Lenox Says Google Ad Campaign Is Generating Tourism
 Kevin Sprague of Studio Two updated the board on the advertising efforts last week. |
The town has spent $3,731 over the last three months with Google to display ads on an array of websites. The ads are triggered by keyword searches.
"This whole campaign is oriented around building awareness for the town of Lenox and traffic to the Lenox.org website during the shoulder seasons," said Kevin Sprague of Studio Two, who is overseeing the campaign.
The town allocated $4,700 to be spent from April 1 until June 30. Google charges per click so not all of the money was spent. Google charged .29 cents per click, which translates to $3,231. Studio Two is being paid $500 to oversee the campaign.
"I think this is good medium to be present in this way. ... Here I get to have sustained presence among an audience," Sprague said, saying the ads "penetrate major urban markets" at an inexpensive cost. "It is much better data than we'd get if we put an ad in The New York Times."
Each click sends the user to Lenox.org. During that period of time, the website saw 27,286 sessions from 22,835 users. Users clicked about three pages per session. The website was able to keep users engaged for more than two minutes at a time and the site had a bounce rate of 57.78 percent.
To explain the numbers, Sprague said the town paid .29 cents to basically have a two-minute conversation with each individual coming to the site.
"I think we got a great deal. I am really appreciative of this report and the amount of detail on it," said Chairman Channing Gibson, who added that the board has seen an increase in revenue from rooms and meals taxes.
The advertising campaign for the website is also coupled with the Berkshire Visitors Bureau. The BVB's website sends the second most amount of traffic to Lenox.org, behind the Google ads.
The ads are particularly generating traffic from New York, which accounted for about 20 percent of the total traffic.
Selectman Ed Lane said the advertisements are hitting the desired market and he is happy with the precise reporting back.
Tags: advertising, Internet, website,
