I started doing SMM back in school — it was at the peak of its popularity then. Then I went to university and started my
first internships in marketing. These were banks and international IT companies. Then I did b2b for a couple of years,
and then got into an advertising agency. There I got acquainted with digital, learned a lot about performance channels.
One of them turned out to be mobile, on which I had several clients of the Sber Group: e-commerce, e-grocery and
streaming services. Then, in 2021, advertisers had already What’s interesting is that in our fully appreciated the prospects for business growth and
development through app advertising — mobile marketing budgets were increasing very quickly and the channel itself was developing dynamically.
Now I’m buying traffic for Ostrovok! Ostrovok is a Russian online hotel and apartment booking service that has been helping millions of tourists organize their ideal trips since 2011.
So, you’ve moved to the product side. Does your agency experience help you navigate tasks faster and see the big picture? Are there any significant differences between the two roles?
That’s right. I would say that my experience as an What’s interesting is that in our agent taught me to quickly find compromises and come to an
agreement.
It’s quite difficult to see the whole picture when working in an agency. Often, you don’t understand how exactly traffic
affects client metrics, how users interact with the product, and how much the client earns. Because of this “black box,”
it is not obvious by what criteria the advertiser chooses a source to continue purchasing. This is, perhaps, the most
important difference for me. In an agency, you are more focused on traffic volumes and the number of clients you work
with – your success directly depends on personal sales, budget growth, and client satisfaction.
And if we consider that you are both a b2c and b2b product, what are the specifics that you have to deal with in promotion? And how do you balance the interests of these areas?
Yes, you are right, b2b occupies a special place for us. We have Ostrovok.ru Komandiki applications for easy organization of business trips at special rates, and last year we released an application for hoteliers to manage reservations Ostrovok! Extranet . However, our main focus is on b2c – after all, most mobile sources are not suitable for a narrow audience.
What’s interesting is that in our vertical you can often What’s interesting is that in our see a checkbox like “Traveling for work”. At the moment, when the user clicks on it, nothing will happen, but in the future, he will be included in the “Business Trips” audience and will receive a newsletter or push with a recommendation to use a b2b service, because the prices there are noticeably lower. For our clients, cost is the main factor.
Everything related to travel is heavily influenced by seasonality. How do you adapt your communications strategy to these changes, and how do you plan campaigns to effectively manage demand during the off-season?
That’s right, seasonality has a very strong impact on us and is reflected in our metrics. So, in the summer we get much more targeted actions, the conversion from installation to booking is on average 1.5-2 times higher. But the average bill for such bookings is also lower than for winter ones – samoa business email list people often choose inexpensive hotels within Russia, in large cities with a population of over a million. In the cold season, travelers mainly prefer foreign countries with a warm climate, where the average bill is higher: the UAE, Turkey, Thailand, Egypt.
Creative concepts are also adapted to the season. Here we try to please user interests. In winter, we choose hotels in snowy locations for advertising, accommodation near a ski slope. In summer, during the vacation period, beach, “sunny” creatives with active recreation work more often. In autumn, creatives of the “velvet season” and corresponding directions show themselves well.
I would like to know more about what your traffic consists of. In the conditions of a limited advertising landscape, what channels and formats do you use in Ostrovok’s media split? How effective are social networks, contextual advertising, OEM or In-App for you?
2024 was the debut year for large-scale mobile advertising of the Ostrovok app — our task was to try all advertising sources and then form an effective media split. Now we use social mia to promote your content A few days ago are actively promoting in such channels as Yandex and VK Advertising, have signed contracts with large vendors: Xiaomi, Huawei and Oppo. We also purchase In-App — these are various DSPs, including Bidease and Liftoff. We tried Managed In-App, but are still looking for more or less trusted sources.
Buying airline tickets and booking hotels are often episodic needs (at least they are not services of daily demand). How do you work to ensure that users do not delete your app and return to it more often? What tools do you use to increase retention: newsletters, discounts, storytelling, educational content or something else?
Yes, the need for the product is episodic, however, clean email What’s interesting is that in our a service for booking hotels and apartments is a service that is hard to do without, so we do not see mass deletions of the application after the end of the season. On average, our user makes about 3-4 trips per year. And we are constantly working on improving retention and LTV: we have welcome and reactivating PUSH chains, and retargeting campaigns are also active for a segment of users who need a little “nudge” to complete the booking. Promo codes help with this, we actively use them in our creative campaigns.
Now you can get various privileges, such as breakfast or room upgrades, and at the highest level – a 40% discount. In this way, we encourage our users for choosing the service and returning to us regularly.