Making PPC Search Ads Work For Your Hotel

July 24, 2019

Industry Insights

Pay-per-click (PPC) search ads are an effective way for hotels to outrank their competition in search engine results and drive quality traffic to their website. These non-organic search results appear above and below organic results on search engines. Hotel marketers bid on keyword terms and phrases relevant to their hotel property to rank in online searches.

The cost of PPC search campaigns is determined by how many clicks an ad receives. Each time a paid ad is clicked on, a small fee is paid to the search engine. In order for hotels to drive direct booking conversions online, quality traffic to the property’s website is essential. PPC search ads typically attract motivated traffic, meaning the guests who click the ad have more intention of converting. This may be why paid search is the top digital ad channel for advertisers. According to Marin Software’s State of Digital Advertising 2019 report, paid search accounts for 39% of advertisers’ budgets.

When creating PPC search campaigns, it’s important to think about what your potential guests may be searching for. For example, if your hotel is located in Downtown Denver, you’d want to bid on terms such as ‘hotels in Downtown Denver’. Since these online travelers are already searching for hotels there, they are more qualified leads and therefore more likely to convert.

Why PPC Search Is Important for Hotel Marketing:

It’s Fast.
- With systems such as Google AdWords, you can create an account and generate relevant traffic within minutes.
It’s Flexible.
- Most pay-per-click campaigns can be easily adjusted in a matter of hours. This allows marketers to adjust ads and search terms according to market conditions, campaign initiatives, and customer’s interests.
It’s Profitable.
- You can often find highly specific keywords and phrases for a bargain. These bids can generate targeted traffic for a fraction of what it’d cost via other marketing efforts. PPC campaigns are especially useful for short-term campaigns or product/service offers.

How To Make PPC Search Campaigns Work:

In order to make pay-per-click campaigns generate profit for your property, there are several things to consider.

Set a sensible PPC budget.
Perform keyword research to determine best terms to bid on. Include keyword terms relevant to your hotel property and exclude negative keywords to reduce any wasted ad spend.
Utilize exact match and phrase keywords in your campaigns for more targeted, qualified traffic. Broad match terms may result in lower-quality traffic.
Optimize PPC search campaigns for mobile devices. Since many hotel guests search on a smartphone or tablet, it’s important to make sure your PPC search campaigns are mobile-friendly.
Align landing pages. Make sure landing page content and calls to action are relevant to the ad content.
Carefully monitor metrics such as click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rates to identify which keywords and ads are performing best and which can afford to be eliminated or revised.