The ACCC Final Report on its Digital platforms Inquiry has systematically revealed the great power that Google and Facebook have when it comes to advertising and marketing, particularly for small travel businesses.
The Report explains why:
“Online advertising has helped businesses build a brand and following through social media. In particular, small businesses have benefited in advertising and reaching customers.”
“Customers already using Google Search for generalised search queries would be inclined to also use Google Search for specialised search queries, such as information on travel services, including flights, tours and accommodation, because users display customer inertia. The same cannot be said of users of specialised travel services, so this source of traffic is not available to suppliers of specialised travel search services.”
“For these reasons, even when specialised search services have considerable reach, such as travel and hotel booking search services, Google’s general search service enjoys a competitive advantage over them.”
While this power explains why small businesses might use paid advertising on Google and Facebook, there are other cost-effective ways to build a social media presence, such as:
- Invest in a high quality, responsive and information-rich website
- Work with a qualified digital marketing agency to ensure you are keeping up to date with the ever-changing requirements of website design and navigation, SEO, keywords, user experience, page load times etc.
- Build your brand online by publishing regular, fresh, relevant and low/no-cost content that is both helpful and interesting for your customers such as educational videos, informational blogs, buying guides and cost calculators
For more details click on my article How Google and Facebook dominate online advertising and searches
Anthony J Cordato, Travel Lawyer, Sydney E: ajc@tourismlegal.com.au
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