Source/Campaign/Medium GuestRequest examples

Matteo Dalle Feste

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Dec 20, 2016, 6:54:01 AM12/20/16

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As requested, this is a running example of the actual implementation for Source/Campaign/Medium tags used into: www.dolomiti.it

The code:

</HotelReservationIDs>

...

<CompanyName Code="DOLOMITI" CodeContext="DOLOMITI">Dolomiti.it s.r.l.</CompanyName>

<AddressLine>Schlachthofstraße , 65</AddressLine>

<CityName>Bolzano</CityName>

</AddressInfo>

<Email>in...@dolomiti.it</Email>

</CompanyInfo>

</Profile>

</ProfileInfo>

</Profiles>

On AsaJHotel we can see:

David Mair Spiess

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Feb 15, 2017, 9:26:11 AM2/15/17

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We have discussed the proposed structure with our advertising team and came up with a few minor modifications:

utm_source should be the website name without extension

It would be tedious to filter through the sources if multiple top level domains or extensions are in use by the company.

trivago.de => trivago
travago.it => trivago

google.it => google

bookingsuedtirol.com => bookingsuedtirol
bookingaltoadige.com => bookingsuedtirol

1. b. Search Engine Organic

We would change utm_medium to "organic" instead of "Search Engine Organic" to align to what Google uses in Adwords

utm_source = google
utm_medium = organic

1. c. Search Engine Paid

We would change utm_medium to "cpc" instead of "Google cpc OR facebook cpc" as the website name is already present in utm_source

utm_source = google

utm_medium = cpc

1. d. Meta Search Engine

Another interesting example of a meta search engine would be Google Hotel Finder.

Google Hotel Finder was integrated in the search engine directly and we wonder how to distinguish it from Search Engine Paid.

Our proposal looks like the following

utm_source = google
utm_medium = hotel_finder

Matthias Ebner

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Feb 15, 2017, 1:01:29 PM2/15/17

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To me it does not seem to be a good idea to remove the top level domain because you lose important information. It makes a difference if a visitor is coming from google.de or google.co.uk.

Same thing if you buy a banner at somedomain.de and buy another banner at somedomain.nl.

It is even much more difficult if you want to have the same source identifier for different domains (bookingsuedtirol.com, bookingaltoadige.com). In this case you must do some kind of mapping and you have to improve your mapping whenever a domain changes. In my opinion even in this case there should be two different sources.

The proof for this is very simple: even the site owner decided to host two different versions of the website under two different domains... it is not the same.

For search engine organic i would suggest:
utm_source = google, bing, ...
utm_medium = search_engine

When you see all the different mediums it is difficult to understand what "organic" stands for.

I suggest the following instead:

email, cpc, social_media, hotel_finder, affiliate, qr_code, print, search_engine

david....@hgv.it

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Sep 12, 2017, 10:12:23 AM9/12/17

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At the last board meeting some of the members expressed their unhappiness about the the currently proposed guest request examples as it reflects only online marketing specific use cases but leaves unanswered the very important question *where* the original enquiry/booking came from. This doesn't have to be necessarily a website but can also be an offline acquisition.

At the point of writing we map Googles *utm_source*, *utm_medium* and *utm_campaign* parameter and their online marketing specific meanings 1:1 to *ResID_Source*, *ResID_Value* and *ResID_Context*.
This isn't quite enough as we leave the question unanswered *where* an enquiry/booking was created. *utm_source* only tells us *who* (referrer) was responsible for acquiring a guest. To satisfy both needs i would suggest to use *ResID_Source* as location where the enquiry/booking was created,
and combine the referrer informations *utm_source* and *utm_campaign* in *ResID_Context*.

Here is an extended list we came up with. I would like to discuss them with you on thursday. I would also suggest to remove utm_ specific keywords from the documentation as they aren't the same (stated above).

