What Does a Partnership With TripShock Mean?

We Represent You

TripShock is an affiliate marketer. Its a very simple model in which you give TripShock rights to represent and market your business. In return TripShock takes a commission that allows us to pay for all of our marketing campaigns and professionals. This allows you to focus on your traveler experiences and building your business as we focus on bringing you new business.

Where Do We Represent You?

Short answer. Anywhere we can generate bookings for you! By partnering with TripShock, you are providing us an non-exclusive use of your trademark and business name. Our expert marketing team and content writers include your business on, TripShock.com, blogs, our dozens of TripShock affiliates, CVB’s, social platforms and paid advertising – both digital and print. Let’s face it, acquiring customers is not cheap and its highly competitive.

Do We Get Partner Approval for Advertisements?

To some extent, Yes. If you believe we are misrepresenting your business in anyway or have any details about your listing incorrect – we want to know and to fix it immediately. You can contact your Market Manager or you can log in and adjust your listing in our partner portal.

However, because our industry and competitive environment change so rapidly – we cannot get partner approval for each and every-time we mention you in an email, blog, web page, press release, digital ad or print media. It would just be too slow and cost too much. To put things in perspective – our marketing efforts are so sophisticated that advertising spend, active campaigns and even ad copy change based upon weather patterns.

Aren’t You Advertising Against Me?

Although its possible that TripShock and a partner could be advertising in the same space (Google, Facebook, etc) – we are not in competition with our partners. Its important that we all have an understanding of traveler traffic patterns and the decision making process. Travelers very rarely make one search, click on one ad, and book. The traveler life-cycle goes from inspiration, to booking lodging, to booking transportation, and then to activities – often this process takes months. They often click on 4 or 5 ads and visit half a dozen sites prior to becoming a customer. For the health of your business you want to show up anywhere and everywhere you can go get the traveler’s attention. This is why our holistic advertising approach is so critical. Travelers can come from many sources and TripShock works with our Partners to make sure all of the bases are covered.

“If you are fishing for travelers you need to cast many nets. As an affiliate we are catching travelers for you. There are plenty of fish in the sea. We all have to cast nets in the same ocean.“   

Why Do You Re-market?

Re-marketing is one of the many ways TripShock works hard to get the booking. Re-marketing is continuing to market to travelers after they have already visited our site. This is very expensive to do. Often we have to pay two or three times for the same traveler. Here are situations where we have to re-market to ensure the traveler finds what they are looking for.

Example 1: A traveler decides they will take a vacation to Myrtle Beach and searches, “things to do in Myrtle Beach” on Google. A TripShock paid ad received the first click for this traveler. The traveler spends time on the site discovering different things to do in Myrtle Beach. The next day, the same traveler goes back to Google and searches, “dolphin cruise Myrtle Beach”. Again, TripShock receives the click and lands the traveler on a category results page for dolphin cruises in Myrtle Beach. The traveler spends time reviewing the different dolphin tour options. A few days later, the traveler is on Facebook and see’s ads in their news feed of top dolphin tours in Myrtle Beach to remind them of their search. TripShock receives the final paid click with a direct brand ad that lands the traveler directly on Carl’s Cool Dolphin Cruise page to complete the sale.

Example 2: A new traveler is referred to TripShock by a friend. This new traveler goes to the site to find a charter fishing tour in Destin, FL. After browsing for the perfect boat, the traveler decides to go with “Hook ’em Charters”. The traveler’s father is in a wheelchair, so they call TripShock customer service to check with the captain to verify if he can accommodate. Although the traveler wants to book right now, she is unable to do so because her credit card is not with her. The next day, the traveler goes back to Google on her mobile device and searches “Hook ’em Charters”. TripShock receives the paid click with a brand ad for “Hook ’em Charters” that lands the user directly on their page to complete the sale.

In both examples, it’s clear how valuable TripShock was in the acquisition of both these travelers. In Example 1, TripShock not only paid for three ads, but invested in keyword research to follow the customer through to conversion cycle. In Example 2, a recent traveler referred another to the site. Our customer service team assisted with the sale that ultimately lead to the conversion. In both examples, the traveler could have easily followed the path through and booked directly. Worse yet, they could have booked with another reseller after we have invested the time and resources to assist the traveler. Let’s face it, there are times where these scenarios work for and against our partnership, but this is exactly why it’s a partnership!

Is There Anything I Can Do To Limit My Exposure?

The short answer is Yes, you can limit your exposure to some extent. As we mentioned before, it’s very difficult for our marketing team to promote your business when we have to receive approval for each and every marketing initiative. We also need to be consistent with our advertising policies in order to maintain the integrity of our services. If we were to make exemptions on a regular basis, this would greatly affect our ability to grow and deliver you more bookings. Here is a more in depth explanation of what options your business has on limiting its exposure. 

1. Google Search Marketing

Businesses can limit the use of their trademark in TripShock advertisements on Google Search by filing a trademark use claim directly with Google. This will not stop ads from displaying on searches related to your business, but it does insure your trademark is removed from the ad copy. It is solely up to the partner to reach out to Google to handle this request. Typically it takes a few weeks to process, but there is no guarantee if and when the request will go through. We also might recommend running your own Google advertising campaigns if you prefer not to file a trademark claim. If you feel our ads are misrepresenting your business, please contact our partner support department immediately so that we can make it right. 

2. Google/Bing/Yahoo Organic Search

TripShock businesses and products will show in various results in organic search. Since Google controls the display of these results, we recommend generating local content to rank higher than the TripShock listings. If you decide to leave TripShock, it could take weeks or months for organic listings to fall off Google and other search engines. TripShock does not offer removal services of old content that might be left over from your partnership. 

3. Reserve with Google

Reserve with Google is a new platform that allows your business to have a booking button on your local business page and Google maps. The only way to obtain a booking button is to work with an approved connectivity partner like TripShock. The benefits of having the booking button will allow travelers to have a shorter click path, more exposure on Google maps, and a higher trust score. If you still decide that you’d like to opt out of this program, please reach out to our partner support for instructions to removal 

4. Facebook 

TripShock uses Facebook in many ways including engaging traveler with interesting content, re-marketing to past customers, and posting about new products and services we offer. Because we require non-exclusive use of your trademark and media, TripShock will promote your business on all social channels. Our marketing team will do its best to give credit to your business when a photo or video is used. Although  we will never use your media or trademark to promote your competitors products, it’s possible we would use it to promote the destination and the activity category. If you believe we are misrepresenting your business in any way, you may contact partner support and request that we modify or remove the post or ad. Please do not contact our social media accounts directly regarding posts and ad copy.