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Booyah! Advertising | Email: info@booyahadvertising.com | Phone: 303-345-6600
POV: Town of Vail
To: Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council (VLMDAC)
Regarding: Town of Vail Paid Search Targeting Strategy – Lodging Keyword Bids
Date: 6/16/14
Overview
An inquiry was submitted to the VLMD board by Nicole Whitaker of Destination Hotels & Resorts and
Manor Vail Lodge requesting that VLMD share search keywords being bid on along with working together
to ensure that organizations are not competing with each other in the paid search landscape. Ms. Whitaker
informed the board that paid search has become increasingly competitive with typical keywords they
purchase being as high as $6-8.
The Town of Vail utilizes Booyah Online Advertising for paid digital marketing and organic SEO efforts. Paid
search campaigns support the lodging industry by creating an advertising presence for the Town of Vail
that represents all tourism-related organizations and lodging properties in Vail. Paid search efforts display
relevant information to travelers based on their search and direct the traveler to a site experience where
consumers can research, plan and book their vacation via Vail.com’s website.
Booyah and the Town of Vail take great care to represent Vail lodging properties fairly and utilize marketing
dollars efficiently and effectively to drive online lodging bookings as their primary focus.
Strategy
In order to drive lodging bookings via Vail.com’s website, paid search efforts strive to achieve top ranking
positions for travel relevant searches such as “things to do in Vail”, “lodging in Vail” or “hotels in Vail.” The
landscape is competitive with not only the Town of Vail bidding on relevant keywords, but also Online
Travel Aggregators (OTAs), individual lodging properties and lodging organizations.
Booyah has executed and enhanced the paid search bid strategy over the past four years to ensure
maximized search volume, relevancy, quality scores, click-thru-rates and cost-per-click for the Town of Vail.
Booyah achieves continual efficiency gains year after year and supports the lodging growth Vail has
experienced each year. However, the Town of Vail has experienced the same with increasing lodging bid
Booyah! Advertising | Email: info@booyahadvertising.com | Phone: 303-345-6600
prices as Ms. Whitaker indicated with bid costs rising to $6. The majority of this is unavoidable due to OTAs
and research sites such as Trip Advisor bidding on lodging terms.
Competitors
In order to avoid competing against VLMD’s partners and hoteliers, Booyah has carefully restricted
searches for specific properties or organizations to avoid competing against each other and driving up bid
prices.
Many companies compete to advertise not only on general lodging terms but also on brand specific terms.
The Town of Vail has refrained from bidding on company specific search phrases such as “Manor Vail
Lodge” or “Ritz Carlton.” After receiving the inquiry from Ms. Whitaker, Booyah also put in an exclusion
rule specific to “Destination+Resorts+Vail” so paid search campaigns would not compete with these efforts.
The bigger concern for Destination Resorts Vail is their organization name. Bid prices will continue to be
driven up by OTAs, research sites and individual properties because they are targeting searches with
“destination” and “vail” triggered keywords. In the example below, you can see that Trip Advisor, Orbitz,
Expedia, Four Seasons and Destination Resorts Vail all are bidding on that specific search term.
Recommendation
It is Booyah and VLMD’s recommendation to continue with paid search efforts targeting broader Vail
lodging searches and excluding property specific searches. While we are unable to share our keyword and
bid strategy details, individual lodging properties and organizations can be assured that the Town of Vail is
not competing in the space. Instead, the Town of Vail is supporting the lodging and tourism industry by
delivering a relevant experience to potential travelers and promoting lodging as a whole with marketing
dollars.
Examples Below for Reference
Booyah! Advertising | Email: info@booyahadvertising.com | Phone: 303-345-6600
Booyah! Advertising | Email: info@booyahadvertising.com | Phone: 303-345-6600
Booyah! Advertising | Email: info@booyahadvertising.com | Phone: 303-345-6600