Do you want to optimize Hotel Ads?Download our step-by-step guide for optimizing Google Hotel Ads here.
Commission-Based Bid Strategies in Hotel Ads to Sunset
From April 30, 2024, Google no longer supports Commissions (per Stay) and Commissions (per Conversions) bid strategies for new Hotel Ads campaigns. Current campaigns using these commission-based strategies will remain active until October 31, 2024.
Important Dates and Actions
- April 30, 2024: No new Hotel Ads campaigns can use Commissions (per Stay) or Commissions (per Conversions) bid strategies.
- February 20, 2025: Existing campaigns with commission-based strategies will cease to serve.
- November, 2025: Final date for reconciliation of Commissions (per Stay). If reconciliation is not completed, all conversions will be included in the billing process.
What You Need to Do
To ensure the continued success of your campaigns, it’s essential to switch to alternative bid strategies. Options include shifting to Target ROAS or Enhanced CPC. Additionally, you can create new campaigns using Performance Max for travel goals, which provides a unified performance strategy covering the same inventory.
Why This Change Is Happening
With industry-wide changes on the horizon, including the phasing out of third-party cookies, Google is transitioning to more sustainable strategies. These changes aim to maintain high performance while respecting user privacy. The current travel commission-based strategies rely on third-party cookies to track when a customer stays at a hotel, which is necessary for measuring commissions accurately. As third-party cookies are phased out, these strategies will no longer be viable.
Ensuring a Smooth Transition
In Google, you will still have access to historical reporting data for your commission-based campaigns.
By adopting more durable and privacy-focused strategies, you can drive better performance and continue growing your business in an evolving digital landscape. For any further assistance, feel free to contact us.
What to do now?
You can change your campaign bidding strategies to target ROAS or enhanced CPC to keep them running. You can also create Performance Max campaigns for travel goals if you want to cover the same inventory with a unified performance strategy.
Recommended: Target ROAS (target return on ad spend)
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns-icon
.
- Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu, then click Campaigns.
- Hover over the campaign you want to edit and select the Settings icon.
- Under “Bid settings”, scroll to “Bidding” and click Change bid strategy.
- In the drop-down menu, select Maximize conversion valueand input Target ROAS %.
- Click Save.
Furthermore, there is also the possibility of using the improved CPC as an alternative. By enabling enhanced CPC, Google will adjust its bids for clicks that are more likely to convert or not.
Enhanced CPC (enhanced cost-per-click)
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon
- Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu, then click Campaigns.
- Select the campaign that you want to edit.
- Click the Settings tab.
- Under “Bid settings”, go to “Bidding” and click Change bid strategy.
- Select from the “Manual bid strategies” options.
- Tick the box next to “Help increase conversions with Enhanced CPC”.
- Click Save.
Which bidding strategy should you choose?
You can shift your campaigns’ bid strategies to Target ROAS or Enhanced CPC to ensure your campaigns continue to run. You can also create new campaigns with Performance Max for travel goals to cover the same inventory with a unified performance strategy. The most recommendable bidding strategy is tROAS but it also depends on the strategy & type of business.
In addition, Adchieve also creates customer-specific bidding algorithms for Google Hotel Ads. We can use customer-specific data from multiple channels as input to calculate bids and bid modifiers for the CPC-% bidding strategy and manual CPC bidding strategy. The advantage of this bidding strategy is that automated bidding suggestions are calculated. However, on the other hand, you keep a lot of insight and control. In this algorithm, we can consider company-specific data such as margins, booking-arrival windows, and availability.
Performance Max with travel goals campaigns
Performance Max for travel goals is a powerful multi-channel campaign designed to boost direct hotel bookings. By harnessing the capabilities of Google AI, it helps hotels connect with the right potential guests across all of Google’s advertising channels and inventory through an easy setup process. For step-by-step instructions on creating a new campaign, check out the Performance Max for travel goals onboarding guide.
Performance Max for travel goals onboarding guide.
Better results through a different bid strategy?
Adchieve is an official Google Hotel Ads integration partner. This means that we help Hotels, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), Holiday Parks and other accommodation providers to start with or improve their Google Hotel Ads.
Please contact us for more information.
