Summary
Paradise, the TDC marketing partner, presented July and year‑to‑date metrics showing millions of impressions, high video completion rates and favorable click costs; the TDC website and event calendar are under redesign and will be unveiled at the next meeting.
Paradise, the Columbia County TDC’s marketing partner, presented year‑to‑date digital marketing metrics and a July update, and staff reported the TDC website and events calendar are under reconstruction with a planned reveal at the next meeting in September.
Hailey Kendi of Paradise led the presentation. She reported year‑to‑date impressions of just under 7 million, about 113,000 clicks and an average click‑through rate (CTR) of 1.63% across platforms from December through July. She said a top Google ad had about 250,000 impressions and a 7.09% CTR, and cited an average cost per click of $0.66 against an industry benchmark of $1.34.
Kendi highlighted strong video engagement, reporting a 91% video completion rate for the agency’s video assets. She also summarized social results: roughly 7 million Facebook impressions year‑to‑date with about 470 new followers and 147,000 Instagram impressions with roughly 235 new followers. Top web traffic markets included Jacksonville and Orlando, and primary website visitor age ranges were 35–44 and 45–54.
Staff and Paradise also discussed on‑the‑ground activity: an updated sports website went live recently to showcase facilities and to drive event bookings, and the TDC event calendar is being updated daily with local events such as the Growers and Makers Market, Run 138 weekend markets, sunrise paddles at Itchetucknee Springs, and multiple sporting tournaments. A sports presenter said the county hosted 37 sporting events year‑to‑date, with 29 events booked from September through December at the time of the meeting and 12 multi‑day events among those bookings.
Hailey Kendi said the new TDC website layout and calendar will be completed by the next meeting and asked partners to submit events to ensure they appear on the calendar. Staff thanked Paradise for the partnership and noted the websites are starting to drive traffic back to Visit Lake City and local partner pages.
Questions from council members included interest in event listings, volunteer needs for Special Olympics and requests to notify partners when the updated calendar goes live.
