No wonder travel companies find it hard to compete with the Priceline Group - the company splashed out a record $3.5 billion on marketing last year.
Google was most likely the primary recipient of the company's eyewatering ad spend, confirmed in its filing this week to coincide with its full-year financial results.
The Priceline Group, covering the Booking.com, Priceline, Kayak, Agoda, Rentalcars and Opentable brands, increased its outlay on performance advertising by 27% between 2015 and 2016.
Brand advertising across the portfolio climbed to a modest $296 million from $274 million.
According to line items for expenditure in the company's filing, spend on performance advertising came in at almost 25 times more than its investment in information technology during 2016.
Speaking to analysts during the Priceline Group's earnings, chief financial officer Dan Finnegan says core search (PPC) is "still an important" of its marketing strategy, despite the emergence of new channels such as Facebook.
Google is the company's biggest advertising channel, Finnegan says, with the group being "pleased with the results we're seeing there".
Regarding Facebook advertising, CEO Glenn Fogel says the group's marketing teams continue to work with the social networking giant to "improve its products", so that more marketing money can be invested it in.
"We’re always looking for anybody can help us, bring us more customers with ROIs that produce loyal customers who’ll come back to us directly. It’s still very, very, very early.
"We’re working hard, we work with them and we’re hoping to have success down the road with them. I can’t promise it will happen or not, but we’re going to work with them and try to make it happen.
Expedia spent $4.3 billion in advertising in 2016 - up by almost $1 billion on the previous 12 months.
NB:Money image via Pixabay.