Georgia Travel Case Study: How We Promoted Georgia as a Top Tourist Destination

The Solution

To understand the portrait of the target audience in more detail we carried out a comprehensive analysis of data provided by the Georgian National Tourism Administration. As a result, we formed detailed portraits of the most promising audience groups. 

The advertising campaign had a seasonal nature, and was planned to run over winter in two stages to cover 

countries such as: 

1st stage: 15 October - 20 December. Countries: Germany, Poland, Turkey, Spain. 

2nd stage: 01 November - 20 December. Countries: Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kuwait, UAE, Armenia, Belarus.

Search campaign was used to attract a target audience that could be converted into actual tourists. Campaigns were segmented according to geographic criteria to countries and city populations with a high concentration of users, for example: 

- Dubai; 

- Kiev; 

- Moscow;

- Berlin; 

- Frankfurt

and others 

For a maximum coverage our campaigns were divided by the keyword frequency: high, medium and low frequency opportunities. According to these frequencies we set the suitable pricing models. To write the relevant advertising content, the keywords were split into several logical groups. 

For Germany, Poland, Turkey, Spain, Kuwait, UAE we used the keywords and the text ads in their native languages. of these countries as well as in English. We used these text ads in several ways and some headlines contained dynamic keyword insertion which had a positive impact on CTR as well as on the average cost per click. 

Improvements in the pricing models, which were based on locations, allowed us to win auctions more often and show these advertisements positions higher in selected cities. 

It was necessary to optimize expenses and to balance ratio; "quality traffic - optimal cost per click", as the competition in this category is very high. This was achieved by turning off the advertisements with low level of CTR, correct- ing the pricing models, using custom ads scheduling and showing the advertisements at the most effective time. 

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The Display Networks campaigns goal: to reach the target audience and increase brand awareness. 

We picked up the following types of targeting: 

- audiences based on user interests; 

- websites of a certain topical areas; 

- manually selected placements; 

- keywords targeting on websites content; 

- placing ads on the homepage of Yandex.ua. 

Together this strategy allowed us to reach the maximum number of users from the target audience and using several variants of pricing models according to the time of day, age and gender which allowed us to fully achieve the set KPI.

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We also created an advertising campaign in VKontakte for users from Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Through the API of this social network, which allows to define the narrow segments of users, we analyzed and divided the following topical audiences: 

1) "The Travelers" are users who visited VKontakte from two different countries over the past year. Selected audiences were further segmented by gender. For each segment, we made a breakdown by age: 

- less than 18; 

- 19-25; 

- 26-35; 

- more than 36. 

2) Users who are in the follow thematic communities: 

- air travel and air tickets; 

- travel deals and discounts; 

- travels. 

3) Based on the user interests: 

- leisure; 

- travels; 

- culture. 

In the course of the project, we made the A/ B-testing for different audiences, to ensure maximum efficiency within the agreed KPI. 

Here are some of the examples which provided the best results:

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For campaigns using Facebook these were analyzed and divided in the following topical audiences: 

- "Based on the user interests": tourism, travel, leisure, ski resorts, snowboarding/skiing; 

- Travelers, who cross the border a minimum of twice a year; 

- Users with an average income and higher (owning a car, mobile devices iOS, MacBook). 

Video ads were designed for all segments and all type of users for the maximum attraction of this target audience and for increasing user's loyalty to the brand Georgia Travel. 

Also, in the course of this campaign, we created A/B-testing for different advertisements with a view to optimizing the campaign using feedback from the previous and most effective ads.

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At the end of all campaigns, in the social media and in the search services, the positive results, within the agreed KPI, were obtained. Moreover, over-fulfillment equals 15%. It also had a serious impact on tourism indicators - the number of tourist arrivals in Georgia this year increased by 12% for the first time in last 3 years.