Define the personas you want your paid ads to have and consider their level of intent. When using paid ads, it’s a good practice to start with the highest intent users. These are people who google the specific name of your hotel rather than “hotels in (LOCATION)”. It’s essential to target these users through ads because if you don’t, OTAs will place ads for you and gain potentially too high of share for your highest intent users and take a much higher commission fee than if booked direct through your website.
From there, you can start to target people who are looking for hotels within a specific location. You can then extend your budget to use longer tail keywords for more of an awareness play because it’s not as high of intent as people looking for your hotel name. The medium and lower intent users will search for hotels in your location or hotels near something you are close to. Although high intent users should be prioritized, paid ad spending can be useful for these searches, especially if you have the budget to allow it. These searches get a higher reach and more people will become aware of your hotel.
Interested in learning about more ways to boost your hotel's marketing campaigns? Read more at the 97 Switch Guide to Hotel Marketing.