Tips & Guide
Should I Continue Investing in Mobile Marketing Even if My Cost-Per Acquisition is Very Low?
Mobile marketing has achieved a staggering dominance in recent years, with the growth of mobile-first browsing and search providing more and more opportunities for getting your hotel in front of mobile customers. However, the cost per acquisition (CPA) often prevents hoteliers and hotel marketers from engaging with this important new development.
If you’re weighing up the gains you make through mobile marketing with the results, you might be tempted to switch your marketing focus. But you’d be making a mistake. Over half of online traffic today comes from mobile sources and it’s a figure that’s still growing. As consumers seek to access information while on the go, you could miss out on those all-important prospects and room reservations if you’re not embracing the digital revolution.
Why Mobile Marketing Is Important for Hotels
There has been a growth in the number of web browsers finding and reserving their hotel stays via mobile technology. Previously, mobile browsing might have been limited to research but improving security and better access means that more travellers are putting their personal and payment details into mobile devices.
Frequently on-the-go, hotel guests now require marketing to reach them where they are, rather than expecting them to passively find out about products and services via broader-based methods. Mobile provides the ideal solution for ultra-targeted hotel advertising strategies, which can cut through the noise and provide heavy audience segmentation. This appeals to hoteliers eager to expand their hotel marketing solutions and improve their conversion rate.
Relevance of CPA
A low cost per acquisition (CPA) could lead you to believe that your ads are under-performing but in actual fact a low cost per acquisition is an aspect of maintaining a healthy quality score.
A low CPA does not necessarily suggest your ads are lacking in relevance, though it could indicate that you need to revise your current strategy to maximise output. The way that you should judge your engagement will vary, depending on the mobile marketing method used. However, the cost of acquiring a new customer who takes part in real, revenue-boosting activities after viewing your ads is likely to develop over time if the ads are adequately effective in appealing to their target audience.
Investing in Mobile Marketing
The cost of investment presents a concern for many hotel marketers, but this should not present a barrier for hotels with ambitious plans or for those where their target audience is frequently found on mobile.
Mobile is particularly important for marketers looking to break into tech-savvy markets with their hotel offering, such as targeting the millennial generation. It’s also arguable that at the current rate technological change, mobile marketing, regardless of the resultant CPA, is still a very worthwhile investment for hoteliers.
Nonetheless, keeping your CPA low is likely to be a key factor in determining the level of mobile-first activities your hotel indulges in. However, it shouldn’t prevent your hotel from investing should you see your hotel as having a future in the mobile marketing space, allowing you to develop a solid foundation to build on.