Question

If I own a tour company in one city (so all my traffic will be tourists from all over searching for a tour in this city before visiting) is it better on google ads to target All countries and territories with People in, or who show interest in, your targeted locations or my city with target set as People searching for your targeted locations?  

Answer 1

Depends on your budget and the ticket price of your tour. At base, I recommend in-destination, targeted to people visiting, usually within a strict geo area. (Depending on city down to zip code. ) Then if you have the budget, layer in another campaign targeted to key feeder markets (based on your google analytics data) or regional drive radius.  

Comments

Ok then, I would consult your analytics before build and line up campaigns with your top lead times/city sources of conversion. The industry data on digital tour bookings points to a bigger tendency towards in destination bookings, the lower the ticket price goes. In my experience (digital tourism agency), this lines up. Great question too! Digital tourism marketing is a completely different beast! Different click paths to conversion, and less reliance on repeat buyers than standard industries.  

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TA, Expedia, and all of the other OTA’s are currently at war with Google now becoming a tour search engine too, so re: ppc, it’s getting pretty cut throat and driving up keyword bids massively in some instances. Since Google My Biz tour company listings started offering the “book now” button right off the search page, eliminating the need for users to click through to a site, it’s been a massive shift. From a very general standpoint, I’d then say in your case to aim for in destination geo, bid on your own name to push the OTA’s down for sure, and focus on terms that they have you listed. How do they differentiate you from competitors? How do they positon you? Use those terms, then go exact match or broad match + Good luck!  

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Do you use a GMB integration friendly res system like Fareharbor? If so, you can get them directly on changing that. And I totally get where you are coming from. It’s been a proactive pivot point for many of my clients too. If you need any more pointers or would like to chat it out, happy to help. You can reach me by writing the Von Mack Agency page if need be. Another great resource is the Tourpreneur for Tour Operators/Tour Professionals group. Cheers.  

Answer 2

I think you A/B test it with 25% of your budget, take notes, kill the loser, and have better long term success