With ~50% of tours and experiences booked within 48 hours of travel, how do you target clients on the move without leaving the ones at home behind who are still in the consideration phase? Through case studies and sharing insights from successes and failed tests, you'll learn: - How to set up multi-use campaigns for international consumers - How to create a forecasting model using your own data to predict demand - When to call it quits on unsuccessful international targeting.

1. Here and There:
PPC for Consumers on the Move
and Around the Globe
Rachel Vandernick | Acquisition Marketing Manager | @vandernickr

2. Learner Outcomes
After this session, you will be able to:
● Build a forecasting model to better anticipate product demand peaks
● Understand the importance of time delays in purchase behavior
● Know when to call it quits on tests + targeting

3. Global PPC Challenges
● Distracted consumers
● Currency fluctuations + conversions
● Fixed start/stop times related to travel
● Budget constraints for consumers [tourists]

4. Where We Went Awry
● Built campaigns with the wrong modifier
● Assumed we fully understood booking seasonality nuance and that booking
behavior was static year-to-year
● Bid as though seasonality was consistent country-to-country
● Bottom line: Went with our “gut”, and what we “knew” to be true—not
with facts based in real consumer purchase data that we pressure
tested

5. What is a Demand Forecast Model?
Budget Tool + Growth Planning + Consumer Demand

6. Create a Demand Forecast Model
Where does the data come from?
● Heat maps by region/product
● Uncovered nuanced variations for locations we had long-held, but
inaccurate, truths
● Choose your strongest sets of data and narrow your range
● Ignore the irrelevant

7. Importance of Time Delays
“When do you need a kayak paddle?”

8. Importance of Time Delays
● Know your impacting factors:
● Ex: What will people purchase first, a flight or an activity?
● Understand the buying cycle of your related products
● Capitalize on promos in related industries that influence purchase behavior
● Booking behavior is fluid + dynamic + seasonal

9. How to Create a Forecasting Model
Choose your data sources:
● Consumer purchase behavior
● Trends in searches
● Peaks in bids/impression share max out
Layer with increasing point values.
● The warmer the color, the greater your need to bid aggressively

10. Demand Forecast Model Draft
Turn this —>

11. Demand Forecast Model Final
Into This —>

12. A Note on Time Delays + Forecast Models
● Consider building a ramp-up schedule
● Prorate your total spend for the product based on time delays + demand
● Which is more important to your business:
● Aggressive bidding + consumer capture during peak OR
● Continuous presence year-round

13. Capturing Last-Minute Volume
Profit vs. Performance
● When does it make sense to intentionally take a loss?
● Text ads vs remarketing
● Importance of regimented and documented testing
● Consider CPA as fluid, not fixed

14. Do We Call It Quits?
● Go back to P&L
● Losses leading to losses
● Which audiences are not converting?
● Turn PPC losses into SEO wins
● Establish a “quit-mas” [quitting litmus]
● Failing without learning

15. My Big Failure

16. What’s Happening?
Campaign: What’s Happening [in location]
Quit-mus Test: Big fail, abandon ship
Cause: Event-driven, not attraction-driven. Instant book only [next day or less]
Targeting: In-country, in-market
Fix: Abandon PPC and turn into downloadable content for lead [email] generation

17. Easy Wins Abroad
● RLSA
● Retargeting & Dynamic Remarketing
● Radius/zipcode targeting
● The value of “brand”

18. Steal These Ideas
● Create a demand forecast model to uncover nuance in bookings curve
● Check your gut with facts. Don’t assume what was true last year remains true
right now.
● Consider taking a loss on text ads, but set a limit
● Use your data to find audiences that are already engaged with you
● Pressure test successes, learn from failures