*1. Direct (User typed in domain in address bar)*

ResID_Source=hotelwebsite.com
ResID_Value=website
ResID_Context=

*2. Referral link to hotel site from portal website*

ResID_Source=hotelwebsite.com
ResID_Value=website
ResID_Context=portalwebsite.com

*3. Referral link to hotel site from portal website with campaign infos*

ResID_Source=hotelwebsite.com
ResID_Value=website
ResID_Context=portalwebsite.com/[campaign-name]

*3. Search engine organic (Google)*

ResID_Source=hotelwebsite.com
ResID_Value=website
ResID_Context=google.it

*4. Search engine paid (e.g. Google)*

ResID_Source=hotelwebsite.com
ResID_Value=website
ResID_Context=google.com/[campaign-name] (PS. campaign-name could also include CPC informations)

*5. Social media content link (e.g. Facebook)*

ResID_Source=hotelwebsite.com
ResID_Value=website
ResID_Context=facebook.com

*6. Social media paid (e.g. Facebook Ads)*

ResID_Source=hotelwebsite.com
ResID_Value=website
ResID_Context=facebook.com/[campaign-name] (PS. campaign-name could also include CPC informations)

*7. Newsletter*

ResID_Source=hotelwebsite.com
ResID_Value=website
ResID_Context=[newsletter-name] (e.g. NL 09/2017)

*8. QR Code in magazine*

ResID_Source=hotelwebsite.com
ResID_Value=website
ResID_Context=[magazine-name] (e.g Bergwelten 08/2017)

*9. Bookings/enquiries from metasearches (e.g. Google PriceAds)*

ResID_Source=hotelwebsite.com
ResID_Value=website
ResID_Context=google.com/PriceAds

*10. Bookings/enquiries for metasearch landingpages (e.g. Google PriceAds)*

ResID_Source=landingpage.com
ResID_Value=landingpage
ResID_Context=google.com/PriceAds

*11. Bookings/enquiries on landingpages*

ResID_Source=landingpage.com
ResID_Value=landingpage
ResID_Context=

*12. Bookings/enquiries for metasearch landingpages with campaign informations (e.g. Tripadvisor)*

ResID_Source=landingpage.com
ResID_Value=landingpage
ResID_Context=tripadivsor.com/desktop

*13. Bookings on booking portal (e.g. Booking.com)*

ResID_Source=booking.com
ResID_Value=booking_portal
ResID_Context=

*15. Bookings/enquiries on portals (e.g. suedtirolerland.it)*

ResID_Source=suedtirolerland.it
ResID_Value=portal
ResID_Context=

*16. Bookings/enquiries hotel owner gets per mail*

ResID_Source=hotel
ResID_Value=email
ResID_Context=

*17. Bookings/enquiries hotel owner gets per phone*

ResID_Source=hotel
ResID_Value=phone
ResID_Context=

*18. Guest comes directly to hotel (POS)*

ResID_Source=hotel
ResID_Value=direct
ResID_Context=

*19. Guest comes directly to hotel after beeing at a TV (POS)*

ResID_Source=hotel
ResID_Value=direct
ResID_Context=tv_lana

*20. Guest books directly in TV (POS)*

ResID_Source=tv
ResID_Value=direct
ResID_Context=

Matthias Ebner

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Sep 12, 2017, 11:18:30 AM9/12/17

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You are completely right that the 3 marketing values are not enough. The channel is missing in your description.

I don't think we should change it the way you describe because we can not mix advertising and channel.

A hotel has multiple channels where enquiries and reservations come from:
- own website

- landingpage

- landingpage of an association (vitalpina, familienhotels,...)

- booking.com

- travel agency

- telephone

- direct email

- ...

This channel information is different to the marketing/advertising data.

As you already described in your post we map them like this:

utm_source = ResID_Source = Werbepartner (ASA)

utm_medium = ResID_Value = Werbemedium (ASA)

utm_campaign = ResID_Context = Werbekampagne (ASA)

In my opinion we should NOT change this mapping because these 3 values must contain all advertising information.

We already have the possibility to allocate the channel separately. In the AlpineBits documentation of version 2015-07b on page 27 you can find the node "CompanyInfo" which is used to pass the Travel Agent/Channel. ASA version 16 for example reads this information an allocates it to its field "Buchungskanal".

Not every enquiry or reservation is acquired by a marketing action or campaign. If there was no advertising involved all 3 marketing values should be empty. But you need to know where the reservation comes from. This is the channel.

