Create an Internet advertising campaign for your hotel

In 2019, almost 81% of hotel room reservations were made on the Internet, and this continues to increase. In view of this figure, having an online presence is essential in the hotel industry today. 

You still have to manage to stand out from the very strong competition in the hotel sector, and manage to attract Internet users to your hotel and not another. Several Internet advertising campaign solutions for hotels exist. Let’s do a check in.

Hotel Internet advertising campaign: the prerequisites

For an Internet advertising campaign for a hotel to work, it is imperative to fulfill a few conditions beforehand.

Create a website and optimize it

The website is essential to promote a hotel establishment. It allows to inform the customer, but also to take reservations. The creation of a website is therefore at the top of the priorities.

Furthermore, the optimization of the site is essential. You have to be able to stand out from the many competing sites, so that when a user types a targeted query into the Google search bar, your website appears in the first results. Natural referencing, or SEO, is a powerful tool here, to which you can add other assets to improve the user experience and promote the hotel’s brand image:

• A responsive site (23% of hotel reservations is now done from a smartphone or tablet);
• Smooth navigation;
• Relevant information about your establishment;
• Quality visual content.

Have a simple and fast online booking engine

Today, the process of booking a hotel room is done almost all the time online. Thus, a site with an effective SEO strategy will not be very useful if the customer cannot book online. It is therefore essential to have an online booking solution for the rooms of your establishment.

But it can also be interesting to appear on booking platforms, or OTA (Online Tourism Agency), such as Hotels.com or Booking.com. Indeed, nearly 80% of online reservations are made from an OTA, so this can attract new potential customers. However, it is necessary to be aware of the disadvantages of such an acquisition channel (high costs, difficult loyalty, high competition, etc.).

Nothing prevents a hotelier from combining the optimized site and the presence on the OTAs, to increase the visibility of the establishment. It is also not recommended to bet everything on a booking platform, because the hotel is then dependent on the conditions of the OTA (algorithm, fees, etc.), which can change at any time and cause loss of visibility, and therefore of the clientele.

Knowing your target customer to be able to personalize communication

In terms of advertising strategies, reaching out to as many people as possible is not necessarily a profitable initiative. The more the hotel manages to target its customers, the more it will be able to personalize its communication campaigns, and impact the right audience. Knowing your ideal client perfectly is also essential to optimize the website.

Indeed, if tourist accommodation is aimed at a large part of the population, each establishment is generally more specifically addressed to a specific public: family stay, business trip, city trip, romantic getaway the clientele must then understand different information, which will guide the advertising campaign : age, gender, marital status, socio-professional category, interests, geographical location, etc.

This data thus makes it possible to target communication, but also to avoid missteps, like sending a promotion for a one-night stay to people who live on the other side of the planet, for example.

What are the preferred channels for your hotel internet advertising campaign? 

There are a multitude of ways to communicate on the web. It is therefore wise to select the most effective channels.

Paid referencing (SEA)

As we have seen, natural referencing (SEO) is an effective way to attract Internet users to a site. But it takes time and a lot of patience. For more timely, yet highly effective, targeted hotel advertising, hoteliers can opt for paid search engine optimization (SEA).

Paid digital advertising then consists of buying advertising space on the Google search results page (SERP). Thus, Internet users will see the hotel appear in the first results according to the keywords they have typed in Google (or in other search engines). The mention “announcement” is then displayed before the link of the page.

The SEA makes it possible to target the public very precisely, and to address people who are already looking for a hotel (no need to create the need). An ad campaign then drives high-quality, qualified traffic to the site, dramatically increasing the number of conversions.

Meta searches

A meta search is a price comparison tool entirely dedicated to hotels. Travelers can then compare prices between different establishments before making their choice.

A hotelier can thus display the prices of his establishment on different meta engines, such as TripAdvisor, Google Hotel Ads, Kayak, Trivago…

Google hotel Ads

Developed by Google, the Google Hotel Ads aims to increase visibility and popularity for hotels on the search engine, and therefore increase direct bookings. This metasearch engine also offers to compare the prices of the same establishment on the different OTAs.

In practice, the creation of a campaign with Google Hotel Ads, the hotel’s official website appears on the page, and allows the interested traveler to go there directly to book.

Google Property Promotion Ads

A few years ago, the Google Promote Hotels tool was set up, in conjunction with Google Maps, to promote establishments in a region. For a long time, it was not possible to control the hotels displayed. Today, with the new version, Google Property Promotion Ads, it is now possible to use the tool as an online advertising space.

The hotel then appears in Google search results, directly linked to Google Maps and Google Travel, and increases visibility and the direct booking rate.

All you have to do is search for “hotel Paris”, to see an insert with a list of hotels, and a map referencing all the establishments. By clicking on it, the Internet user discovers the hotel’s Google Business Profile, which allows direct booking and access to all the information he is looking for.

Social networks

The last indispensable communication channel online is none other than social networks. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or even LinkedIn, networks are a powerful channel for hotel ads because almost all travelers find their way there.

The ideal is then to offer diversified marketing content, combining text ads, video content, web content, and the various promotional materials available.

On the other hand, it is essential to be familiar with the operation of the different platforms, and to target the clientele. Indeed, each network has its own codes, and users have different expectations. It is therefore important to adapt paid advertising on social networks by targeting key demographics.

The advertisement published on the social network can then lead directly to the hotel’s website, or to its account on the network in question.

Do you want to promote your hotel to stand out, but don’t know how to go about it? WIHP supports you to ensure an online presence that will increase your visibility and conversion rate.