destinations
Metrics that Matter I
Overview
ÖData-Driven Destinations:
Foundation Principles
ÖThe Right Tools:
Your Measurement Tool Kit
ÖWhat to Measure:
An Online Analytics Framework
ÖIntegrated Online Measurement
and Management
ÖSummary: Take Our Test
æ MilesPartnership.com
Data-Driven Destinations
data-driven
decisions
Part I: Introduction
to the essentials
of online analytics,
measurement
and reporting for
Destination Marketing
Organizations
overview
An integrated, data-driven approach is critical to
sucessful destination marketing
S
ince the emergence of the
Internet as a commercial media
in the mid-1990s, digital has grown
into the dominant marketing and
communications channel for almost all
destinations and hospitality businesses.
In the last decade the availability of powerful analytics tools
has transformed the ability to measure and manage against
users’ behavior. In recent years, enhanced ways to target and
personalize advertising now allow DMOs and businesses to reach
potential travelers with greater precision and accuracy than ever
before. This digital landscape generates ever-growing amounts of
data—on the audience and their location, behavior, interests and
interactions.
For success in destination marketing it is essential to accurately
measure and analyze this data and use these insights to fine tune
every part of the marketing mix.
Effective destination marketing is data-driven marketing.
© Miles 2014 æ MilesPartnership.com
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Data-Driven Destinations
A. DATA-DRIVEN DESTINATIONS:
FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES
Make sure your organization has the right skills and management processes to use data in
smart ways and not to be overwhelmed with “paralysis by analysis.”
Think about these seven principles in developing or reviewing and updating your analytics and reporting plan:
1. Less is More. Start with a clear definition
of what success looks like for your
organization—and narrow your focus to
a small set of critical measurements that
matter the most. See our suggestions
below.
2. Beyond the Click. These success metrics
should focus on the strongest indicators
of interest, engagement and action on
your site—not just response numbers
such as “visits” or “click throughs.”
3. Actionable Analytics. Review your
reporting to make it actionable—what
can you change, improve or refine in your
marketing based on these results? If a
number is interesting but not immediately
actionable, pull these numbers on less
frequent, more in-depth review meetings
quarterly, bi-annually or yearly.
© Miles 2014 æ MilesPartnership.com
4. Iterative Improvement. Focus on making
frequent, small improvements to your website,
campaign or other digital asset.
5. Fast and Flexible. Analytics works best in
an environment that is set up for rapid review,
quick decisions and prompt action. “Learn to
Fail Fast” has always been important in online
marketing success—work hard to make your
technical and creative resources (internal or
agency) ready to react.
6. Integrate Online and Offline. Look for
opportunities to measure both online and
offline campaigns in consistent ways; for
example, combining online traffic measurement
with the reach of traditional media
7. Integrate all Digital Channels. Analytics
needs to include the other digital channels
such as social media and email in your
reporting and analysis.
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Data-Driven Destinations
B. THE RIGHT TOOLS:
YOUR MEASUREMENT TOOL KIT
A Destination Marketing Organization needs the right tools, skills and reporting systems to
monitor and report on the interactions that matter.
Success in using data in smart ways starts with having the right tools. Below we list the 3 core platforms or types
of analytics you will need – plus some additional options being used by many of the best Destination Marketing
Organizations:
1. Google Universal Analytics. A website needs to have Google
Analytics (or another robust online analytics solution such
as Adobe SiteCatalyst) properly installed and set up to
measure important audience, engagement and “Signals
of Intent to Travel.” More: www.google.com/analytics
2. Tracking Codes. Once you have Google Analytics set
up, make sure you use Campaign Tracking Codes on all
online marketing efforts. Using campaign tracking codes
across ALL your online advertising and marketing activities
(eg: email and social media posts that link to your website)
allows you to quickly and easily compare the results of all your
online marketing efforts. Campaign tracking codes are typically
automatically added to Google’s own online advertising solutions (eg:
AdWords, Display, etc) but Google Analytics and other analytics solutions
(eg: SiteCatalyst) allows you to quickly set up and use custom campaign
traczking codes for any type of marketing program on any platform.
