Expedia TravelAds Sponsored Listings, Expedia Groups flagship performance product, has been a necessary paid media tool for hotels to secure premium and additional placement across Expedia Groups brands.

NB: This is an article from Cogwheel Marketing, one of our Expert Partners

When you run Expedia TravelAds, you get the Expedia network which includes other sites like Hotels.com, Orbitz and Travelocity to name a few. TravleAds is continually evolving their ability to target travelers by offering more direct targeting parameter and enhance reporting to provide partners with ability to track and optimize performance.

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Koddi is a preferred platform selected by major brands, like Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Hyatt and Wyndham, to assist in running Expedia Travel Ads. But, each brand calls the Koddi Private Market platform something different:

  • Marriott – PLUS
  • Hilton – Amplify
  • IHG – Boost
  • Wyndham – LevelUp

This has led to a lot of hotel owners confusion. We hear, “Should I run my ads directly through Expedia Travel Ads website or go through Koddi?”

Here are the pros and cons for you to decide.

Hotel Paid Media and Advertising

Expedia Travel Ads and Koddi both include similar data sets when it comes to individual hotel data that you can see.

  • Daily Ad Spend
  • Clicks
  • Average CPC (Cost Per Click)
  • Impressions
  • Average Rank
  • CTR (Click Through Rank)
  • Revenue Clicked / Exposed
  • Room Nights Clicked / Exposed
  • ROAS Clicks / Exposed (Return on Ad Spend)

Reporting Differences

In Koddi, much of your hotel’s paid advertising can be in one place.  For many hoteliers, like those under brands such as Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Hyatt and Wyndham, the Koddi platform allows hotels to manage a number of channels in one place. Other channels outside of Expedia Travel Ads includes Metasearch, Display, Social, Retargeting, Paid Search, Priceline Sponsored Listings and Booking.com Native Ads.

Targeting Parameters

Both Expedia TravelAds and Koddi offer the same targeting to allow hoteliers to customize where and when their ads display. Expedia TravelAds and Koddi both provide the same targeting parameters to hoteliers. You can manipulate the following strategies in each platform.

  • Writing custom ad copy
  • Setting your daily budget
  • Setting up your bids
  • Target by Weekdays and Weekends
  • Target by travel window (0-21 days from booking or 22+ days)
  • Target by Country
  • Scheduled ads to target distinct stay dates
  • Competitor data (Average CPC, Clicked ROAS, Daily Spend)
  • Targeting Tools/Bid Enhancers

Hotel Funding 

Through Koddi, select major hotel brands occasionally offer a percentage of fund matching to incentivize you to use Koddi. The percentage changes often and each of the brands do not always offer a fund match. Pay attention to the offer, as sometimes it only applies to select channels within Koddi. But, why not take advantage of free money?

In Expedia Travel Ads, you can select from 3 funding/payment options: direct bill, post bill and credit card. That means on Expedia you can get access to funds immediately to run campaigns, even though Expedia has not yet received the funds. Note, select brands bill via the franchise invoice via Koddi, offering a similar option.

Strategic Support

You can reach out to your Koddi Support for any help with setting up your bids, scheduling your ads or advanced targeting. But, you are not likely to get a dedicated account manager. Because you can advertise across many channels from a single place with Koddi, their recommendations are generally more holistic. Koddi’s platform also includes the same market insights you see in the Expedia TravelAds tools. Koddi does not provide market insight to help in understanding your specific market.

Every hotel has a designated Expedia TravelAds account manager that provides market trends and insights. You are able to discuss data/insights/trends to better align your strategy for maximum results.    

Last Points When Deciding to Use Koddi or Expedia Travel Ads

  • Once funds are deposited into either Koddi or TravelAds, you cannot move it around. 
  • Additionally, reporting history is only available via the avenue you loaded it.
  • Koddi sometimes reflects a error when pulling real time data.    
  • Koddi’s platform includes advanced automation tools for TravelAds that update your bids daily and automatically to adjust to market conditions.

The Final Decision

At Cogwheel Marketing, we feel it depends on the brand and how the brand works with Koddi, specifically. As each brand handles funding differently, this is where the true difference lies, depending on the accounting structure of the hotel and the funds available. If you are part of a brand or independent hotel that manages driving room nights through OTAs then working directly with your Expedia TravelAds account manager may be a benefit to you to help maximize your goals.

Read more articles from Cogwheel Marketing