Revenue
Looking at both online and offline data, for Total Revenue, what are your top three campaigns?
- Top performers - Google PPC BRL Terms, Google PPC Competitor Keywords, and Google PPC Bend Lodging
The Big Picture Review
When looking at either online (RED) or offline (GOLD) data alone, the information may be misleading as you are not capturing true ROI (ROAS). You would be shutting down a campaign that in reality is generating a strong ROAS. Examining Total Revenue (GREEN) and tying it back to the original marketing source provides the Big Picture. Incorporating Revinate TWI in your overall marketing plan provides objective data that allows you to reallocate marketing spend with confidence, giving you a huge advantage over your competition.
Tracking Contact Types and Booking Methods
Revinate TWI offers our clients the option to add Push2Talk, Push2Chat and to integrate your Contact Us forms. Revinate coding allows the original marketing source to pass through these channels of communication. These channels are tracked in The Reservation Sales Suite as Contact Types. We combine this data with the Booking Method, or how the lead eventually becomes booked. For example, a Contact Us form creates a lead in the system and eventually is booked with an outbound call. The source of business is then tracked regardless of how they communicated with you or how the lead was ultimately booked, giving you more insight into the buying process.
Internet Marketing
The internet represents one of the best tools for lodging marketers and is becoming even more dominant as mobile communications proliferate. While we can’t go into great detail as to when and how to use the various internet marketing tools available to you, we want to stress the importance of tracking what you do use. Fortunately, The Reservation Sales Suite provides tools that allow you to track the results of most of your internet marketing efforts. Anytime you can control the destination URL for a digital marketing source, you should ensure that URL is set to dynamically display a unique TFN on your website.
The most popular types of Internet Marketing are:
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Display Advertising
- Local Search
- Affiliate Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- User Review Sites
Search Engine Marketing
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a type of advertising where website owners pay an advertising fee, usually based on click-throughs or ad views, for the placement of their ad in a “sponsored” section of search engine pages. Typically, payment is based on the number of people who visit the advertiser’s website via the hyperlinked advertisement on the owner’s website. Per Google Ads, “the amount is usually set by the advertiser, not the channel.”
Organic search involves the proper selection and usage of keywords (Search Engine Optimization) used by your visitors when searching the web that result in your website description and link placed in the “non-sponsored” or organic listing on search engine pages.
There are advantages to doing both PPC and organic and both should be incorporated by lodging marketers. Of course, PPC costs more than organic, but the results are much more immediate. Organic has the advantage of 4 times the click-through rates of PPC, 27% higher conversion, and greater long-term benefits. While only 20% of search engine users view a paid listing, it is still very important to track the results of every PPC ad. Given the 80% power of organic listings, it is also very important to maintain a robust SEO effort.
Display Advertising is graphical or text advertising on the internet that appears next to content on web pages, IM applications, and more. The ads, often referred to as banners, appear in standardized ad sizes, and can include text, logos, pictures or rich media.
Local Search is free through services such as Google My Business, previously Google Places. This allows advertisers to target listings for anyone searching based on your specific region. Google My Business allows users to search, rate and review local businesses. Revinate suggests that you use a unique TFN or Local Number carried by Revinate for full visibility and tracking. We also suggest that you distribute the same number to your major directory listings as well as optimize your website with this number in order to maintain Name, Address and Phone (NAP) consistency. For example, you may list the Google My Business number on your contact us page as a number for international callers or in your footer as a number for international callers. The key being that it is present on your site but does not draw the visitor’s attention away from the dynamically changing number on your website.
Affiliate Marketing ads occur when one website pays another website to link to their site. If you choose to market with affiliates you will want to ensure that the destination URL they use to point back to your site is set to dynamically display a unique TFN on your website. There are several options with regards to the dynamic process. Please refer to the Revinate TWI Whitepaper for more detail and to select the option that works best for your business.
Email Marketing
Email marketing should always contain three elements to ensure appropriate tracking.
- The Revinate unique TFN should be the only call back number in the email.
- Any links within the email should be set to dynamically display the unique TFN associated with that email.
- Confirm there is a marketing category called “Email Marketing” and then create a new TFN campaign for each email messaging strategy you create. Then assign that campaign to the email category. This way you can see exactly what is working, including the messaging through the email marketing category.
For ultimate integration with your Reservation Sales Suite data ask your Customer Success Manager about Revinate’ targeted email marketing product, the Marketing Suite.
Push2Talk and Push2Chat Implementation
Microsoft Advertising Pay-Per-Click Reporting Integration
Updating Links on Referring/Affiliate Websites