In the release of a recent study conducted by Compete (A leading Internet Analytics and metrics company) and Google (you know who they are) are some very startling statistics regarding travel planning and Internet use.  In short, Google is probably the singles largest factor in travel decision making, bar none.

• 85% of consumers are planning the same or more travel in 2009 at the same time people will likely spend less, take shorter trips, and stay closer to home
• 86% of travelers use the Internet for travel decisions with the next best consultant being friends and family but only used by 37% of travelers.
• 70% of these travel searches are done through Google.
• 20% of these travel searches are done through Yahoo.

A little extrapolation tells us that 60% of all travelers use Google to get travel information to make decisions. This statistic is telling: Of all the ways people get travel information (yellow pages, print newspaper, magazine ads, brochures, direct mail, Internet) – 60% is coming straight through a Google search.

Is it intelligent to spend 60% of your marketing budget on your Organic and Paid search?  What percentage is logical?  If you doubt these results do your own survey, ask yourself, your friends, associates, the person behind you in line at Starbucks…..

Your website presence as it is seen by Google organically and in paid search results may be worth spending 60% of your marketing budget on. The next question to ask is how you should split that 60% between Organic SEO/SEM techniques and paid search techniques?

 

Categories: Industry Stats, SEM.
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