Google Made Advertising Concessions to Travel Partners But They're Still Angry
Skift Take
Google's travel ad chief said companies that aren't seeing enough advertising benefits with Google probably shouldn't spend as much as they are. Few big travel companies would drop out of Google knowing it might sabotage their businesses, but probably an increasing number are desperate for alternatives.
As the pandemic brought travel to a standstill in the first quarter and bookings were cancelled en masse, advertisers spent millions of dollars on Google advertising that turned into nothing. Since then, Google made concessions to some advertisers — but they scoff at the paltry amount.
Eight German travel companies that sent a letter to Google at the end of April seeking payment concessions on $80 million in first quarter advertising invoices ultimately got relief of less than 10 percent of the total, according to GetYourGuide spokesman Will Gluckin.
"Google didn't even budge on 10 percent of that," he said, adding that Google may have been more benevolent to some smaller advertisers, relatively speaking.
"It remains our view that they've leveraged their market position to excuse themselves from the responsibility to take care of the travel industry's customers when the chips were down," Gluckin said.
Axel Hefer, the CEO of Trivago, one of the signatories to the letter to Google, told Skift Friday: "We have paid our advertising bills in full," hinting that the metasearch company got little, if any, relief from Google.
Google Leverage
Like GetYourGuide, another one of the letter signers, Omio, formerly known as GoEuro, said Google insisted on lopsided one-to-one negotiati
