According to Marchex, a digital call advertising company, mobile callers convert at much higher rates than PC users when it comes to travel. More specifically, the company’s report found that call-based conversions were more than 25 percent for rental cars and more than 20 percent for hotels.
The study also found that callers from mobile ads and desktop ads converted best at noon. While desktop users converted better during the afternoon, mobile callers converted better in the evening hours.
Marchex notes that PC users are usually starting their research or conducting casual travel research, making them higher up the funnel than mobile callers. Travel companies should take heed if they aren’t paying attention to the value of mobile callers.
“Just as teams of analysts at these companies go to great lengths to understand online data for sales attribution and site optimization, mobile call data should be rigorously analyzed and factored into campaign management, operational improvements and service-offering refinements,” Marchex notes in its report.
Marchex notes that 62 percent of the 15,000 calls analyzed for the study were regarding customer service, or were misdials and disconnects.