Skift Take
Google officials aren't losing any sleep over TripAdvisor spending a few million dollars less on paid search, but TripAdvisor's pullback, as well as similar moves by other large travel players, symbolizes a changing advertising climate and a long-term challenge.
As part of its drive to weed out marketing inefficiencies, TripAdvisor Chief Financial Officer Ernst Teunissen said the company pulled back on its paid advertising on Google in the third quarter.
That contributed to a 5 percent decline in the number of hotel shoppers on TripAdvisor, but revenue per hotel shopper rose, as did the profitability of TripAdvisor's hotel segment. The company reported that its consolidated direct marketing and selling expense in the quarter declined 23 percent.
"The shopper decline year-over-year is purely driven by our pullback on marketing channels, including Google as a marketing channel and all the other c
