For the First Time, Travel Marketers Can Customize Their Placement and Messages Based on Search Parameters from Real-Time Consumer Queries - Kayak.com Year-to-Date Traffic Surpasses 3 Million Visits
Unlike traditional paid search solutions, which rely on keyword combinations, the Kayak Network allows travel advertisers to customize their marketing activities based on the actual search parameters from real-time consumer searches. These search parameters include city or city pairs, trip dates, length of stay, and specific airline or hotel brands.
"This is a breakthrough for the entire travel industry," said Steve Hafner, CEO and co-founder of Kayak.com. "Travel advertisers, and hoteliers in particular, finally have an alternative to over-priced, low conversion, generic keyword campaigns. Hoteliers can concentrate their marketing dollars on low occupancy dates, rather than spending money to drive demand when it is not needed. Airlines can target specific city pairs and trip date ranges. And travel agencies can solicit consumers after they've completed their cross-shopping - not before. Quite simply, the Kayak Network blows the doors off what search engines offer travel marketers in terms of targeted advertising."
According to JupiterResearch, search engine marketing has been the most effective advertising medium at driving a site into an online consumer's consideration set. Studies show that 110 million adult Americans use a general search engines each month - 76 percent of the adult Internet population. Yet travel marketers have grown increasingly frustrated by the limitations of keyword-based paid search advertising.
"I know from personal experience that traditional paid search is not well-suited for travel services," said Drew Patterson, director of business development for Kayak.com and former director of e-commerce at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. "It doesn't allow hoteliers to differentiate between nights when they need demand and nights when they don't. So hotels end up buying search results for dates when they're oversold. We designed the Kayak Network to address these issues."
"The Kayak Network represents a vast improvement over existing online marketing tools used by many hotels today," said Michael Wylie, vice president of travel & hospitality at Proceed Interactive, an interactive agency that helps Fortune 1000 travel and hospitality companies extend brand awareness and drive sales. "With the Kayak Network, I know that marketing spend will drive business on nights when my clients need it. It will also eliminate consumer frustration from clicking through a search engine link only to find that there are no rooms available for their intended travel dates."
A self-service extranet, the Kayak Network is an online marketplace where prices are driven by demand. Travel marketers set their maximum cost per click to ensure they stay within their desired spending constraints. Kayak.com charges advertisers the cost of the next highest campaign, plus $.01, which means most advertisers will be charged less than their top spending levels. For hotels not currently included in Kayak.com results, Kayak Network enables them to add their listing to Kayak's hotel database.
Kayak Network users can manage their campaigns easily with robust reporting tools tracking impressions, clicks, click-through rates, average CPC, cost, and average position within search results. Future Kayak Network features include managing hotel descriptions, responding to consumer feedback, and the ability to differentiate advertisements with optional E-Bay-like increased visibility, such as highlighting, bold fonts, and in-line photos.
Less than two months past its consumer launch, Kayak.com has already attracted more than 3 million visitors to its own website.
"Traffic on Kayak.com is growing rapidly," added Hafner. "With our expanding affiliate network and the marketing of our own website, we expect to attract 10 million visitors a month by the end of 2005. We've successfully combined an objective, comprehensive, and easy-to-use travel site that consumers love, with powerful marketing tools optimized for the travel industry - everybody wins!"
Importantly, Kayak Network campaigns are featured throughout the entire Kayak.com affiliate network, including Kayak.com, AOL's recently launched Pinpoint Travel (www.PinpointTravel.com), USAToday.com, and others.
"AOL is committed to establishing PinpointTravel.com as a premier travel search site for consumers," said Jeffrey DeKorte, vice president & general manager, AOL Travel, America Online, Inc. "The Kayak Network provides travel advertisers with one, easy-to-use interface for creating marketing campaigns across our site and others."
About Kayak.com
Created by co-founders of Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, Kayak.com is a comparison-shopping website that helps consumers make informed decisions in their travel planning. The site, which launched February 7, 2005, offers a comprehensive search engine that scours over 100 online travel sites, providing prices and itineraries for more than 551 airlines and 85,000 hotels. Kayak.com displays more choices of available itinerary/price combinations than any other travel site and is the only travel site with MultiBook(TM), a breakthrough technology that lets consumers choose where to purchase their trip. It is also the first travel site to integrate user-created reviews and ratings and other relevant travel information with real-time prices and availability. Kayak.com's investors include Sequoia Capital, America Online, Inc. and General Catalyst Partners.