The world of hotel marketing is vast and complex. Platforms such as Facebook can drive tons of traffic, but not always revenue. Other systems, such as Google’s AdWords is typically focused on driving revenue. The trouble marketers can get into is when they think about all channels with a similar mindset. This can spell disaster.
In this edition of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast we’ll be reviewing a few of the most effective channels for hotels. What you can take away from this is… You can’t apply the same thought process to all marketing channels, regardless of how similar they appear to be.
Pay Per Click
The PPC mindset is what most marketer fall back on when building campaigns. Regardless of the type of campaign (brand, rev gen, signup) the process is basically the same. You’re going to assign some type of dollar value to a conversion and then look at the performance based on Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). The mindset is simple, drive revenue and lots of it.
Google GHA
Google’s Hotel Ads (GHA) is an entirely different animal from the traditional Google AdWords type account. For those who are not familiar GHA used to be called HPA, but apparently Google saw fit to confuse everyone by changing acronyms. If you are not familiar with GHA, HPA or the next name they are going to come up with check out one of our previous articles, “Google Hotel Ads, What You Need To Know.” Basically, GHA is the area on the search results page and maps where google will show the nightly rate for a hotel.
Once you understand how GHA works, you will immediately see that the mindset shifts from a hand’s on approach (ala PPC) to a more automated process. The hard work on a GHA campaign in in the initial setup of the data feed from your booking system to Google and initial campaign optimization. GHA relies heavily on machine learning to decipher customer intent and serving the hotel’s rate.
Read rest of the article and hear podcast at Fuel Travel
