Internetretailer the online internet retail portal noted that paid search has paid off big time for online retail merchantsas budgets were ramped up '52% during November and December resulting in (astonishing) sales increases of 69%'.

The ezine also noted that "unsurprisingly, Google was the premier venue for paid search spending during Q4 increasing its market share from Q3 to Q4, taking share from the now-combined Yahoo and Bing search engines. Google captured 82.6% of the paid search ad market versus 17.4% for Yahoo and Bing during Q4."

While most hospitality companies have taken to paid-search in earnest for several years its importance is being heightened with sensititivities in the area now extending to relatively smaller language markets such as Arabic as can be seen  from this ad for a "Paid Search Specialist' by a leading hotel chain with a global foot print.

The benefits to hotels for paid search include showing alongside regular "organic" search thereby increasing visibility whether or not someone clicks through. The fact that most of those looking and/or clicking through are new customers also allows companies to focus their paid serach ad-spend for the lean periods.

Meanwhile Google continues to fine tune its paid search options as content news-marketer Brafton.com reports that Google recently announced changes that may have a positive impact on paid search campaigns. The company will now offer new negative keyword management options, and it will change search ad display URLs to lowercase letters.

Google announced that advertisers can now add negative keywords to a group in their accounts' Control Panel and Library to apply them for multiple campaigns. Negative keywords, Google explains, benefit marketers because they can help filter irrelevant or unwanted impression."

Vijay is Chief Operating Officer and part-founder of Apple Core Hotels- a chain of 5 midtown Manhattan hotels offering value and comfort in the heart of the city.Member of the board of Directors - Hotel Association of New York.

www.vijaydandapani.com