The measure of success in modern tourism and travel marketing appeared simple in previous years: reach as many people as possible, keep the impressions climbing, and the website traffic high in the hope that a chunk of that audience will eventually book a stay.
Yet in today’s competitive market, the reality of earning ROI on digital marketing looks much different, as reach and traffic alone no longer cut it. Today, the brands that inspire visitors to book, stay, and most importantly, return, are the winners in a highly competitive online booking marketplace.
It’s a reality Jasmine Firth, senior digital marketing manager at global hospitality marketing agency three&six, knows better than most.
Since 2019, the agency has carved out a reputation for helping destination and experience-driven hotel brands adapt to a new “conversion era”, a performance-driven reality where every strategy is measured not in clicks but in loyalty.
READ MORE: From the beat to the boardroom: How Ben Hanley built three&six into a global marketing agency
“In previous years, the emphasis was very much on ‘putting heads in beds’, improving occupancy rates and maximising direct bookings to decrease the cost of acquisition,” explains Firth.
“It’s important to push reach and build brand awareness, but in this day and age, brands need to prioritise visitors who stay, leave a great review, and return. After all, reach is cheap, intent is expensive, but repeat loyalty is priceless (and very profitable!)”
In the past, agencies could showcase dashboards of clicks and impressions as proof of success. As Firth explains, those days are over as the rise of AI and new conversational models has accelerated the shift towards conversions, rather than clicks. With tools like ChatGPT at their fingertips, clients now have more access to hotels’ marketing data than ever before.
“Clients are no longer looking for vanity metrics alone; today, their priority is to measure success beyond traffic or clicks by focusing on conversions.
“Revenue managers already know who their visitors are, when and how long they are going to stay; however, they don’t know what influenced the guest to choose their property. If you run multiple campaigns through multiple agencies at the same time, you run the risk of one agency claiming credit due to their 10-year attribution window.
“Another example could be a customer who previously booked via an OTA [Online Travel Agents] and then decided to book direct on their next visit through your website. Analytics will indicate that it’s a new guest when in reality, it’s the same loyal guest.
“At three&six, our core philosophy is ‘digital without dishonesty‘, and we do more than talk the talk; we always provide clients with a truthful representation of all influencing factors for a campaign’s success and/or failure.
“We use different sources of data to create a fuller understanding of the customer journey and how we can use this information to bring guests back again and again. Lifetime value should be a regular feature of client conversations, as this allows you to determine the true ROI on your ad spend and allocate your marketing budget more efficiently.
”This means marketers aren’t just reporting, they’re interpreting, connecting data points, and building strategies that directly influence business outcomes.”
Three&six sees AI as an opportunity for everyone. For clients, AI is a tool to query results and to better understand the data, and for agencies, it’s a way to react faster.
“Everybody uses AI differently,” she says. “We are looking into how we can use AI to spot insights faster and be ahead of the game.”
For instance, if there’s a trend in Google Search that might influence how many people are visiting a property or if something “catastrophic” has happened in the area, the agency can use AI to identify those signals and adjust their strategy “much faster than before”.
“Our strategies go the extra mile…”
Conversions and retention aren’t driven by marketing alone. They hinge on the strength of the partnership between the agency and the property, plus a cohesive strategy.
“Retention is a team sport,” says Firth. “We can give clients information and strategic ideas, but it’s reliant on the property to listen to those ideas. For example, if reviews keep mentioning ‘no parking,’ but this frequent complaint isn’t addressed, then your marketing team can help push the users to your website, but not necessarily through the door.”
Three&six’s structure is designed to make that relationship tighter. Unlike agencies that separate strategists from account managers, the person running a client’s campaigns at three&six is the same person speaking directly to the hotel or destination brand.
“The person who’s living in your ads account is the same person who’s speaking to the client,” Firth explains. “I think that’s a really important part of the relationship and this partnership makes it possible for our strategies to go the extra mile.”
