Conversion, and improving it, is the reason behind everything travel site TripAdvisor does. It's overhauling its mobile site and its desktop site, as well as adding new functionality and localised features to improve the customer experience – but the sole reason is conversion. Mobile is a particular focus.
The site, which hosts a vast volume of user-generated and original content on its site, has more than 190 million pieces of content uploaded per month and more than 115 user-submitted pieces of content uploaded a minute globally. Each piece is moderated.
It's also seeing 45% growth year on year, claimed the site's Singapore-based director of partnerships Aaron Hung, and the APAC market accounts for 22% of its business.
Speaking at the ADMA Engage conference in Sydney last week, Hung, said that it currently gets 50% of global traffic from mobile, and APAC is driving the growth, but that revenue from the platform isn't anywhere near that proportion.
To close the disconnect, TripAdvisor is improving its mobile user experience to boost conversion on mobile and drive revenue.
Currently there are four steps between a search and booking, using its desktop site, and seven steps on its mobile site – something it's looking to reduce.
Predominantly a reviews site, TripAdvisor is also trying to build out its presence beyond planning and post-holiday reviews, and be a bigger part of the 'in destination' experience with new features.
It is building up its capabilities as a direct booking destination for hotels, attractions and restaurants and redeveloping the user experiences to increase bookings that originate from its site.
The majority of its revenue is generated from referrals, so it is trialling a direct in-app booking function in the US to remove friction for users and reduce the number of steps between searching and making a reservation.
Users in the US can now make a booking without leaving the app in the US, which has shown an uptick in conversion. The feature is set to come to the Australian market next year.
In Australia, TripAdivsor recently started working with mobile restaurant booking app Dimmi – which dubs itself Uber for restaurants. More than 2500 restaurants are listed alongside reviews.
TripAdvisor is also adding in tiers of personalisation to the reviews that users see when they search. Until recently, everyone saw the same results from searches but now there are filters and personalisation based on previous searches and bookings.
These changes have helped fuel a threefold increase in revenue from its mobile site, claimed Hung.
“All of that, really, is about conversion,” he said. “There are many things we can test and play with on our site – half our company are engineers, and there are a lot of creative people in our business and they have many ideas. But there has to be a central objective – why are we doing something? Conversion is always the most important part – how do we take users through with the least amount of friction and towards monetisation?”
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