More: Google’s URL Builder for setting up Campaign Tracking Codes:
www.budurl.com/urlbuilder; more on campaign tracking in
www.Google Analytics
UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS. If you haven’t already
upgraded, consider the best time to move to
Google’s new Universal Analytics. Universal
Analytics is still free but introduces significant
enhancements including multi-device
tracking (eg: for users on mobile vs. desktop)
and the ability to set up custom events and
to integrate with other data sources. Research
the issues to consider in managing the
upgrade at www.google.com/analytics
© Miles 2014 æ MilesPartnership.com
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Data-Driven Destinations
3. Social Media and Email
Measurement. Google Analytics
offers reporting on the behavior of
site visitors clicking through from
your social or email marketing
etc. However, you will need to
compliment this with analytics
of the critical interactions that
take place on your social media
channels and in Email. Whether
it is your email reporting platform
- or your social media channels –
Facebook and YouTube Insights,
Twitter Analytics etc – define some
clear audience, engagement and
Signals of Intent to travel that
makes sense for that platform.
Optional:
4. Retargeting Tags. A growing
range of online advertising
platforms allow you to target your
advertising and content on a huge
range of third-party websites
including social media, media and
more. Leveraging Retargeting
Tags allows you to specifically
target past users of your site, in
addition to other demographic and
behavioral characteristics.
© Miles 2014 æ MilesPartnership.com
5. Audience Measurement Solutions
eg: Quantcast. Free audience
measurement and targeting solutions
such as Quantcast allow you to drill
down into the specific demographic
characteristics of your site users (age,
gender, income, family status) and to
then target similar users on other sites
(“lookalikes”).
6. Tag Manager. A tag manager is a
“container” or specific block of code on
your website where you can place and
more easily manage all the third-party
code on your site: analytics, retargeting
and advertising tags, etc. A solution
such as Google Tag Manager allows
you and your agency partners to more
easily add, update and remove code to
you site in an controlled environment,
minimizing the risk of conflicts and
redundant tags that are no longer being
used but can slow your site.
7. Trackable Phone Numbers.
Depending on your destination, adding
trackable phone numbers may also
be valuable (eg: for measuring calls
to your visitor center or to industry
partners where calls volumes are
high). Trackable phone numbers allow
you to measure and report on offline
response generated from marketing and
advertising both online and in traditional
media. Voice over Internet (VOIP)
technology now means that a bank of
phone numbers can be purchased at
a low cost and individual numbers are
assigned to each marketing channel or
advertisement. Such tracking can be
particularly important to accommodation
properties (especially boutique lodges,
B&Bs and luxury resorts) where the
industry on average is still generating
less than 40% of all bookings online
(though greater than 90% of travelers
research online). **
»» For a set of trackable
phone numbers, talk to your
telecommunication provider or visit a
reporting platform provider such as
Mongoose or Marchex. Some online
platforms such as Google AdWords
and ReachLocal offer integrated online
analytics and trackable phone call
reporting.
**Source: PhoCusWright Online Travel Report 2013,
www.phocuswright.com
5
Data-Driven Destinations
C. WHAT TO MEASURE:
AN ANALYTICS FRAMEWORK
Marketers should monitor, measure and report on their audience, engagement and
Signals of Intent to Travel across the full travel planning process.
With your Measurement Tool Kit you now need to define the specific areas and interactions you will be tracking and
reporting upon. In developing this list, start by thinking of measurement data as three distinct but inter-related types:
Measurements x 3
Audience. Measures the
reach of your marketing efforts:
Signals of Intent to Travel.
Called “Goals” in Google Analytics,
responses, click throughs, visits,
these are the success events that
users or user sessions are all
indicate a higher level of interest
examples of audience metrics.
and specific trip planning behavior
such as checking out pricing and availability
or reviewing deals. Signals of Intent to Travel
Engagement. This term refers to
Audience
Engagement
Signals of Intent to Travel
(or Goals - Conversions)
the depth and quality of the user
experience including bounce
rates, page views per visit and
time on site for a website and
related impact and engagement metrics for
social media marketing activities on such
platforms as Facebook and Twitter.
© Miles 2014 æ MilesPartnership.com
(SITs) are the most important metrics against
which to measure the results and ROI of
marketing activities. Ideally, these events
should be research‐based, closing the loop
through an independent conversion study
and/or by working with a campaign partner
such as Sojern or Adara that offer rich airline
and hotel booking data.
6
Data-Driven Destinations
Examples of Audience,
Engagement and SIT
Measurements—
Web, Social, Email
This is only an example; you should
customize the specific measurements to
your marketing objectives and plan.
*These metrics in particular need to be customized to the specific
objectives and design of your website—based on the audience
needs and the specific outcomes you are seeking from its features,
functionality and content.
