Google pitched its advertising tools to small businesses and in the process cites research about travel consumers' mobile ad preferences and search habits.
"Personal travelers more than doubled their usage of mobile devices for travel purposes in the past year," says Sarah Travis, manager of the AdWords travel team, on Google's Small Business Blog. "Research also shows that among travel consumers, purchase is five times higher on mobile ads than on desktop ads."
A Google spokeswoman, Maren Bean, explains that travel consumer purchase intent is five times higher with mobile ads versus desktop ads.
From an internal Google study, the search giant also came up with other interesting data: 78% of travel transactions are preceded by research on a search engine, Travis says.
In addition, "the average traveler searches eight times prior to booking," Travis says, and begins the process two months before booking.
Hotel bookers, in particular, carry out 20 research sessions on average, navigating to multiple websites, before consummating the transaction, Travis says, referring to the Google internal study.
Moral of the story? "... We recommend taking advantage of new search formats," including Google Places and display ads, Travis says.
Among other data points cited in the Google blog post:
- "The median travel advertiser's cost per acquisition on the Google Display Network is 2% less than that on search."
- Google's YouTube is travelers' video website of choice, with 81% of travelers choosing YouTube to watch online videos.
These insights, of course, dovetail with Google's ambitions as it pushes mobile advertising, display ads and YouTube.
The blog post is intended to offer "tips and tricks for travel advertisers" -- albeit using Google tools and advertising vehicles.
Travis touts Google's Insights for Search to track popular destinations; Google Places for free destination listings; Campaign Insights to measure the wallop of your display ads; and Click to Call for travel advertisers who don't have mobile websites.
"And if you reach a customer at various phases throughout the research process with compelling messages and images, chances are he or she will be more likely to book with you," Travis says.
"The possibilities are endless," Travis boasts -- of course, when using Google's in-house advertising tools.
Side Note about advertising: Google has a new ad to push its acquisition of ITA Software, arguing that competitors don't want to see the flight- search innovation to come.
Here are some images from the ad: