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Luxury hotels all across the country are regularly supplementing their offline marketing with Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. It’s a great digital channel that luxury hotels can utilise to drive brand awareness and direct bookings. Although PPC is a popular and widely utilised digital marketing channel, some hoteliers are still dubious about it, due to the many myths and misconceptions surrounding it. Below we will debunk some of the biggest misconceptions luxury hotels and marketers may have about how PPC campaigns work. In this article we will review some of these common myths, providing you with valuable insights, which will help you further optimise the effectiveness of your ads.
One of the most widely spread PPC rumours is that it achieves desired results and direct bookings in a snap of a finger. Although it is true that PPC gains traction more quickly than SEO, paid advertising campaigns still take time to take off and reach their full potential, especially if it’s your first time running them. Particularly in an industry like luxury hospitality where potential guests meticulously research their future stays before committing to a booking. However, with patience, regular data-driven optimisations and a suitable budget, your PPC efforts will be fruitful and bring impressive results.
Many people have the impression that PPC campaigns require minimal maintenance and investment of time - you set them up and forget about them. This couldn’t be further from the truth. If you wish to maintain the high performance of your ad campaigns, you will have to review and adjust them regularly. This includes tasks such as monitoring and adjusting budgets, adding new keywords if the collected data suggests it, as well as regularly reviewing Google’s recommendations to keep the optimisation scores as high as possible. Regular PPC account management is also crucial in the case of Google releasing new features, changes in search trends, as well as when certain practices become outdated. Not adjusting your campaigns to combat these changes can be detrimental to the success of your PPC efforts, as well as wasting resources, costing you more than they give back.
It is commonly believed that travellers, especially younger ones, don’t click on Google’s listings that are sponsored. However, this isn’t entirely true. Although some people avoid clicking on ads, many aren’t driven away by the sponsored results. According to the Global Search Network statistics around 63% of people click on ads. And since sponsored results often appear above the organic ones, many users intuitively click on the first results that seem relevant to them. Therefore not utilising this digital channel to promote your luxury stays, can mean that you are missing out on many direct bookings, which instead get captured by your competitors.
A common myth is that PPC is best used to promote specific offers and short-term deals, as it’s a more reactive channel compared to SEO. However, this approach can be detrimental to your digital marketing strategy and make it difficult to reach the desired results. Continuously utilising ads will provide you with the best results, as it allows Google to learn about your target audiences and even provides the opportunity to run remarketing campaigns. When it comes to your current campaigns, this data is crucial, helping you optimise your campaigns even further. Therefore, leveraging PPC as a long-term strategy is the best way to utilise this digital channel and attain the desired ROIs.
Lastly, some people often come up with the idea, that PPC campaigns should only run during the weekdays, often from 9 am - 5 pm, following the standard work times. Following this approach is truly detrimental to your luxury hotel’s digital marketing results and strongly limits your reach. This is because people can be researching potential stays and travel-related queries at any time of the day, therefore it’s important to give them a chance to find you. Online searches and bookings go on 24/7 and if you are using analytics then you can determine your conversion rates by the hour.
Moreover, if you are serving international customers, you need to consider and accommodate diverse time zones so that they are able to see your adverts too. Also, you should keep in mind that even if you stick to advertising in your own country, potential guests may not be able to search while they are at their workplaces and therefore evenings and nights can be your busiest times for traffic and sales.
Debunking these commonly spotted misconceptions and understanding the nuances of PPC empowers luxury hotels to harness their full potential, creating enduring brand awareness and encouraging substantial direct bookings in an increasingly competitive digital landscape. To learn more about how paid advertising can benefit your hotel's marketing, visit our digital marketing page.
