Hilton Hotels is witnessing incredible bumps in both conversion rates and Return On Investment since launching Google’s newest version of the Hotel Ads feature, according to an article by ClickZ reporter Emily Alford.
While an earlier version of Hotel Ads has existed for some time, the search company quietly released an algorithm update in November of 2014 that has since disrupted the user flow of major travel sites like Expedia.com and Travelocity.com. Indeed, when asked about the biggest competitive threat to his marketplace back in 2009, Kayak CEO Steve Hafner quipped that Google would eventually display hotel pricing directly in search results, a prediction that was realized a year later. More updates would arrive in the years that followed. And in November, we began to see the culmination of an ad platform that is beginning to show extremely impressive results, albeit at the expense of listing sites.
According to Alford’s article, Hilton’s vice president of digital acquisition, Dustin Bomar, reported seeing a 45 percent increase in conversions and a 12 percent increase in ROI since adopting Hotel Ads. Bomar also noted that most of the conversions came from new customer acquisition, a fact that he attributes to Google’s broad audience.
Implications for Multifamily Search Engine Marketing
Although Google does not have a tool that’s similar to Hotel Ads for the multifamily and apartment community market, it’s reasonable to assume that such a tool is in their project pipeline. And if (really, when) such a tool is released, it has the potential to execute tremendously effective marketing strategies.
As of right now, Hotel Ads allows advertisers to distinguish between vacationer targets and business traveler targets, a feature which could be incredibly useful for apartment communities that have short-term or corporate housing suites. A feature that resembles Hotel Finder, the top bar of hotel images and pricings that is commonly seen when users conduct hotel-related search queries, would also have enormous benefits for the multifamily marketing industry.
The future looks bright for multifamily marketing, and we hope to see a tool that’s similar to Hotel Ads soon. But until then, the diverse array of marketing tools available through AdWords and Analytics will do just fine.
