Expedia CEO Details Anti-Google Game Plan
Photo Credit: Expedia's new CEO, Peter Kern, wants to reduce the company's reliance on Google marketing. Expedia Group
Skift Take
Can Expedia Group wean itself away from Google, and avoid performance marketing spending when it doesn't hit return on investment targets? New CEO Peter Kern said the coronavirus crisis presents an opportunity to chase these goals. Kern will be judged on what progress he can make toward achieving such previously elusive ambitions.
In his first earnings call as CEO, Expedia Group's Peter Kern said Google and others have tried to "disintermediate us," and he laid out plans in broad terms to reset how the online travel company conducts its performance marketing.
Seeing the coronavirus crisis present an opportunity for Expedia Group to reset its marketing approach because its performance marketing will be starting from near-zero, Kern said Wednesday during the company's first quarter earning call that its marketing efforts across all its subsidiaries has been centralized. That's so that brands won't be competing in Google auctions against one another.
In the past, Expedia and its sister brand Hotels.com might competed at times in Google auctions against one another, driving up the cost-per click for each.
