Using Paid Search to Build Awareness for a New Branded Hotel Opening

For a new hotel opening, increasing awareness and driving traffic to the property’s website is critical. By leveraging Paid Search prospecting strategies, hotels can target potential guests based on their interests in the destination, attractions, and key selling features of the property, all while maintaining an efficient budget.

In this article, we’ll explore key points for a successful campaign with an example of a hotel opening project we recently had.

Channel Strategy:

Paid Search allows hotels to capture audiences searching for keywords related to the destination, its demand generators, or specific hotel features. The goal is not necessarily to rank first but to appear at the top of search results to ensure visibility. Selecting high-demand keywords with low competition is key to maximizing the campaign’s reach while keeping costs manageable.

When We Use:

• Prospecting for Awareness: Essential for driving traffic from people researching the market or destination.
• Local Exposure: Paid Search campaigns can raise awareness about the hotel’s proximity to key demand generators.
• Rebranding or Name Change: Effective for promoting a new identity while targeting users interested in the area.

What We Look For:

• Target Long-Tail Keywords: These often have lower search volumes but are less competitive and more cost-effective, attracting quality traffic.
• Monitor Impact on Traffic and Revenue: Ensure campaigns lead to increased website traffic and direct bookings.
• Balance Brand and Prospecting Paid Search: Typically, a 70/30 focus on prospecting vs. brand terms ensures more top-of-funnel traffic.

Campaign Guidelines:

• Minimum Budget: $500-$1,000 per month.
• Our Campaign Example: We utilized a budget of $1,800 per month, which allowed us to effectively balance between branded paid search and prospecting campaigns focused on local destination, demand generators, and the hotel’s unique selling propositions.

Here are the Cogwheel Marketing benchmarks we use to gauge campaign success and continually aim to reach:

• Impression Share: 10%-20%
• CTR: 3%-5%
• CPC: $1.50-$3.00
• ROAS: 2-3:1 for independent hotels

This budget allocation, combined with our benchmarks, helped ensure the campaign’s efficiency and effectiveness in driving traffic and revenue.

Final Results:

After a 6-month campaign for our hotel’s opening, we saw these statistics:

• Clicks: 16,500
• CTR: 18.3% (exceeding the 3%-5% benchmark)
• Impression Share: 10%
• CPC: $0.65 (well below the $1.50-$3.00 range)
• Revenue: Over $100,000 generated

While we launched this campaign upon the hotel’s opening, we typically recommend starting Paid Search efforts a few months before opening for better momentum and to push traffic for early awareness.

During this 6-month timeframe, we ran multiple campaigns in tandem, including branded paid search and campaigns targeting the local destination, demand generators, and the hotel’s unique selling propositions to build awareness and attract quality traffic.

This approach highlights the power of combining branded and non-branded strategies to boost visibility and drive significant revenue for a new hotel opening.

About Cogwheel Marketing

Cogwheel Marketing™️ is a full service digital marketing agency specializing in branded hotels, first leveraging brand systems then coupling that with supplemental strategies to maximize total online presence. Their reporting and business intelligence tool, Cogwheel Analytics, aggregates data from multiple sources to allow companies to identify trends and opportunities in their online presence. Our defined processes ensure the best positioning for your hotel against the competitive set and against other hotels of the same brand. Let us work with your sales and revenue management teams to identify and close the gaps and target your ideal guests.

Sales & Marketing