Las Vegas Tourism Ad Campaigns: Proving Behavioral Outcomes Lift

How do you measure the impact of ads for a brand everyone already knows? That was the challenge for agency R&R Partners and their longtime client, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).

As the official destination marketing organization of Las Vegas, it’s LVCVA’s mission to attract visitors, and 40 years of iconic R&R campaigns like “What Happens Here, Stays Here™” and “Greatest Arena on Earth™” have helped make the city a world-renowned destination.

Show ad impact on travel to an already iconic destination

With so much existing awareness, LVCVA needed to understand how their ad campaigns were influencing people’s attitudes and opinions, and more importantly, affecting behaviors. Demonstrating the effectiveness of R&R’s digital campaigns for an already famous destination required data well beyond typical brand lift metrics.

They needed to measure impact on downstream travel behavior to confirm that their ads were actually increasing travel intent to Las Vegas.

DISQO Outcomes Lift

R&R Partners partnered with DISQO to measure how LVCVA’s digital campaigns across CTV, online video, and display influenced both perception and action.

DISQO Brand Lift quantified how ad exposure shifted awareness, favorability, and intent by comparing survey responses from exposed audiences to a matched control group. This revealed whether the campaign was meaningfully strengthening Las Vegas in consumers’ minds.

In parallel, DISQO Outcomes Lift measured incremental changes in real travel behaviors, including destination-related search and website visitation. By isolating the difference between exposed and unexposed groups, DISQO identified the campaign’s direct impact on planning activity. Together, Brand Lift and Outcomes Lift delivered a clear, full-funnel view of how digital media drove measurable brand growth and travel intent.

DISQO’s ability to look at true outcomes across multiple campaigns, tactics, and media partners allowed LVCVA to continue to optimize their advertising.

Behavioral metrics fill in the missing piece of the story

While attitudinal KPIs were relatively flat, a +2.00 point lift in intent to visit was revealed within the exposed group. However, intent to visit alone didn’t come close to capturing full campaign value.

The downstream behaviors tracked by DISQO Outcomes Lift revealed a much more powerful impact. Those exposed to ads had a 9.75 point lift in branded searches (for Las Vegas specific hotels, attractions, dining, and shows) and a 17.47 point lift in branded site visits (to VisitLasVegas.com, Las Vegas hotel websites, and Las Vegas pages on OTA, accommodation, airline, and vacation sites). This increase in Las Vegas-related activity online brings people one step closer to making that crucial travel decision.

Las Vegas campaigns spark search interest

With DISQO Outcomes Lift, R&R monitored differences in pre- and post-exposure search volume for relevant keywords, then compared results to DISQO’s normative benchmarks for the travel industry.

• Category search: the campaign drove a 2.98 point lift in broad searches such as “what’s open in vegas right now” or “fun things to do in vegas,” outperforming the industry benchmark of 1.86.
• Branded search: the campaign drove a 9.75 point lift in lower-funnel searches aligned with Las Vegas specific hotels, attractions, dining, and shows, 35x above the travel industry benchmark.

Bringing in the visitors, and proving it

Continuing down the funnel, R&R partnered with DISQO to show the impact on site traffic to Las Vegas domains, such as Las Vegas hotel sites. Exposure to the campaign drove a 17.47 point lift in branded site visitation, significantly higher than the 0.80 lift seen from other travel advertisers. Visits to Las Vegas OTA accommodation pages rose +18.1 points, highlighting strong lower-funnel impact. Analyzing the specific sites people visited after exposure showed that R&R’s media was leading people to Las Vegas hotel websites and high-intent travel planning sites.

Measure what matters. Understand what works. Let’s DISQO: hello@disqo.com