Airbnb ups its marketing spend

The company “dials up and down” marketing on Google where Airbnb sees the opportunity for efficient marketing spend

Based on several Airbnb initiatives over the last year, the company has been able to spend “modestly more” on Google “and maintain greater efficiencies,” Airbnb Chief Financial Officer Ellie Mertz said during an interview.

Key takeaways

• Mertz emphasized that “performance marketing continues to be a minority of our overall marketing spend… This is not a big portion of our marketing budget or a percent of revenue,” she added;
• When asked why Airbnb wouldn't invest more in performance marketing to drive just 5% more revenue, Mertz replied, "We don't rely heavily on it. About 90% of our traffic comes from direct sources, which is very beneficial to our bottom line;"
• Airbnb differs from other online travel companies such as Booking Holdings and Expedia Group. While the latter spend billions on Google performance marketing, it represents a larger percentage of their annual revenue compared to Airbnb's spending on the search engine.

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