What is Search Engine Advertising (SEA)?
Being visible on search engines is a major concern for any establishment and has become an essential element of hotel advertising. Any hotelier wanting to attract visitors to their establishment should definitely consider this kind of visibility marketing strategy.
What is Search Engine Advertising (SEA) for Hotels?
Search Engine Advertising consists of buying advertising space on Google’s SERP (Search Engine Results Page) using targeted keywords.
Advertising campaigns can also be carried out on other search engines like Bing, Yandex, Yahoo, Baidu etc.
At WIHP we recommend advertising your hotel on Google and Bing as these are two of the most popular search engines.
The distinctive feature of SEA campaigns is that your ad is targeted precisely at a certain type of internet user. The ad is shown to travellers who are already in the search phase. With SEA, the user does not receive passive ads, you are responding to their request for information. For a hotelier, these types of campaign are worthwhile because you direct highly qualified traffic to your website. You are targeting users who are searching for information.
Do you have to appear at the top of the search results?
You don’t need to appear at the top of the search results but you should appear somewhere near the top.
How do I select keywords for my hotel SEA campaign?
There are several levels of keywords, and you’ll choose different types of keywords depending on the strategy you decide to employ.
To work out which keywords you can use to position yourself, consider the types of searches an internet user might make. To do this, analyse the semantic fields for your hotel (meaning, the words that relate to your hotel). Your hotel website can also be used as a source of inspiration in your keyword search.
To build your hotel’s advertising base, you should position yourself on keywords that work. This means using keywords that are relevant to your establishment.
What type of campaigns should I use to advertise a hotel?
There are several types of possible campaign:
- Brand protection
- Targeting with generic keywords (linked to the hotel but not the brand name)
- Remarketing campaigns (Display, YouTube, Gmail ads, etc.)
- Brand awareness campaigns (Display, YouTube, Gmail ads, etc.)
Brand protection:
These campaigns allow you to counter brandjacking when a third party uses your hotel name and registers conversions on their website.
For example, an OTA can make it so that they appear each time the term ‘hotel’ comes up and can also buy an establishment’s brand name. An OTA doesn’t actually buy a specific brand name, they place themselves on wider searches which means they appear in the greatest number of searches.
Watch out as there could also be campaigns using your hotel brand created by other distributors.
Targeting by generic keywords:
This type of campaign gives you the ability to advertise your hotel on a so-called ‘broad’ search. This is a way of ‘broadly’ reaching internet users. You can also use combinations of keywords, for example adding something that’s distinctive to your hotel. This type of advertising targets internet users who are actively searching, in other words, the internet user hasn’t yet decided to book with you. If you show your hotel during the user’s purchase path, you’ll be ahead of the game in the purchase process compared to a brand protection campaign. The aim of these campaigns is to make your brand known.
Remarketing campaigns:
These are based on personalised targeting, they target internet users who have already visited your website. The aim of these campaigns is to re-engage users and increase conversions. You advertise your hotel directly to users who have shown an interest in your hotel.
Brand awareness campaigns:
Brand awareness campaigns target users according to their interests and their searches. When you carry out these campaigns, you are trying to raise awareness of your hotel among people who like to travel.
You should see these four types of campaign as a funnel. The more precise your campaigns, the more likely you are to hit the mark in the purchase pathway.
How much does a hotel SEA campaign cost?
The cost of a hotel SEA campaign is calculated on a CPC (cost per click) basis. This model is different to traditional advertising (for example, poster campaigns, radio ads, etc.) which have a fixed cost, making it easy to control the cost of your campaign. Note that it is your competitors who will define the amount you allocate to your hotel SEA campaign. For example, if you use so-called ‘popular’ keywords (often purchased by your competitors) you will automatically be impacted by your competitors’ CPC. If your competitors have higher bids than yours, you will need to increase your CPC to appear above them.
What budget should I allocate to a hotel SEA campaign?
It depends on how much visibility you want to generate for your hotel. Your budget will differ depending on where in the conversion process you want to target users. Whether you want to display your ad at the end of the conversion funnel or whether you want to target them before. Your budget will also vary depending on the location of your hotel, if your hotel is in Paris the bid will be higher than a hotel located in a smaller town because it has fewer inhabitants.
No matter what your budget is, you can create advertising campaigns for your hotel. With visibility campaigns, you can set daily limits so that you don’t exceed the budget you have allocated.
You can appear on a selected keyword until your budget has been reached, once you reach the limit, your ads will no longer be shown to internet users.
What key indicators should I track?
When your campaigns are launched, ensure that you have optimum cover: take into account the impression rate of the keyword and the visibility obtained. Then you can work out your campaigns’ potential.
Why should I use an SEA campaign for a hotel?
SEA campaigns allow you to qualify the traffic that will land on your hotel website. Buying keywords means you can qualify the internet user you are targeting, as the search will bring the user to you.
So, setting up ad campaigns for your hotel will help you bring qualified users directly to your hotel website.
By carrying out ad campaigns, you’ll increase the number of links that direct people to your hotel. These links mean you’ll have more visitors to your website which in turn will increase the number of conversions.
However, if your campaign is to be successful, you should respond adequately to the internet user’s request. If your ad does not meet their needs you’ll reduce the chances of potential conversions.
Conclusion:
Paid hotel ad campaigns can help hotels obtain new potential customers. Setting up a hotel SEA campaign can help increase the visibility and awareness of your hotel with travellers. For campaigns to be effective, you can action them alongside other levers which fuel your hotel’s marketing strategy. You should aim for synergy across your campaigns to occupy the maximum space in search engine results.
Looking to advertise your hotel on Google or Bing? Contact our hotel marketing strategy experts