© Miles 2014 æ MilesPartnership.com
Category of
Metrics
Examples
of Metrics
Audience
Engagement
Goals or Signals
of Intent to Travel
Website Visits.
Year on Year
Home Page
Bounce Rate
XX Pages per Visit*
Repeat vs. New
Visits
Overall Site
Bounce Rate*
Referrals to Partner
Websites
Visits from
Key Target
Geographic
Markets
Time on Site*
Checking Pricing
and Availability
Mobile Visits (%)
Page Views
per Visit*
Viewing Deals
Sources of Traffic:
Campaigns,
Organic Search,
Referrals, Direct,
Email, Social
Social Media
Engagement,
eg: Likes,
Shares, ReTweets
Ordering a Visitor
Guide and/or Signing
Up for an Email
Newsletter
Social Media
Audience
Measurements
Email Click
Throughs
Social Media Signal,s
eg: Comments
indicating travel
Email Opens
Bookings
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Data-Driven Destinations
D. INTEGRATED ONLINE
MEASUREMENT AND MANAGEMENT
Marketers should collect and review consistent
performance metrics for each area of
online (ad offline) marketing efforts
and then fine tune and move budget
between channel based on results.
Once you have collected consistent metrics
across marketing activities then you can
review and compare performance by
Audience, Engagement and all-important
Signals of Intent to Travel. Use this
measurement to fine-tune activity within
each channel (eg: improving ad creative or
testing and optimizing landing pages) and
also to reallocate resources and budgets
between marketing channels. For example,
based on key metrics such as Cost per Goal
Conversion (cost per Signal of Intent to Travel)
you can compare the results and ROI of each
marketing activity—moving money from bottom
performing areas to top performing channels.
© Miles 2014 æ MilesPartnership.com
8
Data-Driven Destinations
E. SUMMARY: TAKE OUR TEST
Take this eight-question test to quickly review how advanced you are in becoming a
Data-Driven Destination and to identify areas in which to focus.
Take the test below and score yourself between 0 and 2 for each question. A score of 0 means little or no
action has been taken; 1 highlights partial completion; and 2 signifies you are largely or fully complete on this
area of analytics and reporting.
1. Stakeholder Participation:
We have a clear, shared vision
of what “success” means in
marketing
5. Market Performance: We
track key market measures
and match them to campaign
activity.
2. Robust Took Kit: Our
organization/agency partners
have the right tools and skills to
measure what matters.
6. Competitive Intelligence: We
track, review and benchmark
our competitors’ actions.
3. Goals that Matter: We
measure against at least three
Goals or Signals of Intent to
Travel in our analytics.
4. Agile Advertising: We test,
review and continually refine
campaigns based on analytics.
© Miles 2014 æ MilesPartnership.com
7. Metrics Workflow: We have
established processes for who
does what when including
regular reporting.
8. Actionable Analytics: Our key
reporting is accessible, clear
and consistent—and focused
around action.
SCORING
12+ = You are a Ninja of
Numbers
9-11 = You are a Data Diva
in Waiting
5-8 = You are Tracking on
Training Wheels
0-4 = You are a Slumbering
Statistician (and it’s time to
wake up!)
9
Data-Driven Destinations
more
resources
»» Google Analytics:
www.google.com/analytics
»» Miles White Papers (including those listed above):
www.milespartnership.com/library
»» Miles Blog (including a wide range of posts on analytics, some of which
are outlined below): www.milespartnership.com/blog
›› “Making Life Easy with Google Tag Manager” by Monica Hare:
http://www.milespartnership.com/blog/making-life-easier-with-googletag-manager
›› “Universal Analytics Update” by Monica Hare:
http://www.milespartnership.com/blog/update-on-googles-universalanalytics
›› “Global Mobil Readiness Index” by Chris Adams
http://www.milespartnership.com/blog/how-mobile-ready-are-dmos-theglobal-mobile-readiness-index
»» Think With Google—Campaign Planning Tools:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/tools/
»» 10 Smartest Web Analytics Tools—AmEx Open Forum:
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/
the-10-smartest-web-analytics-tools/
»» Mountain Travel Symposium, Data-Driven Destination Presentation, March
2014. Chris Adams of Miles, Chris DallaVilla of BCF and Jan Freitag of STR.
© Miles 2014 æ MilesPartnership.com
10
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CONTACTS
Research: Chris Adams; Tel: 941-342-2323;
Email: [email protected]
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Angie Briggs; Tel: 941-342-2373;
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