@David: I would love to discuss this further with you at the AlpineBits Developer Meeting this thursday. I will bring some documentation of how we handle this.

Stephan P.

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Sep 12, 2017, 11:19:21 AM9/12/17

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We already discussed all use cases, online and offline. We decided to use the element CompanyInfo to indicate who generated (created) the enquiry/booking. It seems that you forgot this element in your discussion.

We have:
ResID_Source: indicates where the enquiry/booking comes from (in a marketing sense).
CompanyInfo: indicates who generated the enquiry/booking (booking platform etc.).

I would strongly recommend not to mix different types of information:
source, medium, and campaign should not be mixed.
Otherwise it is not possible to analyze the data of different types independently of others, e.g. all enquiries of a particular source independently of campaigns.

david....@hgv.it

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Sep 13, 2017, 3:51:11 AM9/13/17

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Thanks for your input! I know about CompanyInfo but i have trouble to use it as a channel as you suggest, as it requires me to set company infos?

Any examples how you would set

-own website
-landingpage
-telephone
-direct email

with this node?

Message has been deleted

Matteo Dalle Feste

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Sep 18, 2017, 11:33:25 AM9/18/17

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In Google Analytics we use:

Traffic from our web portal:

http://www.hotel-website.it/?utm_source=dolomiti.it&utm_medium=SiteInSite& utm_campaign=dolomiti

http://www.hotel-website.it/?utm_source=dolomiticlass.it&utm_medium=SiteInSite& utm_campaign=dolomiti

http://www.hotel-website.it/?utm_source=dolomiticlass.de&utm_medium=SiteInSite& utm_campaign=dolomiti

So:

utm_source = <name-of-portal> Example: dolomiti.it, dolomiticlass.it, dolomiticlass.de

utm_medium= <name-of-webpage> or <name-of-element> Example: SiteInSite

utm_campaign= <web-company> Example: dolomiti

Traffic from Email marketing

http://www.hotel-website.it/?utm_source=newsletter_2017-04-19&utm_medium=idee-1sx&utm_campaign=dolomiti

http://www.hotel-website.it/?utm_source=newsletter_2018-04-19&utm_medium=banner-4sx&utm_campaign=dolomiti

http://www.hotel-website.it/?utm_source=dem_2017-04-19&utm_medium=idee-2sx&utm_campaign=dolomiti

So:

utm_source = <name-of-emailmarketing-comunication> Example: newsletter_2017-04-19, dem_2017-04-19

utm_medium= <name-of-element> Example: banner-4sx

utm_campaign= <web-company> Example: dolomiti

Matteo

Matthias Ebner

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Sep 20, 2017, 5:08:56 AM9/20/17

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Hi Matteo,

I agree with your web portal example.

To be able to evaluate your email marketing example I have a question: How do your newsletters work?
I assume you don't send regular newsletters for a single hotel on a regular basis (for ex. monthly). In that case I would expect the utm_medium to be "email".

If you send a regular Dolomiti-newsletter with your own content and a hotel can jump in and you create a paragraph or a teaser with a link to their website in your newsletter, then I understand your parameters and they seem reasonable to me.

Nevertheless I suggest to make the source more unique. For ex.: dolomiti-newsletter_XXXX-XX-XX.

The reason is that the advertising parameters in my opinion have two functions:

1) identification

2) grouping

To be able to make a meaningful grouping you don't want to be mixed with an other sender who passes the same generic source identifier.

M.

Matthias Ebner

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Sep 22, 2017, 5:06:34 AM9/22/17

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The AlpineBits specification offers 3 attributes (ResID_Source, ResID_SourceContext, ResID_Value) we decided to use to forward the advertising information of a reservation or enquiry.

Additionally AlpineBits offers the possibility to forward a travel agent (CompanyInfo).

The 3 advertising attributes should answer this question:

How the (potential) guest/customer was acquired?

The travel agent (or booking channel) attributes should answer this question:

Where did the (potential) guest execute the reservation/enquiry?

Here are some examples:

1. Request or reservation via homepage

a) Direct (User types the domain in browser address bar)

ResID_Source (utm_source) = direct

ResID_SourceContext (utm_medium) =

ResID_Value (utm_campaign) =