Travel firm PPC costs 'soaring'

Some travel firms are being forced to pay out high sums for their pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, a new report has revealed.

A study conducted by Travolution has found that since Google changed its policy to allow marketers to bid against one another in order to advertise alongside popular keywords, some bidders have had to pay "untenable" costs in order to keep up with the competition.

It questioned a number of marketers involved with the travel sector and discovered that, although some businesses have lost interest in PPC advertising as a result of the change, others are facing large increases in the cost of their online advertising.

"A number of travel companies are still forging ahead with what many are calling aggressive tactics to pay their way into the minds of consumers looking for information on certain brands," Travolution warned.

Recently, Kevin Gibbons, managing director of search engine optimisation firm SEOptimise, commented in the firm's blog that businesses seeking to protect their brand in light of the changes need to ensure they are top of the organic rankings.

Furthermore, he recommended webmasters add to their site's strengths so it eventually displays Google Sitelinks as this distracts users from the paid advertising.