A new report from Efficient Frontier has revealed that travel marketers' pay per click (PPC) campaigns appear to be seeing higher returns during the recession.
According to the search marketing firm, impression volumes for the UK travel sector soared by 32 per cent between the first three months of 2008 and the equivalent period in 2009.
It says that this can be attributed to two main factors, the first of which is Google's removal of minimum bids in an effort to maximise unused inventory, thus making long tail keywords more available to marketers.
This has resulted in return on investment for travel marketers rising by 11 per cent year on year, despite search marketing spending within the sector falling by one per cent, Efficient Frontier notes.
The second reason for the higher impressions is the fact that the downturn is forcing consumers to conduct more careful online research into the best deals available online, the firm says, with keywords relating to terms such as 'cheap' and 'discount' faring particularly well in terms of impressions and return on investment (ROI).
Jonathan Beeston, client services director at Efficient Frontier, comments: "Travel is very much reliant on search.
"In the current economic environment, ROI will continue to be a priority as travel advertisers trend towards the efficiency model in an effort to reach a higher ROI as a buffer against economic uncertainty."
Earlier this year, eDigitalResearch and IMRG published figures indicating that 57 per cent of consumers are more likely to shop online for their holidays this year as a result of the economic downturn.
