Does Google Hotel Ads improve the visibility of my hotel?

As a rule, the criteria necessary for successful visibility for hotels are very simple:

Hotel + destination information
also z.Bsp. “Hotel Cologne" or "Hotels in Cologne”

For example, if you search for “Hotel in Cologne” on Google, in the past you would consistently receive sponsored ads from the leading Online Travel Agents (OTAs) in the first positions:

Booking.com, Expedia and Kayak as well as ads from the metasearch engines Trivago and Tripadvisor. These providers are still nowadays the most significant sources of revenue for online advertising on all search engines, especially Google.

The success of these portals, especially the leading OTAs such as Booking.com and Expedia, meant that the OTA pages were simply entered directly into the browser, thereby bypassing Google's advertising clicks. The development of corresponding smartphone apps has strengthened this trend in recent years.

That's why Google in particular has changed its strategy since the corona pandemic. Google has now made the hotel ads more interactive and equipped with more comprehensive information. In particular, the display of hotels with prices and availability via Google Maps is a central part of Google's meta-search strategy:

In a separate blog postwww.masch.com/de/news-blog/ My colleague Yevhennia Balabanova explained where and how hotels are found on Google.

Now the question arises:

Is it enough to finance Google Hotel Ads with your own marketing budget and online success is guaranteed immediately?

The answer is easy:

NO, because Google Hotel Ads alone are not a solid basis for the online success of your hotel and are also a very expensive approach.

Google Hotel Ads are certainly a good addition to a balanced marketing strategy.

Your primary homework as a hotelier should be to create a strong “organic ranking” (I’ll explain what organic ranking means here…) for your hotel website before you enter the regional or national competition in Google searches with Google Hotel Ads.

Have a strong “organic ranking” for your website and your own booking platform, the click prices for Google (Hotel) Ads will be cheaper than if your website is also positioned in the search result lists.

Why?

Quite simply, the further up you are found in the Google ranking, the less the Google (hotel) ad can bring you forward in the search results list (SERP).
Ergo, the price per click will be cheaper and your budget will be less burdened overall.

Conclusion:

The combination of an organically well-ranked website and a well-connected booking platform on your own website gives you every opportunity to achieve your online marketing strategy successfully and at the same time affordably. This also includes Google Hotel Ads if the competitive situation makes it necessary.

That's why I recommend the following steps:

1. First of all, check the SEO optimization level of your hotel website.
   
   
• MASCH Customer Service offers you a free but comprehensive written analysis of your website.
  Sign up just here https://www.masch.com/en/seo-analysis-2024/ and request the associated analysis report with explanations about your website.
  
  
2. If you have strong organic rankings, check the technical requirements Your own booking platform and the existing offer situation from offering OTA platforms.
   
   
3. Check which alternatives to Google Hotel Ads are applicable to you. I recommend the following blog article by my colleague Matthias Liedtke from MASCH Customer Service.
   
   
4. Let me and my colleagues advise you before you take any further steps!

About the author:

Martin Schaarschmidt is the founder and CEO of MASCH Software Solutions and has successfully led the company in the area of ​​web software development and sales for more than 20 years.
MASCH Software Solutions is a provider of content management software for SEO optimized websites. Our experience, including over 15 years of SEO automation in software development, helps our customers develop their products and services'Google & Co.’ to make it more visible.

If you have further questions about the organic ranking of'Google & Co.’ for your company, my colleagues and I will be happy to provide you with advice and assistance.

Contact:

Email: martin.schaarschmidt@masch.com or support@masch.com
Tel. in Germany: +49 (0)2203 806 8405 or in Switzerland: +41 (0)33 511 2135

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