Which travel brands are best at turning awareness into sales in UK

Using data from YouGov BrandIndex — which monitors several key measures of brand health daily — we analysed here the effectiveness of winter campaigns by key travel companies in the UK in terms of consumer Ad Awareness.

The next step: gaining insights into a brand’s ability to guide consumers through different stages of the purchase funnel is a crucial part of understanding marketing performance. This understanding provides valuable information about the brand's competitive standing in the industry and enables an assessment of its effectiveness in translating consumer awareness into actual sales.

We look at the period between this past Christmas and mid-February of the new year, to uncover how successful they are at converting consumers, from Awareness to Consideration and finally Purchase Intent.

Stage 1: Awareness

At the top of the purchase funnel is Awareness, a measure of if consumers have ever heard of a brand. As you’d expect, all of these major UK travel companies have high rates of Awareness among UK adults with Booking.com at 87.6%, TUI at 86.5%, Jet2holidays at 85.1%, Trivago at 84.3%, Expedia at 81.4%, easyJet holidays at 78.6%, Virgin Holidays at 76.8% and British Airways Holidays at 58.6%.

Stage 2: Consideration

When it comes to the travel companies UK consumers would consider purchasing from the next time they’re in market for a holiday, Booking.com leads the pack with a 43.4% Consideration score. Jet2holidays and TUI are neck-and-neck with a 27.9% and 25.0% Consideration score respectively.

Booking.com’s conversion rate from Awareness to Consideration is at 50% indicating that the company is effective at converting half of consumers into considerers. Jet2holidays and TUI have similar conversion rates with Jet2holidays at 32% and TUI at 29%.

Roughly one in twenty (19.4%) of UK consumers would consider Expedia and 18.4% would consider easyJet holidays and these brands convert at a rate of 24% and 23% respectively, between Awareness and Consideration.

Despite British Airways Holidays’ lower Awareness score (58.6%), it begins to make up for lost ground with a 15.5% Consideration score and 26% conversion rate.

Stage 3: Purchase Intent

The Purchase Intent stage shows the brands consumers would be most likely to buy. Booking.com (26.8%) earns the highest Purchase Intent score, followed by Jet2holidays at 11.8% and TUI at 9.9% with significantly lower scores. While nearly two-thirds of considerers are converted to purchase intent from Booking.com (62%), roughly two-fifths are converted from both Jet2holidays and TUI (43% and 40% respectively).

British Airways Holidays continues to make up for lost ground at the bottom of the funnel with a 36% conversion rate from the Consideration stage to the Purchase Intent stage.

Virgin Holidays earns a Purchase Intent score of 2.5% and converts at 16% from the Consideration stage.

Despite Trivago’s high Awareness score, the company loses ground in the middle of the funnel, but it begins to pick up with a 2.6% Purchase Intent score, representing a 18% conversion rate.

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Image: Getty Images