The Travel Industry Benchmark 2026 What's actually happening inside travel paid search.
We manage $150M+ in travel ad spend and audit new accounts every month. Hotel marketplaces, car rental, airlines, vacation rentals, tours. The accounts vary in size and category, but the findings repeat.
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$150M+
76+
18
17yrs
What's inside
Benchmarks your team can actually use.
Real data from real travel paid search accounts - broken down by channel, structure and conversion quality.
Exact Match Coverage
Most travel accounts are covering fewer searches than they were 12 months ago, while paying more for each one. Here's what's behind it./p>
Coverage & Cost Trends
Why coverage is missed and costs climb - and the three reasons why the same spend is buying less than it was a year ago.
Conversion Signal Quality
Why the signal Google receives is flat in most travel accounts - and how the gap between what the team reports and what the algorithm reads grows quietly over time.
Account Structure
Why accounts built to mirror the business are costing more than they should - and what structuring around the bidding algorithm actually looks like.
Automation & Bidding
Where smart bidding is working in travel paid search, where it is quietly misdirected, and the inputs it needs to pull in the right direction.
Audience & First-Party Data
Why first-party data sits unused in most travel accounts - and how the accounts that outperform are using what they already own.
Why Search Machines
We built our careers inside the accounts you're trying to beat.
Search Machines was founded by former performance leads from Booking.com, Expedia and Agoda. We manage $150M+ in travel ad spend across dozens of accounts every year. We manage the budgets that set the benchmark. This isn't research from the outside.
Client Results
What ATLAS finds that others miss.
+42%
20%+
94%
Real people. Real results.
What set Search Machines apart was their ability to combine technical excellence with a deep understanding of the travel landscape - helping us reach levels of efficiency we'd never seen before. Their impact has been pivotal to our long-term growth story.
