Unlock the Power of Google Ads for Hotels: Boost Your Bookings and Revenue
Google Ads is one of the most exciting products in the market for budding businesses to grow their online presence in the cut-throat competition of business giants online in the same field. Similar is the case with Hotels where fresh and budding hoteliers struggle to survive online.
It is vital to be noted that the Hotel business is a business that requires separate attention and different advertising style which is why google came up with an enhanced google ads tool for Hotels named Google Hotel Ads. While it can get a little tricky to understand the fundaments of Google Hotel Ads, you will get a detailed explanation of everything there is to know about Google Hotel Ads.
What is Google Hotel Ads?
Google Hotel Ads is similar to Google Ads, an advertisement service tool providing a platform by google specialized for Hotels. You may consider it as a metasearch solution that helps the hotels to list their websites on the platform to get more customers to their hotel.
Hoteliers can display the prices of the rooms and all the amenities they provide which further allows google to feature your hotel details on the knowledge panel on the right side of the search engine results page when your hotel is searched for. There are many features and services provided by Google Hotel Ads which will be discussed gradually in the article further.
How Is It different from Google Ads?
It is obvious that Google Hotel Ads is an extension of Google Ads and provides pretty much the same core services that Google Ads does. In such a case, how is Google Hotel Ad different from Google Ads? Well. the key difference between both advertising service platforms is that while Google Ads caters to all types of businesses, Google Hotel Ads sticks to one and provides top-notch features specialized to provide more and more utility to the Hotels looking to expand online.
On the other hand, while Google Ads is dependent on keywords to provide better ranking on advertisements, Google Hotel Ads is dependent on many factors like Hotel availability, rates, target audience, and much more. Therefore, Google Hotel Ads is quite different from Google Ads in many aspects.
How Do Google Hotel Ads Work?
If Google Hotel Ads provides different types of services to the hotels than Google Ads, it must work quite differently from Google Ads as well. Well yes, Google Hotel Ads has a slightly different take on displaying ads and providing services. If we discuss the procedure that is followed by google hotel Ads, it usually depends on the searches the user makes.
When a user searches for a hotel at a particular destination, a separate search box dedicated to hotels will display just below the Google Ads which consists of the list of all the hotels in the region. The separate search box is a hotel search module provided by Google Hotel Ads that will list the given details of all the hotels there are in the region that is running the ad for their hotel on the module.
All the details by the hotels include information about the property, booking source, hotel website, rates, amenities, and much more. On the other hand, if the user searches for the name of the hotel, a knowledge panel will appear on the right side of the search engine results page (SERP) alongside the website and other listed information about the hotel.
Campaigns and Biding
While Google Hotel Ads is quite different from Google Ads, it still follows a similar concept of campaign and bidding to run ads of hotels on the Google SERP although it is again specifically designed for the hotel business. With Google Hotel Ads, you have an ad group that allows you to make bid adjustments based on the traveler’s itinerary. Moreover, there are various modes of payment available in Google Hotel Ads for biding which includes:
Commissions
These are the types of bidding where you pay to google a certain percentage of whatever you earn from the customer based on his/her transaction with the hotel. It further is segregated into two types.
Commission per conversion
In this type of pricing model, you are obliged to pay google the fixed commission when a traveler books your hotel from the ad.
Commission per stay
In this type of pricing model, you are obliged to pay google the fixed commission when a traveler completes a stay at your hotel.
Cost Per Click
Cost Per Click is the classic mode of payment that is followed by google ads and google hotel ads. In this type of payment, the hotel owner is charged the sum of money despite the traveler’s decision to book or skip the hotel. It further is segregated into two types as well.
Maximum CPC
This is the type of pricing model where the fixed bid amount is a liability of the hotel owner to google whenever the ad is clicked. With this method, you can adjust the bid you make based on the traveler’s type of device, country, length of stay, and many more metrics.
Enhanced CPC
In this type of pricing model, you have the feature to automate adjustments to the bid using the max CPC strategy.
