Source: Cogwheel Marketing

The Challenge: Lacking Experience with Paid Campaigns

This case study focuses on a hotel company aiming to boost bookings for their branded hotel in the United States. Prior to engaging with our services, the company had experimented with Google Ads but had not achieved the desired outcomes.

They didn’t have a strategy to build a proper foundation first, so they decided to seek out our help.

The Solution: Creating the Foundation and Further Advertising

Our approach involved several key actions:

  1. Infrastructure Setup:
    • Implementation of essential tools such as Google Analytics, Conversion Tracking, Facebook Pixel, and Conversion Linker.
  2. Keywords Research:
    • Thorough investigation of keywords for effective Search/PPC Campaigns.
  3. SEO-friendly Ad Copies:
    • Crafting compelling and search-engine-optimized ad copies tailored to different campaigns.
  4. UTM Builder URL and More:
    • Utilizing advanced techniques, including UTM builder URLs and other strategies, to maximize campaign performance.

After the foundational work has been done, we developed three distinct campaigns:

  1. Search Campaign (PPC) using Branded Keywords.
  2. Search Campaign (PPC) using Non-Branded, Demand Generator, Accommodations, etc., keywords.
  3. Google Display Campaign utilizing Remarketing Audience (Previous site visitors) and targeting specific audience segments like in-market and affinity audiences.

Results: Proper Strategy Always Pays Off

During the initial month (July 2022), the campaign yielded only 9 bookings with a cost per lead of approximately $100. Although this start was not ideal, we recognized the potential for improvement in targeting, advertisements, and landing pages.

In the second month (August 2022), the number of bookings increased to 26, with the cost per lead dropping to around $38.46.

By the third month (September 2022), the campaign generated 53 bookings, significantly reducing the cost per lead to approximately $18.66.

Our campaign remains ongoing, and we have observed the following highlights:

  • Clicks experienced a 65% growth compared to the previous period.
  • CTR (Click-Through Rate) improved by 70%.
  • Impressions increased by 45%.
  • Conversions showed an impressive 200% growth.
  • Conversion rate saw a 70% improvement.
  • Average Cost decreased by 25%.

Our efforts have proven effective in enhancing the performance of the campaigns, demonstrating positive outcomes for the Hotel company’s booking goals. This Case Study also shows that some marketing efforts require a little patience and you don’t always see the great results straight away, but it doesn’t mean it will not be worth it.

*Originally published by HSMAI in 2023.

About Cogwheel Marketing

Cogwheel®️ Analytics is a hotel digital marketing reporting and business intelligence tool for hotel management companies and ownership groups of both branded and independent hotels. It aggregates data from multiple sources to allow companies to identify trends and opportunities, in both portfolio and individual hotel level views. It provides an online scorecard with benchmarks against other hotels to identify gaps in your total online presence, similar to a STAR report. With one-click reports, owners and operators can understand the efforts made towards gaining more exposure across the customer journey. Unlike most tools in the hospitality industry, Cogwheel Analytics primarily focuses on booked revenue, not consumed, to map the various data points up to the point of conversion. Sample data points include channel mix, website performance, social media and paid efforts including OTA Ads, MetaSearch and Google SEM.

Stephanie Smith
Founder and Digital Matriarch
+1 540 239 1052
Cogwheel Marketing

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