Today, we’re talking about…Google’s latest metasearch advertising product: Promoted Hotels.
NB: This is an article from Tambourine
Meet Promoted Hotels
It’s Google’s latest metasearch ad unit. And it’s available to any hoteliers currently running metasearch advertising.
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How it works
When travelers search Google for “hotels in New York City,” Google’s hotel finder generates a handy-dandy list. And now, you can pay to display your hotel at the top of that list. Take a look below. Those first two placements at the top of the list are Promoted Hotel Ads.
Metasearch Ads: Shift share meets new customer acquisition
Hoteliers more familiar with Google Hotel Ads may wonder, “what’s the difference between hotel ads and promoted hotels?” The answer has to do with where travelers are in their search journey.
Hotel Ads, for instance, turn up when a customer performs a search for your hotel’s brand name. Like this:
Alternatively, Promoted Hotel Ads turn up when a customer searches for hotels in your destination (i.e. “Hotels In New York City”).
The Brave New World of Travel Intent AKA Destination Ads
Google’s Promoted Hotels joins Tripadvisor Sponsored Placements and Expedia Travel Ads as yet another channel and opportunity to interrupt travelers before they’ve decided on a hotel. It’s what the industry is calling travel intent or destination ads, because the consumer has decided on a destination, but has not yet narrowed their search for a hotel. This, of course, becomes a critical touchpoint for hoteliers competing with their compset for every scrap of consumer interest.
Google’s Advantage
There’s a few reasons Google’s product has a competitive advantage on its competitors Tripadvisor & Expedia. (Beyond the fact that it’s Google.) For one thing, Google’s platform remains the shortest path to a direct booking. Consumers never have to leave the search engine to perform their research. For another, Google Promoted Hotel Ads doesn’t over-complicate the purchase by displaying competitor rates. In fact, when a consumer clicks on the ad, it takes them to a simple listing with one rate, your book direct rate. See below:
Is Google’s metasearch advertising going to replace traditional brand & non-brand search ads?
The addition of Google Promoted Hotels to their Metasearch product coupled with Google Hotel Finder rounds out Google’s official re-imagining of the hotel search experience. A rather unpopular opinion with SEOs, this shift provides alternative and arguably better search experiences for consumers looking to book a hotel.
Does metasearch advertising outperform traditional search ads?
Google Hotel Ads almost universally outperform it’s equivalent Google Branded Search Ads in terms of ROAS. In addition, early results show Promoted Hotel Ads outperform its equivalent Non-Brand Search Ads in terms of ROAS.
As Google search naturally draws more and more consumers to Hotel Finder and consumer behavior continues to adopt these new tools, the future of traditional hotel search remains unclear.
Flash back!
How much of your media budget has shifted from Google’s traditional hotel search product to Google’s metasearch product over the last few years?
