Conduct a Flight Search

We've all had the experienceof bookinga triponline. Your planning process likely starts withenteringin a few keywords in a browser and hours may pass before you find what you are really looking for. Providers of various travel services (travel agents, airlines, hotels, etc.) try to predict what those keywords might be so they can target their ads accordingly. The holy grail of sponsored search advertising is knowingwhat keywords consumers use when they want to purchase something specific online.

It is worth stopping to see just how far digital advertising has come.In this short activity, you will use some keywords to search for flight informationand makenote of how wellor notadvertisers are targeting ads to those keywords.Follow the steps below.

Step 1

Open a new tab in your browser

Step 2

Go to Google.com and conduct three searches using the following keywords:"Flights to Hawaii","Cheap flights to Hawaii", and"First class flights to Hawaii."

Step 3

After each search, scroll through the results page (known as a "Search Engine Results Page", or "SERP"). Then, make note of the following:

- How many ads were shown? (An ad is indicated by the word "Ad" in a square box.)

- Which advertisers' ads were shown and in which positions? (The ad on top is in position 1, the one below the top ad is in position 2, and so on.)

- Which were the top three organic results that were shown? ("Organic" results are shown below the ads.)

- When you click on the ad in position 1, is the "landing page" to which you are taken relevant to the keyword you searched for?

- When you click on the organic link in the top-most position on the SERP, is the landing page to which you are taken relevant to the keyword you searched for?

Step 4

Make note of your results as you will need this information to participate in the class discussion board that follows.

What Ads Did You See?

Discussion topic:

Please make sure that you have completed the flight search activity.

As you saw from your keyword searches, digital advertising hasbecome incrediblysophisticated in terms of their ability to target ads to individual consumers. But digital advertising is far from perfect. Take a moment to share what you saw when you did the flight search activity.

Instructions:

In your post, consider the following:

Did you find any duplication between the ads and the organic links? If yes, what are the implications for advertisers?

Did you find the landing pages for ads and for organic links to be relevant to the keywords you searched for? Which one was more relevant?

How does the advertising targeting you experienced here differ from the targeting of ads you see on TV?