In spite of the unique challenges (and decreases in personnel) faced by our marketing organization as a result of COVID, we have still managed to continue to market to potential guests at all stages in the purchase funnel by providing (and pivoting to) engaging content, targeted advertisements, and inspirational PR.
The Impact of the Pandemic on our Social Media Program
Social media clicks increased in terms of percentage to traffic to our websites, and also served to support communications to guests during the dynamic openings/closings/service changes during the pandemic. While other traffic sources to our websites largely decreased, social media traffic showed an increase.
2020 Social Media Metrics
79,818,061 Impressions (the number of times that our content was displayed to viewers)
4,666,353 Engagements (the number of times that users engaged with our posts)
5.8% engagement rate (per impression)
A Shift in Social Ad Strategy
Since people were unable to travel during the pandemic, I expanded my focus to include people who weren’t working through the logistics of planning an immediate vacation - i.e. those in the “dreaming” stage of vacation planning. We updated our audiences that we were reaching with our paid social media program to focus on potential travelers who were higher in the purchase funnel. I also expanded our advertising to concentrate more resources on our lead generation efforts to add users to our email database so when they are ready to travel, we’ll be ready to market to them.
Results
Engagements on ads increased by 76%
Clicks increased by 15.5%
Total spend decreased by 34%
Total impressions increased by .06%
CPM decreased by 34%
CPC decreased by 42.9%