One example of this approach in action comes from a luxury glamping client. With no direct competitors nearby, due to their unique offering proposition, the challenge was to attract new guests and keep them coming back.
The solution was an experience-led campaign built around stargazing.
“A challenge in the hospitality industry is convincing the guest to visit the same location more than once. Whether it’s the fantastic service, home-cooked breakfast, or Egyptian cotton sheets, experiences can be unforgettable and effective drivers of repeat business,” she explains.
“We knew that there were hundreds of hotels in the area around this property, but the reason many guests would choose to stay here was the experience of escaping to nature, turning off your devices, and sharing s’mores under the stars. So, we set up a campaign linked to a weather API.
“Whenever clear skies were forecasted, our campaign would appear in search results saying: ‘Sleep under the stars, clear skies forecasted next week.’ As a result, they were able to capture a customer that’s not just visiting for the location, but for the opportunity to make memories with their families – one which many would love to repeat each year.
“By tapping into intent and emotion, this campaign quickly became our highest revenue generator, whilst also helping us to create a list of loyal fans for the brand. Our campaign proved that guests weren’t just booking a bed; they were buying into an experience, and I look forward to watching them return next year.”
Post-Covid pressures
The pandemic reshaped most industries, but unsurprisingly, the tourism market was one of the hardest hit, forcing hotels, destination and experience brands to adapt.
“It varies by location, but the hospitality industry has been impacted by the pandemic,” says Firth. “The leisure market experienced a revival, but the corporate market’s recovery has been slower in comparison. Tighter budget constraints and more people working from home are just two factors leading to lower corporate travel.
“This means a hotel that previously targeted corporate customers may need to adapt their strategy and target leisure customers. With more hotels fishing from a smaller bucket of customers, the industry has become more competitive.”
As the fight for conversions has become fiercer, the need to adapt strategy quickly has never been more important.
Three top tips for brands
So what should hotels and destination brands do to thrive in the conversion era? Firth points to three top tips tied to loyalty:
- Invest in a ‘strong’ CRM: “Having a strong CRM allows you to understand your customer in depth.”
By creating detailed customer profiles, you can personalise adverts, be more specific with your targeting, which can lead to lower CPCs and a “much higher likelihood of conversion”. - Connect the dots: Hotel brands may exist on multiple channels, from Google Ads, direct website visits and OTAs, but sometimes marketers don’t “consider how each channel interacts”.
“A key part of understanding and boosting conversions is ensuring that you establish systems to collect data across multiple platforms, whether that’s through GA4, or loyalty programmes, and analysing this cross-collaboration in an actionable way.” - Be strategic with online travel agents [OTAs]: While online booking platforms are unavoidable, they shouldn’t dominate a property’s channel mix, especially if the focus is on converting and retaining repeat customers.
“Consider this example: a guest visits your site by clicking on three different ads before converting. Even though you will be charged for the three clicks, it will still cost less than if you acquired the customer through an OTA, due to high commission fees.
“In addition to cheaper costs, acquiring direct customers enables you to own the guest’s data, enabling you to leverage your loyalty programs to boost repeat business.
“However, the vital ingredients required for this strategy to work include showing up to the right customer, at the right time, through the right channel, and having a full understanding of the user so that you can boost the likelihood of conversion.”
The road ahead
The conversion era demands more than campaigns. As cookies shift and data gaps widen, building loyalty programs, capturing first-party data, and connecting every touchpoint will become ‘critical’.
“To compete effectively and make every click count, you need to connect all elements of your strategy,” Firth stresses.
“At three&Six, we’re proud to offer multiple services, including SEO, social media, web design, PPC and more. We don’t just stack services; we sync them, allowing us to create a truly cohesive strategy. Through shared information, strong, transparent relationships with our clients and forward-thinking strategies, we can transform a casual clicker into your most loyal customer.”
For travel and tourism brands, traffic is no longer the sole measure of success. What matters most is what happens next: whether guests book, stay, and return.
