This week I actually got the opportunity to visit Google’s Chelsea office space in New York. An entire city block on 8th Avenue between 15th and 16th Streets, nearly 2.9 million square feet of Google workspace, where I got the chance to sit and talk about Google Ads with one of their agency account managers. We ended up talking a fair bit about Google Performance Max, and in particular, what it means for travel.

Earlier this year Google rolled out Performance Max for travel goals, a game-changer for hotels looking to make waves in the online advertising space. It uses the power of Google AI to help hotels deliver ads to the right potential guests, using all of its platforms from a single campaign. 

“Advertisers that use Performance Max campaigns see an average increase of 18% total incremental conversions at a similar cost per action”

Google

This exciting development allows hotels, including those in the surf industry, to create and serve ads across multiple Google channels, including Maps, Search, YouTube, and the upcoming addition of Hotel Ads, automatically from individual campaigns. 

Here’s the lowdown on what this means for hotels

Seamless Campaign Setup for Maximum Impact

Performance Max for travel goals allows hotels to create various ad formats within a single campaign. Traditionally you would have separate campaigns to advertise on search, YouTube, or display ads. 

This means you can reach a broader audience with a single campaign, across all Google platforms like YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.

Later this year, Hotel Ads will be added, providing an even more comprehensive marketing solution for hotels and resorts. 

During campaign setup, advertisers can choose up to 100 hotel properties using an intuitive hotel picker tool on a map. Each property can have distinct locations, images, and messages, making it easy to tailor the campaign to specific audiences.

Dive into Detailed Reporting

Understanding campaign performance is key, especially in the competitive surf industry. Performance Max for travel goals brings property-level reporting to the forefront. 

Advertisers can track and analyze the success of each location separately, gaining valuable insights into what resonates with their audience. This feature ensures that hotels can optimize their strategies based on real-time data.

Ad Creativity Made Easy

The platform streamlines the creative process with pre-populated ads for each hotel property. During setup, users can choose to edit these assets or upload their own, ensuring a customized and visually appealing campaign. 

This efficient approach is a game-changer for surf hotels looking to stand out in the digital landscape as it simplifies the creative aspect of advertising, making it accessible even for those without extensive design experience.

Where do your performance max campaigns show?

Your performance max ads will show across all Google platforms, including:

• Search
• Display
• Video
• Discovery

Why do we care?

Performance Max for travel goals is not just a tool; it opens up a load of cool opportunities for hotels and surf reasorts. It simplifies the campaign creation process, offers expansive reach across Google channels, and provides tailored reporting for the travel industry. 

In a nutshell, it’s a must-have for surf hotels looking to maximize ROI and reach their audiences around the world.

At FERN we are excited to be deploying all these new tricks and tools across our client campaigns. Get in touch to talk about how we can help increase your bookings and online reach through our managed Google Ads services.

For more details, check out Google’s official announcement here.