Google Adwords for Hostels - follow up

(Note: This post is only going to be interesting if you use Google Adwords.)

I wrote an introduction to Google Adwords PPC advertising for hostels last July.

I recommended not to use the Google Adwords content network when advertising hostels:

The content network is going to put your ads on a lot of non-targeted sites like YouTube, MySpace, domain parking pages, and other locations where the people who view and click on your ads are probably not about to book a dorm bed. If you setup a good Adwords campaign on Google search and the search network, the only people who are going to click on your ads are people searching for keywords like "hostel in [your city]".

I just saw a related article via HotelMarketing.com, that talks about the content network and CheapFlights.com:

...search is much more directly effective at generating referrals than ads on content sites.

Emphasis, as you can see, is on the word "directly." While every marketer has the judgment to decide which kind of campaign is right for his or her brand (indeed, in some cases a search campaign will be more appropriate than a contextual campaign, just like direct mail is sometimes more appropriate than a broadcast campaign), I think it might be tempting to abandon the branding concept altogether, just based on numbers like these.

However – and I understand that smaller businesses have to put their money where it's most likely to bring back results and do not have the branding luxuries of big names – it seems to me a wise thing to take a cue from the big names when possible. Branding is not a direct marketing thing. It is an awareness thing. The big marketers know that awareness, eventually, drives sales.

Ask Coca-Cola, Intel, Microsoft, any company that has made sure their brand was ubiquitous in the world, if all that branding effort was in vain. They'll most likely think you're nuts. Admittedly, it could be a different animal altogether when we talk about online marketing – but I doubt it.

In conclusion, then, I say focus on your direct referrals via search, where customers are actively seeking you out and therefore more likely to buy, but don't forget about branding via content sites that takes your message and logo and implants it into the back of the customer's mind so that when they search later with the intention to buy, they already remember and recognize your brand instead of the competitor's.

Basically, it means that putting PPC ads on search engine results pages is going to bring more direct bookings than putting your PPC ads on Google's content network.

The reason that you might want to have your ads running on the content network is mostly for branding. I think that most hostels don't need to worry about spending a lot of money on branding with PPC ads though. There are other ways to get your content on other Web sites.

If you are a hostel chain that is interested in getting more eyes to see your brand name and want to use the content network, at least set much lower bids on the content network.