Dear WuBookers , today we’re talking about how to use Google Ads to effectively promote a hotel, B&B, or any other accommodation property. Let’s see how this famous advertising platform works, what sponsorship opportunities it offers, and what types of campaigns are best to keep active in order to increase direct reservations. But first things first.

What is Google Ads and how does it work in simple terms?

First of all, let’s start with a quick summary: Google Ads is a free advertising platform implemented by Google that allows you to create promotional campaigns on the web. Who can use it? Hypothetically, anyone with a website and a budget to invest. The overall goal of Google Ads is to connect website operators with potential customers while they are actively searching for information on the search bar (known as SERP in jargon) or browsing online.

To activate a Google Ads campaign, you need to have a website to promote, an advertising budget to invest, and a Google account registered on the platform.

Types of advertising campaigns on Google Ads

Once activated, the account allows you to create different types of campaigns, which vary in content and business objectives: for example, there are campaigns that are more suitable for gaining visibility, others that are ideal for website traffic or conversions (direct reservations), leads, calls, and so on.

The main campaigns are:

• Search: based on keywords (which can be purchased through an auction system), this allows you to dominate the search results page with text ads consisting of various elements, such as a title, description, and link to your website;
• Display: a “visual” campaign featuring graphic ads accompanied by titles and logos, which are displayed on Google websites, apps, and products (such as Gmail and YouTube);
• Performance Max: often abbreviated to PMax, this is one of Google’s latest creations and is based on Artificial Intelligence, which distributes ads (text, images, videos) across Google’s entire inventory—Search Network, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps;
• Video and Demand Gen (or Dem Gen): again, the content is visual. The video campaign is managed manually and only works on YouTube, while Dem Gen also involves Discover, Gmail, and Google’s Display Network.

Each type therefore varies in terms of how it works and its requirements, but it is important to remember that competition, the size of the investment and the duration of the campaigns can make all the difference in terms of the results achieved or achievable.

In addition to these, Google has long developed a promotional tool dedicated to the hotel sector, Google Hotel Ads, which does not, however, exclude campaigns on Google Ads: on the contrary, in many cases it is advisable to work on both.

Why use Google Ads to promote your property?

The decision-making process that leads a person to book a trip is increasingly long and fragmented. There are many online touchpoints between supply and demand, from YouTube videos to Search and Maps, to Discover and Gmail, often using multiple devices at the same time.

This complexity represents a great opportunity for hotels. While OTAs excel at comparison and booking, hotels and other accommodations can win the game of inspiration and visibility in all the previous steps, namely search and discovery.

It is at this early stage that a property can tell its unique story, showcase authentic experiences, and build a direct relationship with potential guests, even before they have decided on a search on third-party portals.

To navigate the new online ecosystem successfully, accommodation properties must therefore adopt a multifaceted approach, including different communication strategies that encompass various types of paid campaigns. But which ones exactly, and where to start?

How to set up a campaign for accommodation properties

There is no single “best” campaign, but rather a strategic mix of tools, each with a specific role and objective. However, it is true that some objectives have—or should have—priority over others and, as a result, it is preferable to activate some campaigns over others.

These include Search campaigns, which allow you to purchase keywords that are relevant to your property, with different objectives.

The first may be, for example, brand awareness, i.e., the notoriety of the brand. In this case, ads are activated every time a user searches online for the name of the hotel: an essential campaign to try to excel in SERPs, even surpassing large aggregators that exploit the hotel’s name to gain visibility and clicks.

Another way to use Search is to create campaigns that are activated by keywords (text strings) related to the hotel and its characteristics, therefore geolocated (“hotel name + country,” for example, “Hotel Pincopallo Rome”), or more descriptive (for example, “Hotel with parking in the center of Rome” or “Hotel with swimming pool in Paris”). The goal will no longer be awareness but conversion, i.e., direct reservations on the property’s website.

