PPC Optimisation 2008/09 Travel Technology Guide
more on the right-hand side. The front page also had 10 natural search results. There were a
further 116 sponsored links on subsequent pages. The ratio of sponsored results to natural
was 1:1,000.
Changing the search to “villa holidays to Chania” dropped the natural search to 99,000 but
there were still over 90 sponsored links, including one for a China specialist!
Surprisingly, searching for “Holidays in Chechnya” produced 260,000 natural results and 46
sponsored links! However, searching for “Travel technology advice” found an astonishing 52
million natural results but only 4 sponsored ones. Repeating the search but with quotation
marks reduced the natural search to just 8 results but upped the sponsored links to 7. Mind
boggling stuff!
So what’s going on and how does one get onto the first page for natural and sponsored
results, especially when most people don’t go past the first page?
Successful Search Results
Getting onto the first page with a natural result is all about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
This requires careful website design and content structure. There are companies specialising
in SEO and it takes time and continual monitoring. Being featured on a sponsored link takes
less time but, unlike a natural search, the clickthrough is chargeable. The cost depends on a
number of factors, principally the demand for the keywords used to display the advert.
Google sells advertising space by linking the advert to the keywords used in a search. Google
AdWords can be purchased by anyone and the key selling point is that the adverts are
(usually) free and one only pays if someone clicks on the ad and visits the website (PPC - Pay-
per-Click or CPC, Cost-per-Click). Payment by results is a sound proposition but there’s not
much point in paying for site visits if they don’t generate revenue.
Search advertising works for Google, generating around £900 million revenue in 2006, more
than Channel 4! UK Internet marketing spend is now half the size of television advertising,
which is in decline. But how well does it work for travel?
Anyone can create a Google ad and bid for keywords. Since one only pays if the ad is clicked,
AdWords must work? But if the ad is linked to popular keywords, it may not appear on the first
page or no one will click on it. Whilst this won’t cost money, it won’t sell a holiday either. And
with travel agents and brochures in decline, making Google AdWords work is becoming a
priority for travel companies.
Successful AdWords can be measured in five ways:
1. Choosing the best keywords
2. Getting ads onto the first page.
3. Achieving a high click through rate
4. Converting clickthroughs into bookings
5. Achieving a net profit per booking
1. Choosing the best keywords
Popular keywords attract high bids and push up the cost. Some keywords can cost
as much as £100 per clickthrough, though £0.35p is probably the average in travel.
2. Getting ads onto the first page
Getting the ad onto the first page (and high up on the list) depends on the keyword
value and how well Google rates the ad. Google and Microsoft reward ads that
achieve a high clickthrough and can promote an ad above one with a higher bid. This
ranking formula is an important factor in achieving a high sponsored link position.
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