I Don’t Want to Bid on My Hotel Brand Terms!
“My listing will show up as people are searching with my brand terms, why distract them with an ad that costs me money?”
Pairing a PPC campaign with your SEO strategy will garner you even more clicks and rooms sold, Google research shows a dramatic relationship when pairing these marketing strategies together. Now that we know PPC is important, what makes an effective PPC campaign is often argued.
Below are 5 key reasons to negate the common misconception of not needing to bid on branded keywords:
1. Brand terms are cheap- low hanging fruit!
Brand terms have the highest click-through rates, in return increasing your Quality Score. A high Quality Score benefits your campaign when bidding for more competitive, expensive, keywords.
2. Two links are better than one!
Paid search ads allow your hotel to dominate the SERPs, doubling your links and space on the page increases the likeliness of someone clicking your hotel. If you don’t have an ad for your branded terms your qualified lead may very well click a competitor’s ad versus scrolling down; search engines are pushing organic listings down the page and being more creative with their advertising. Think if you could pay a small fee to double your square footage, wouldn’t you do it?
3. Control your Messaging
Your organic listing may not lead customers to the highest converting pages within your hotel website- PPC ads can direct to these pages. Not to mention, PPC ads can have crafty headlines and copy to entice more clicks than just the standard organic listing.
4. Professional Appearance
A paid ad in addition to your organic listing can give an impression of a bigger, more established, and a more savvy hotel. This comfort level will aide in confirming their thought process to book with your hotel.
5. If you aren’t bidding on your brand terms someone else is, especially on AOL, Bing, and Yahoo.
PPC research shows OTAs are bidding on your brand terms, not to mention your direct competitors are also bidding on your brand keywords. You can not afford to lose consumers so far along the purchasing funnel! Additionally, if you are bidding on your keywords you are increasing the keyword cost for your competitors and lowering their Quality Score.
Don’t let your high quality leads be tempted with competitor ads, you can’t afford not to bid on your terms!
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Contributed by Sara Linton, Product Marketing Specialist
Source: Paid Search