Of course, for campaigns to be truly effective, you need to make sure that the keywords are actually searched for by online users. How? By using the Google Ads Planning Tool, which allows you to identify the most frequent keywords and their seasonality: a fundamental aspect for allocating your budget at different times of the year.

How to write effective ads

As mentioned, Search campaigns consist of text ads. These include various elements such as the ad title, a short description, and various “Assets,” to use Google’s jargon. Assets include, for example, sitelinks (links to pages on your site), callouts (to highlight promotions and offers), the call (to make your phone number clickable directly from the ad), and the link to your My Business Profile, each with different objectives.

As for the text of the ads, it is important to include the keyword and its variants, respect the character limits, and try to create clear and appealing messages that entice the user to click.

The landing page and other useful tips

And once they do? The landing page (or website) must also be designed to encourage conversion, with carefully chosen images and descriptions, important information clearly highlighted, and calls to action that are easy to understand and locate. If the goal is to make a reservation, the entire landing page should streamline this process and limit distractions or “escape routes” as much as possible.

The Website Creation module of Zak, the PMS by WuBook, is designed to independently create sites that are functional not only from a technical point of view but also from a strategic and promotional point of view: it is no coincidence that it is natively connected to Zak and its tools, including the Booking Engine for direct reservations.

Pay attention to conversion tracking. Once you have set up your campaign and landing page, you need to check that reservations are being tracked within Google Ads and Google Analytics. This is a rather technical operation but essential if you want to evaluate the real impact of your sponsorships and make adjustments to your strategy and/or investment budget. If you don’t know how much traffic your campaigns are generating and how much money they are bringing in, how can you tell if they are performing well or poorly? Therefore, your hotel management software must allow you to send booking data received—and, if possible, the amounts—to Google Ads and Google Analytics so that you can track those generated by paid ads. This is a feature that Zak by WuBook has no problem providing.

Not just Search: take advantage of Display, PMax, Dem Gen

Although Search is the type of advertising closest to conversion, it doesn’t have to be the only one. As we mentioned, the Google ecosystem offers several opportunities to intercept users even when they are not doing a targeted search.

This is where other campaigns, such as Display, Performance Max, or Demand Gen, which (also) promote inspirational content capable of striking a more emotional chord, become very interesting. From this perspective, campaigns such as those on YouTube or Demand Gen are not merely a cost, but an investment to “occupy” the initial stages of the customer journey, when loyalty has not yet been granted to an intermediary.

One of the advantages of these variants is the ability to segment traffic. Instead of showing ads to all online users indiscriminately—with the risk of exhausting the available budget in a very short time—it is possible to define more precisely the audience we want to reach. The parameters are varied: age, gender, geolocation, interests, etc. This requires a good knowledge of your actual or potential customers, or at least the identification of a particular category of travelers who might be attracted to your property. In addition, some campaigns allow you to create a “similar audience”: by uploading your (consented) contact database to the platform, you help Google’s algorithm find and “target” similar people.

International campaigns: promoting your property to a foreign audience

The logic seen so far applies to both national and international sponsorships. However, before deciding which countries to cover with Google Ads campaigns, it is important to carry out an analysis (of keywords, costs, competition, opportunities) in order to best target your investments. Adding too many geographical areas risks being distracting and ineffective.

In general, it is preferable to work entirely in the local language: if you intend to promote a hotel in France, it is not enough for the ads to be written in French; the destination website must also be in French. English is a universal language, but a website that speaks a language other than that of potential customers could generate mistrust and laziness: in other words, missed opportunities. Therefore, in addition to defining the target countries and the promotional strategy, it is necessary to take into account any costs related to translation and development.

Google Ads for hotels: yes or no?

This is only a brief overview of the many possibilities that Google Ads offers to those who decide to promote their hotel, B&B, or property online, and the possible actions are too numerous to be described in detail.

As a final piece of advice, which applies to Google Ads campaigns but not only, always try to put yourself in the shoes of those searching for your product or service in order to understand their real needs and to highlight as much as possible what sets you apart from the competition.