Ai Editorial: Flight search – cracking the code of “revealing intent”

Ai Editorial: Airlines need to address basic issues to make the most of search traffic and tapping it for ancillary revenue generation. Ai’s Ritesh Gupta studies 5 issues

Is search entirely about intent? Why it is important to assess what the user did to get to an airline’s website or a particular page? Is it time to consider Google to be an OTA?

These are some pertinent questions that airlines need to address as one tries to capitalize on traffic emanating from search. With OTAs and meta-search engines excelling in making deft use of search marketing, it is not an easy task for travel suppliers to compete.

But as a specialist in this arena, Seth Cassel, president, EveryMundo, believes airlines can forge ahead with sustainable strategies instead of trying to do SEO “transactionally”, as in “a dollar in, a dollar out.”  

One of the interesting developments has been the emergence of the “Book On Google” option.

“We are not convinced that Google wants to become an OTA,” says Cassel. He adds, “Regardless, what we see right now is that organic search still drives the plurality of traffic from search engines, and that paid search is still capturing more clicks than Google Flights. That could change, but so far it has not created a fundamentally different search landscape. If anything it underscores the importance of having performance website infrastructure that can be leveraged for SEO and other direct channel marketing strategies, like paid search and email.”

We will build on this, and here are 5 issues that airlines need to address:

1. Evaluating what the user did to get to the page: One needs to consider the source of traffic when making decisions about what offers to make to certain users as they land on a website. As Cassel recommends, it is important to step out of the purchase funnel and ask, “How can I identify as early as possible the wants and needs of the user and present them with experiences and information that ultimately improves the likelihood that I get them on my airplane?” Because if they do not fly on your plane, they do not buy ancillary products. So the primary goal is to convert visitors into passengers. If airlines understand where their traffic comes from, they can leverage information about how and where they acquired passengers and then present those users with very specific purchase experiences tailored to what is known about them.

Cassel says not all respective passengers should necessarily have the same experience or be offered the same products as they reach an airline’s website. “Currently, there is a heavy focus on profiling individuals once they have shared information or interacted heavily with an airline, and good technology is also available to leverage the activity and information provided by the user,” he says. “Looking at the source of the traffic to the airline’s website and looking at what the user did to get to the page -- not just what the user does once they arrive at the website – can provide good insights into ancillary opportunities and that customer’s intentions with the airline.”

2. Assessing user intent: It is important for airlines to know that search is not entirely about intent, says Cassel. “It is about revealing intent – and that is different. As the marketer and provider of your service, you simply need to match a user’s intent with honesty about what products and services you are selling,” explains Cassel. The goal is not to reach every customer on a highly individualized basis. Airlines have to be honest about the demand for and availability of their products, and leverage available tools and technology to measure the potential.
    

An airline that flies to only 10 cities, for example, cannot expect to drive millions and millions in revenue from nationwide search because it simply cannot sell that much. There are also limitations based on language, geography, and the quality of the infrastructure an airline presents to its audience. If someone is searching for things to do in Miami, for example, an airline can make an attempt to sell them a flight, but the opportunity might be very slight. Trying to get in front of a user like that is going to be expensive and limited in its ability to return revenue because there are lots of other properties willing to spend more money to get that person’s attention online. 

“The flip side of that is for airlines to be aggressive about spending and growth effectiveness. Airlines should be looking at the competitive environment to see what they have to offer. Look at the website infrastructure, functionality, and online tools to drive and enhance performance. Make investments in sustainable strategies instead of trying to do SEO “transactionally”, as in “a dollar in, a dollar out.”,” says Cassel.   

3. Keywords and mistakes: The most common mistakes are lack of discipline, lack of granularity, and reliance on very broad-stroke approaches. Cassel says search engine marketing today is so competitive on a global basis that the only way to do it effectively and continue to improve performance is to build -- from the outset -- very specific, highly granular campaigns. “Then airlines can move into micro-optimization, high-performance issues, campaign management improvement and stability. But without that early discipline and granularity as a base, airlines will not have the rich data they need later on for visibility and continued improvement,” he says. Also, airlines do not need to have a full-service infrastructure in a given language to execute paid strategies in that language. Other shortcomings are lack of a global view of search. Explaining the same, Cassel points out:  If you are a passenger sitting in Miami who wants want to fly from Paris to Madrid, why shouldn’t you be able to make that purchase in your language, whether that is English, Spanish, French, or something else? Airlines can usually find a lot of opportunities in the long tail by going after that kind of traffic on a global basis.

4. When your direct channel falls short: The reality is that airlines offer flights, says Cassel. They should perceive flights as what the user is looking for, and try to match the product-specific online strategies of the best retailers in the world. “Ancillary opportunities are often flight-specific or localized in nature. So the natural follow-on is that airlines can improve ancillary sales by improving conversion within the context of the individual flights they offer. If the airline already knows and has an understanding of what a passenger is looking for, they should automatically deliver products and service offerings based on what is important to that passenger and that flight, especially if the goal is to improve revenue and improve service.” Airlines should launch dedicated pages for every route they fly, in every language they market, and in every market they operate. Importantly, this is not just about organic and paid search – it’s about pointing all cross-channel marketing efforts including email, remarketing and social media toward infrastructure that matches the users’ specific intent.

5. Improving messages/ content for ads: Adding key messaging into ad copy is a very powerful way to improve click-through rates and engagement with copy, and to move visitors further down the purchase funnel. Airlines can leverage content to entice users through incrementally more information, and have them come to the airline as slightly more informed users, based on personalized or user-specific information. The flip side is that there is an opportunity to use content and messaging to qualify the user away from the airline’s website. If someone in Dallas searches for flights to London, and your airline offers London flights only from New York and Chicago, the airline should add that info in the ad copy, because otherwise airlines pay for traffic that they really cannot follow through on. Airlines can entice and inform users to encourage them to come to the website for the right reasons, and also provide them with qualifying information to avoid costly but unproductive visits to the website.