This July, Google announced a rollup of its Hotel Ads metasearch product into the broader Google Ads platform (FKA “Adwords”). The update brings immense opportunity to hotels.
Over the past eight years, Hotels Ads has evolved into an increasingly valuable booking channel for suppliers and OTAs alike as the product’s prime positioning, being more deeply embedded in the travel search journey, has led to stronger intent signals equating to higher conversion rates and return-on-investment. Those elevated performance metrics, however, have arguably come with more daunting operations versus traditional paid search placements, given the detail required to manage placements in a platform divorced from Google’s go-to ad tech stack. The absorption into the Google Ads platform has made Hotel Ads much more approachable as marketers can now manage their campaigns in a familiar environment, but more importantly, the change provides hotel marketers with extended capabilities for optimizing their ad campaigns including the benefit of using advanced audience targeting.
This poses the question, how does the launch of Google’s Hotel Ads integration present the opportunity for travel and hospitality brands to gain a competitive edge against online travel agencies (OTAs)? OTAs are early adopters of audience-targeting practices, so suppliers need to move faster to protect their share of the market. While OTAs have a deep arsenal of targeting and tools, the key asset they won’t be able to reach into is clear – a hotel’s first-party data. Effectively leveraging that data to inform campaign structure and most importantly power the guest experience in Hotel Ads is guaranteed to result in even greater improvements in channel performance. Here are some tips that will prime travel and hospitality brands for success.
KNOW THE HOTEL ADS AUDIENCE OFFERINGS
There are three (3) key applications available for audiences in Hotel Ads: 1) Bid Multipliers, 2) Fenced Rates, and 3) Qualified Rates. Through Bid Multipliers, advertisers can bid up to 2x at the audience level. Fenced Rates provide the ability to customize prices based on audience segment. Qualified Rates enable the promotion of discounts without having to display the price itself.
