focusing on longtail at the property level , using longtail for its co-op websites like bestwesternarizona . com and including niche topics that resonate with certain target demographics .
In terms of website design , reducing the number of click-throughs is a step hotel companies like Preferred Hotel Group are taking to improve user experience . “ A website is not just an , ‘ if you build it , they will come ’ project , and some of our hotels are still catching up to this fact ,” says Michelle Woodley , senior vice president of distribution , Preferred Hotel Group .
Another step hotel companies are taking is ensuring that their website ’ s URLs are SEO-friendly . When Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group , Hong Kong , relaunched its branded website in September 2012 , the company
the average number of ads per search engine results page ( serP ) for terms hotel brands have bid ads on . Other than google Mobile , for each search engine ads for Otas are appearing more often than ads for hotel companies .
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
AOL Bing Google Google Mobile
implemented a URL structure that including nesting targeted keywords within the actual website URL .
To the top bidder OTAs are bidding extensively on keywords , so to keep up hotel companies are refining their methods through experimentation and dedicating large portions of their SEO budget for SEM . Best Western , for example , aims for 50-50 rates of organic versus paid search conversions , and Minor says its ROI for paid search averages 15:1 . Great Hotels of the World finds paid search is especially useful in remarketing , when potential consumers visit a property site more than once without buying . Hilton uses paid search both to generate awareness of a hotel in a market and to convert reservations at the lowest lever of the conversion funnel .
Hotel brands Competing hotel brands Other businesses OTAs
Source : BrandVerity
Varying Verdicts on Facebook ads
Facebook ’ s paid advertising is an alternative to Google AdWords for reaching potential guests , and hotel companies say the results so far have been mixed .
Facebook touts its rich data for effective targeting . “ Facebook offers 89 % accuracy for narrowly targeted campaigns versus the industry average of 38 %,” says Lee McCabe , head of travel , global vertical marketing , Facebook . “ MGM Resorts International saw a 15-times return on ad spend using Facebook Exchange , which enables businesses to deliver ads based on user intent data . They ’ ve also seen more than a 5-times return on ads using Custom Audiences , which matches an organization ’ s email database with Facebook ’ s rich data to help put heads in beds .”
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group , Hong Kong , says it experiments with Facebook promoted posts more for consumer engagement rather than bookings , while Fairmont Hotels & Resorts , Toronto , says it has found Facebook ads to be effective but with a lower ROI than paid search . However , Onyx Hospitality Group , Bangkok , says it sees a strong ROI and high conversion rate from Facebook ads if the targeting and offers are right . KSL Resorts , La Quinta , California , says it plans to increase spending on Facebook Exchange ads . “ As long as we continue to see solid returns , we will continue to buy here ,” says Michael Bennett , KSL ’ s managing director , digital marketing and strategy .
www . hotelsmag . com January / February 2014 HOTELS 53