Last year's Google ads updates and their impact on the hospitality industry

Last year's Google ads updates and their impact on the hospitality industry

In 2017, Google launched a number of new initiatives at its Google Marketing Next event. Last year, they launched Google Marketing Live and we could see from inside what the internet giant had done.

Google has announced new branding initiatives, including a change of AdWords name naming to ads, as well as the combination of DoubleClick Ad Exchange and DoubleClick for Publishers in one platform. : Google Ad Manager.

Google has also made changes regarding the progress of machine learning and its application to the Google Ads platform.

With Google Marketing Live 2019 this week, we want to revisit what was launched last year.

What we learned

As many of you know, search ads were one of Google's top deals. Reactive search ads leverage machine learning to become "useful and personalized" on a large scale. According to the tests conducted by the company, this approach generates 15% more advertising clicks.

You only need to provide up to 15 titles and 4 lines of description, and Google will do the rest. By testing different combinations, Google identifies the best performing ad creative for a search query. Thus, people looking for the same thing can see different ads depending on the context.

In addition to these Responsive Search ads, Google also announced improvements regarding machine learning:

• Maximize Elevation for YouTube – Uses auto-learning to optimize the performance of ads on YouTube by automatically adjusting bids.
• Local Campaigns: Uses machine learning to attract more customers to physical stores by optimizing the placement of ads on different Google platforms.
• Smart Shopping Campaigns – Uses machine learning to optimize campaigns based on criteria and goals selected by marketers.

What these updates mean for the hospitality industry

Google has had a big impact by targeting hotels with their Hotel Ads feature, allowing businesses to showcase their business on Google.com and Google Maps on all devices.

However, unlike most meta-search entities (which are still at the heart of Google's foray into hotel bookings), the company allows travelers to book directly on the company's website. Establishment, in a sense "owning the relationship" of the interaction with the announcement. the reservation.

Google has integrated a number of booking engines to ensure easy access to available room inventory for various hosting providers, including TravelClick, Saber Hospitality, IBC Hospitality Solutions, and SHR, to name just a few. some.

New ways to manage audiences

Google's Head of Audience allows you to set a marketing campaign for hotels targeting people who have already visited your website.

At the same time, it is possible to target demographic data, which allows advertisers to offer ads that are gender and age appropriate. While this feature was available before, Google has taken a step further with targets that can be based on household income and parental status.

Such a feature allows advertisers, such as hotels, to be more specific about their audience, making it easier to attract good visitors.

Positioning of the ad

In addition to all these versions, Google has tested the new location of these high-conversion hotel ads, above the first natural location on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

As you can see from the screen shots below, these ad placements have moved from the right sidebar to a traditional "native ad" location, directly in the area of results of the page:

What is the impact of these advertising sites on your business?

1. By simply pushing organic results further down the page, these hotel listings reduce organic brand traffic on your website. It is necessary to put more emphasis on local search terms and "long tail" keywords in SEO so that your property stays above the results of non-branded search terms.
2. Brand Auctions are becoming more important because your rates are not the only ones to appear in the "Book Now" box. OTAs also want to be included in this area. While these bookings help you increase your occupancy rates, we all know they do not maximize revenue. The only way for your website to display above this "Book Now" online format will be to bid on the keywords of your own brand.
3. If you do not already use Google Hotel Ads, now is the time to find out more about how your property can be included. The first step is to determine if your booking engine is integrated with Google.

About TRAVELNET SOLUTIONS

By providing integrated solutions for the hospitality industry, TRAVELNET Solutions offers a full range of services ranging from proprietary management software to CRM, CRM, digital marketing and CRM. of contacts in the cloud.

Our mission is to transform the operation of hospitality. Every day, we strive to solve the toughest technology and workflow challenges, and we work tirelessly to deliver solutions that help our customers become more efficient and profitable. Our vision of the future is a world in which every hospitality company is able to compete on a level playing field. Our goal is to become the janitor of our clientele. It all starts with a question: how can we help you?

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