Benefits of Using Google Hotel Ads
- You can attract people who actively are in search of a hotel in a particular area.
- With the use of Google Hotel Ads, you have the feature to create a custom hotel price.
- This Ad service allows you to pay the liable sum of money only when someone books the hotel.
- You can also fine-tune your bids based on the device type used by the traveler, country, length of stay he prefers, and much more.
How To Get Started With Google Hotel Ads?
While things might seem a little complicated with Google Hotel Ads, it is quite easy and simple to get started with it. To boost your hotel business with google ads, you would need to provide the information about the hotel you need to post an advertisement about, the prices you offer, and the landing page that will be the page that the user is directed to when he clicks it (preferably, booking engine or hotel website).
All of the provided information will go to the Hotel Centre Account which is a google account that will be used by you to manage the advertisements you post and the budget.
Strategies To Drive More Audience From Google Hotel Ads
Following are the various strategies you can use to promote your hotel business using Google Hotel Ads
Intriguing Booking Experience
While in the hotel business, one must think like the customer and the audience one has to deal with. Therefore, to get a successful ad campaign one must think about providing a unique and intriguing booking experience since that is the task you want the user to perform most of the time.
To do so, understand what booking procedure the customers usually follow and how it can be made more interesting for them to create a hook. Next, it is highly recommended to keep the booking engine and website easy to navigate and uncluttered so that the users stick to your website for any hotel booking.
Mobile Friendly
It is very vital to understand the importance of user experience and customer behavior in this business. In today’s time, people tend to take their hotel booking journey on their mobile devices and smartphones, one must create a responsive website that works well with all platforms and is mobile-centric.
Beneficial Deals
Hospitality is a cut-throat industry with a variety of business entities using a variety of different strategies to boost sales. In such an industry it is hard to come up with a plan that may give you immense success but giving good prices is what can help the most. It does not necessarily mean better amenities at lower prices but more confident booking for the price demanded.
Maintain Rate Uniformity
This is a very important aspect of the hotel business which the majority of hotel owners overlook. Keeping a uniformity in the prices demanded is a very important source of bringing more customers. This builds the confidence of the users towards the hotel and allows you to create more lasting relationships with the customers.
While you should focus on deriving more direct sales from the website, you may opt for OTAs or other channels to spread awareness and bring bookings but do not forget to keep the rates uniform and similar at all the booking channels.
Surveil The ROI
There are many methods and channels through which you can bring bookings to your hotel but not all are beneficial to you if we look at the ROI. Monitor all the Bidding methods and the channels you choose to promote your business and chose the one that has the maximum ROI.
Conclusion
Google Hotel Ads is a very interesting and heavily featured ad service tool for hotels that wish to grow their business online and boost crazy bookings. It has become an important and secure option for budding hotels to grow their business online among the tycoons in the same business.
There are tons of features offered that have already been discussed. While it seems to be a great and easy way to list your hotel and its website on the SERP, you would still need to follow a good strategy. To conclude, Google Hotel Ads are a boon for Hoteliers if used smartly and correctly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Google Hotel Ads?
Google Hotels Ads is just the enhanced version of Google Ads specialized for Hote business using which one can list the property, its pricing, availability, various features, and a link to book it.
How to disable or enable my Google Hotel Ads Campaign?
To do so, you will need to select the campaign and click on the switch to change the settings between enable or disable.
How much do I have to spend on Google Hotel Ads?
The cost of each campaign varies depending on the pricing model you choose. All the pricing models include Maximum Cost-Per-Click, Enhanced Cost Per Click, Commission Per Conversion, and Commission Per Stay. (all have been thoroughly explained in the article)
Is there any extra Credit card fee added to my campaign budget?
There are no extra credit card fees.
Where do my ads appear?
When someone searches for a hotel, your hotel will come up in the hotel search module on Google search, Maps, Google Hotels, and Google Assistant.