Running a hotel digital marketing strategy is a tricky business, as the ins and outs of how it works are always changing. Two things you might have been focusing on for some time though are search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
However, if you have been operating these techniques in a bubble, separate from each other, now might be the time to change – because you’ll probably get better results if they work in tandem. Contrary to the popular belief that it’s a waste of valuable budgets to do both at the same time, these two marketing channels can actually complement each other and boost your return on investment. Here are a few ways in which this can happen Double the visibility on search pages If your hotel pays for an advert to pop up at the top of the page on Google, but you’re also working hard to appear high in the listings organically as well, then travellers are going to see your presence at least twice when they perform a search for the relevant keywords. This can increase their perception of your reputation and also provides better visibility over the competition, potentially making would-be guests more likely to click through.Insights from both teams Your hotel’s SEO team will be able to provide interesting insights for those working in PPC as to what copy should be selected for the paid ads, which should improve the quality score and make the ad more effective.
On the flip side, the Hotel PPC people will have information on what advert text performs best in terms of conversion, which the SEO team can then reuse in things like meta descriptions and blog posts for maximum efficacy. Better analytics performance Some time ago, Google removed keyword-level data from its Analytics service, which made it tricky for SEO professionals to discover which words and phrases were actually bringing in web traffic.
However, if you have a PPC campaign running, you can link Adwords up to your data gathering to find out which ones are performing well and focus on them for organic search.Meanwhile, SEO can generate information on which pages of a hotel’s website are working best organically and the PPC team can then use that to tailor their ad copy to cover things like niche phrases and long-tail keyword, something the competition may be lacking. This also prevents the wasting of money on terms that aren’t particularly valuable. Matching visitors’ expectations It can be frustrating for web users if they click on a paid ad, only to find that the text they go through to doesn’t really match it in tone or topic – this can be a big reason why they then bounce straight back to the search page.Without collaboration, the PPC team might not be able to influence what the eventual landing pages are – but with a collaborative approach, the SEO team can ensure their copy matches the ads and maintains what’s known as a scent trail throughout the website.
As you can see, it makes sense to ensure that your marketers all work together to promote your hotel to as many potential guests as possible, rather than working in a bubble towards different objectives. Doing so should make the best use of your tight budget and hopefully boost bookings.
