Imagine this scenario: you are looking for the perfect gift for a friend or family member and furiously searching Google for a present. After a day or two, you notice those same products are now re-appearing as advertisements across the web. Sound familiar?
There is a significant chance you have been subject to remarketing when you have used the web. Most people spend a great deal of time searching for various goods and services on the web. Sometimes, they will see ads later on in the day while on a completely different site showcasing a product or service that they had looked for earlier. This, in a nutshell, is what remarketing does.
The Value of Remarketing
For most hotels, remarketing is an invaluable tool for recapturing lost revenue and visitors who have bounced from your site. For instance, remarketing can target a non-converting visitor to your hotel’s (or even a competitor’s) site, but we will get to that soon. For hoteliers, the main concern you want to be aware of is how effective regaining these visitors can be.
We here at Blue Magnet are huge proponents of the Five Stages of Travel , and remarketing gives you the ability to insert your property back into the conversation for old visitors to your site by recapturing their business further down the funnel. This strategic marketing tactic is how companies like Intel are able to increase click through rates by 49%, conversion rates by 30%, and lower cost-per-acquisition by 11%. Simply put, remarketing is proven to work.
Remarketing Vs Retargeting
One reason some hoteliers often get confused by (and unfortunately, deterred from) remarketing is that there are some distinctions blurring the line between what constitutes remarketing and what does not. For the sake of this article, when we refer to “remarketing,” it will be in both the context of trying to gain conversions from people who have visited your site and those who have abandoned their booking on your site through various marketing campaigns such as email or pay-per-click. Traditionally, you may see this referred to as retargeting, but it is a subset of remarketing nonetheless. If you are creating your first remarketing campaign, we suggest kicking things off by targeting people who have already visited your site.
Questions to Ask While Setting Up Your Campaign
Who Should I Target?
When starting off, there are several factors to keep in mind to ensure the success of your campaign. The first being who you want to target. We can narrow this list down using some basic metrics available through Google Analytics. Consider targeting visitors to your site who spent as much or more time on your site and visited as many or more pages on your site as those who are converting. This will be your audience list, of which you can have multiple, so do not worry too much if you would like to change this in the future.
Where Should I Advertise?
Next, you should ask yourself, “Where do I want my ad to appear?” You have two basic options: the Google Display Network and the Google Search Network.
Here we see an example of an advertisement on Google’s Search Network
Both have their own sets of advantages, but if you are trying to regain users who are further down the booking funnel, using Google’s Search Network allows you to target users who have already visited your site and are now searching for hotels again. The ability to target keywords with the Search Network ensures you are not firing from the hip with your remarketing campaign.
The Google Display Network, on the other hand, targets users passively. This is great if you are trying to attract people in the “dreaming” or consideration stages of booking a hotel, but for your purposes, you will have more success with people actively planning their stay. This leads us into our next step.
What Stage of Travel Should I Target?
Once you have decided where you want your ads to appear, you should begin to consider, “Where in the booking process should I target my ads?” Customers in the second stage of travel are likely going to be your highest converting subset to start off with. Using this, you can revise keyword strategy to ensure you are not wasting any resources on your campaign. Keywords should relate to your specific property (such as branded terms) to capture that subset of users that have visited our site and are known to convert.
Starting Your Remarketing Campaign
It is now time for the most exciting part about remarketing; launching your campaign. Keep in mind, while Google will automatically adjust bidding, it is a good idea to monitor your campaign to ensure it is performing to your standards.
Wrapping Things Up
And there you have it! With all of these considerations in mind, you should be ready to go out and start running remarketing campaigns for your hotel’s website’s visitors. Armed with a great campaign, foolproof strategy, and refined audience list, you are able to narrow down your remarketing campaign to a subset of visitors who you know are interested in your property and ready to book a room. For those busy hoteliers who are unable to devote their attention to campaign upkeep, you can always contact Blue Magnet Interactive about setting up your next retargeting campaign. Our dedicated professionals bring years of experience to the table and will ensure success during the course of your remarketing adventure!
