Key Word Effectiveness in Paid Placement Advertising: an Exploratory Study in the Context of a Travel Website

Purpose: The paper looks at how different categories of keywords used in paid placement campaigns influence the click through rate of potential searchers. Design/ Methodology: The paper analyses data from a online travel agency based in Thailand and considers over 5000 keywords for analysis. Findings: The predominant influence of the average position achieved by a keyword in a paid placement campaign in determining the ‘click-through’ rate is reemphasised However some other interesting insights like the difference in effectiveness of broad versus narrow keywords were found. Originality/Value: This is one of the first paper that looks at effectiveness of keywords in a Paid placement context and hence can guide researchers in the future. Limitation: The categorisation of the keywords is not perfectly objective and for lack of prior theory in this area, there is certain difficulty in positioning the study.