PPC tipped to become an even more dominant pricing model
Published: 26 May 2008
Travel Distribution Europe Special
What role do travel suppliers foresee for PPC in the overall online marketing? Do consumers lack trust in paid search and are turning overwhelmingly to natural search results?
From Aer Arann's perspective, its head of sales and marketing Colin Lewis said, "PPC still hasn't reached a peak in terms of the possibilities available, and in particular, its use by advertisers is really only beginning. Whilst it is dominant in travel, mainstream brands are still working things out. However, Google themselves are showing where the future lies. One has to only examine Google's acquisitions over the past few years to see how they plan to create a multi-channel online marketing portal with PPC at its core."
Lewis, a speaker during EyeforTravel's Travel Distribution Summit Europe 2008 held in London last week, said, "I feel that PPC will become an even more dominant pricing model outside of paid search and into the areas of display ads, video and online social marketing. The PPC pricing model I feel will be demanded more and more by marketers for all online spend as they become more web savvy and take greater control of online spend and expected results. At present, Aer Arann has PPC as the core of its online activities."
Barbara Pezzi, director web marketing and e-commerce, Swissotel Hotels & Resorts said, "PPC will remain a strong element of online marketing but social networks and rich media will definitely be increasingly important as well as mobile search and mobile ads. We, hoteliers, apart from few exceptions, have been quite slow to embrace Web 2.0. Marketing to bloggers, widgets for social networks, personalisation, to name a few, will all have to be taken into account."
She added, "I believe Google will remain at the core of SEO/SEM strategy, but it cannot be the only element. Our hotels are spread over 16 countries, and whilst Google is a very important and essential partner, in some cases, we need to take into account other local search engines, for example in countries such as Russia and China, where there are important local players."
On consumers lacking trust in paid search and are turning overwhelmingly to natural search results, Lewis said, "I would disagree with this statement. The relevancy of paid search results are getting better all the time, and are better than natural results in many circumstances. In the early days of paid search, advertisers could display ads cheaply across keywords that were not relevant to their product or service - as the cost was negligible. However this opportunity has disappeared as more and more advertisers began to using PPC, pushing prices up, and forcing advertisers to focus their efforts. Most paid search results are now quite relevant - at least on Google anyway - and I feel that consumers are noticing this more and more as they become more web and search savvy."
Natural search result snippets cannot always be quickly influenced/changed and may not therefore include the latest special offers, current brand message etc. - whereas PPC listings can accommodate impact from timely, real world events.
On ensuring an intelligence balance, Barbara said, "I do not think there is a definite answer to this question. The right mix varies according to various factors such as for example brand strength and business requirement. However, I do believe there is a need for both and there should be an integrated approach between PPC and SEO to maximize results. SEO is essential and a long term commitment. The nature of PPC makes it a more flexible tool, which can be very useful when running tactical campaigns. However, it should also be used to provide real time data and direction to maximize the SEO strategy. Successful keywords and landing pages used during PPC campaigns, should for example be incorporated in the SEO strategy and website optimization. At the same time, SEO needs time show results and PPC can be a short term interim solution, until the SEO catches up."
In the wake of rising PPC costs, what is going to be the role of PPC in near future?
Lewis said, "I feel PPC will become a more dominant pricing model for all online marketing activity due to the ability to control spend and guarantee results. However, the knock on effect will be that cost will rise. I believe that as a result more focus will have to be placed on landing pages and conversion once the visitor reaches the site. At the moment there is too much emphasis by marketers on acquisition and not enough on conversion rates. A 10-15% in PPC costs could be easily offset with a 10-15% increase in conversion rates on the website."
Ritesh Gupta,
EyeforTravel.com
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