DIGITAL ANALYTICS

September 2024
Visit Greater Palm Springs saw a ~4% increase in Active Users and an ~8% increase in Sessions when compared to September 2023. Increases can be attributed to YOY increases in Pmax Campaigns, Display, Direct, and Act-On traffic. There was a healthy spike in traffic on September 23 from Paid Search, with most users landing on the London Design Festival Landing Page.

Other key September data:

• ​34,080 Partner Referrals
• 724 Visitor Guide Downloads
• 310 E-Newsletter Sign-ups

October 2024
There were ~196,480 Active Users and ~245,620 Overall Sessions (a slight ~1.8% YoY decrease in users). Paid Search saw an increase in attributed Users and Sessions. Cross Network, Display, and Paid Social all saw YOY increases in users and sessions, as well.

In addition, VGPS had 44,680 Qualified Sessions, which is a YOY decrease of 24%. The top mediums this month for Qualified Sessions was Paid Search (~18,670), Organic Search (~15,330), and Direct. Referral traffic was the highest driver in the Qualified Session Rate.

Other key October data:

• 43,660 Partner Referrals
• 833 Visitor Guide Downloads
• 187 E-Newsletter Sign-ups

Escape Your Ordinary
The Escape Your Ordinary new campaign page launched during this period, receiving over 6,000 visitors to the website by the end of October. The campaign is supported by this landing page, which was launched on September 24. Current YTD data for this landing page is 86,508 Active Users with 165,027 Views.

Email Updates
For the month of September, the consumer and dineGPS newsletters exceeded the industry average open rate (31.0%) as well as click-to-open rate (5.0%) — as did the October consumer newsletter —driving higher than average traffic to the website. 

Website Pages and Blogs
In September and October, 13 pages and 16 blogs were updated and 10 new pages and 13 new blogs were created (shown below). Examples of the new blogs to the site include: 

1. A Play Date with Greater Palm Springs
2. 10 Ways to Escape Your Ordinary in Greater Palm Springs
3. Dog-Friendly Itinerary in Greater Palm Springs
4. Shop Locally & Sustainably in Greater Palm Springs
5. Welcome to Indian Wells | A Culinary Escape
6. Greater Palm Springs: An Oasis for Old Hollywood’s Child Stars
7. Surprising Finds at Farmers Markets in Greater Palm Springs
8. How Two Local Entrepreneurs Took the Scenic Route to Greater Palm Springs

2024 Annual Goals
From January 1 through October 31, VGPS has reached 90% of the 2024 YTD users goal, 93% of the YTD sessions goal, 78% of the YTD highly engaged sessions goal, and 75% of the YTD qualified sessions goal. The highly engaged sessions and qualified sessions have been impacted by the recent implementation of the new privacy and cookies policies required. (See "Cookie Implementation" below on how this has impacted the tracking of our digital goals.)

Cookie Implementation
On June 5th, the VGPS website installed Cookie Consent banners through OneTrust. A cookie consent banner is a notification that appears on a website to inform users about the site's use of cookies and to obtain their explicit consent before storing cookies on their device, which is often required by data privacy regulations to ensure transparency and user control over their personal data collection. We initially saw a significant drop in the ability to track our website visitors, especially in the UK, which has stricter regulations on cookies. However, through message testing and layout of the banners, we have been able to retain many of our visitors and are continuing to monitor and test new variations on these banners to obtain optimal results.

November 2024
November reporting results have not yet been finalized, however digital support was provided for LIVE with Kelly & Mark Show as well as the Acrisure Series.  

Looking Ahead
The Visit Greater Palm Springs digital team is preparing to roll out several exciting initiatives in the coming months, including:

• The kickoff of Season 3 of "Your Guide to", continuing our popular series that highlights the best of Greater Palm Springs.
• The next season of DineGPS, spotlighting the regions diverse and vibrant culinary scene.

Below are dashboards showing our year-to-date total website traffic, engagement, and conversion rates.