Today, Consumerist caught Delta purchasing the Google ads for “cheap train tickets” to promote their flights and found it both “hilarious” and “misleading.” It’s stupid, but for different reasons than the consumer blog points out.
“We tried these searches a few times and sometimes Delta appears at the top of the main results list, sometimes not. If it doesn't appear on the main results area, it always appears at the top of the right margin under sponsored links (pictured above.) We're not sure whether Delta is responsible for this misdirection or one of their affiliate advertisers, but either way it's misleading to potential ticket buyers... Even though they rhyme, we know for a fact that trains and planes are different, don't try to derail our logic.”
This is a smart ad buy for Delta. They have realized that they aren’t just competing with United and AA; they are competing against all other modes of transportation from point A to B. Nicely done.
Where they do make a major error is in their landing page. Click the ad and you’ll be directed to the Delta home page. That’s not what I was looking for at all, so I’m leaving.
Delta misses a key opportunity to let the landing page convert the user. The searcher wanted train tickets. Acknowledge that and give them a reason to fly instead. Show a fare comparison between select cities; extol the virtues of flying over traveling by train. Marketing could have come up with any number of messages and special offers to make the searcher think twice about booking a train ticket, but they didn’t.
When people are in search mode, they are hunting for specific information. If you don’t at least acknowledge this search, you’re going to fail at converting them to sales.
This happens way too many times with big companies. I know they have a million keywords, but if you aren’t concerned with converting the search you are just throwing money away. Invest the money to build a landing page.
In this case Delta could have built one landing page for all their “train” competitive words. They would have grabbed a greater percentage of the transportation market. Instead they’re wasting money.
Ahh, you've just supplied the missing link. Well done. The people smart enough to know better at Delta probably got laid off.
Posted by: Glenn | June 11, 2008 at 09:41 AM
This is just another example of a company that is not focused on responding to a person's needs. The world is full of company's who advertise their good and service incorrectly. They fail to communicate with their customers to learn what they want and how best to deliver it to them. The end result is wasted time and money for both the consumer and the company.
Posted by: David Greis | January 07, 2009 at 11:46 AM