Everything you need to know about Google Hotel Ads in Simple Terms

Hello. It's the first time I've recorded a video. Things go wrong. Bear with me. There's been some big news regarding Google hotel ads and everybody that is with Avivo, they will have got an email explaining that now they are working with Google. It's going to be a big game changer as far as the online travel agencies like your booking.coms and your expedias and what Google are doing. But it could mean a massive boost in profits for your hospitality business. What Google hotel ads is in simple terms, as we all know, when a guest comes and stays at our property and we ask them, how did you find us? 9 out of 10 times they'll just say, oh, Google. Now. It's quite a generic answer. It doesn't really help. The reason why is that 9 out of 10 of them are starting their search on Google. The travel industry is a multi billion dollar industry right now. Places like booking.com and Expedia, TripAdvisor and Trivago now spend so much money getting to the top of a Google search because they know that when a customer is starting their search for a property, whether it's a generic search term like hotels in London or a specific search term, as in I want to stay at a premiere premier inn In York, these OTAs know that if they get in the customer's eye line, then they're more likely to buy from them. Last year Google realized this and they've totally changed their search platform to get in on the act. What I'm going to do is I'm going to go into a Google search, okay, so this is what everybody will see this. I'm going to start off with a generic search. So a generic search is someone's come in and typed in hotels in Manchester. So as you can see right at the very top where it says add this is booking.com buying the ad space here. So it's right at the very top. Now, before this map wasn't here, the map would have usually in the past appeared here or lower down. These are the organic search results. And as you can see now, the organic search results are being pushed further and further down and there's not one independent property that has got their spot here. But what they're doing is they're pushing it up here into the map section and they've changed the search results so that guests can actually check availability in the map. So this is, this is really big. So for example, if someone was looking for a stay on bank holiday Monday, checking out on Tuesday, you can see that the search results are appearing here. And what Google Hotel Ads does is it puts you higher up your property higher up in these search results. So for example, let's have a little click in here. This is a generic search, don't forget. So you can see here it says ad, add an ad. So this is obviously a big chain, the Manchester Marriott Victoria and Albert Hotel, and they've got the ad right here. This property is using the Google Hotel ad search result. First result, the guests will click it. So as you can see, this hotel card pops up. So first thing you notice is the name, the reviews, the telephone number, the address. You can click on the website if you want, you can get directions. But this is the new bit here. Guests can check on availability and they can go and book. Now, they're never going to take these guys away because obviously they spend a lot of ad money, but now they're giving us the opportunity to be in here as well. So you can see in here official website. And this is, this has never been allowed before. So this is still. People are on a Google search and we know that, you know, nine out of ten of our, all of our guests that are staying with us, new guests, start a search on Google. And that's how Google hotel ads appears on a Google search result. Now, it also works for specific search terms as well. So I've done, I know that Premier innovation, Google Hotel Ad Partner, and I haven't got any independent properties to show you. As an example, this is a guest who is wanting to stay premium. So they've typed in a specific search term, the search results still, you've got Premier in now Premier and are obviously paying for the ad space as well. But what you'll notice, the ad spot up here may also have, you know, a booking.com because they'll be trying to buy that ad space. But you've got these properties here in the maps. Even if still a guest is specifically putting your details in, they will still go into this area to have a look on availability. And if people are clicking on these hotel cards, forget your official site. Now, don't forget that in the past this wouldn't be here. You've got properties on here. Even if when they type in a generic search term, the OTAs can be bidding to have this spot available here. So it works on two ways, generic and a specific search term. Let's give an example of what's happening at present. So I'll do this. I've done a quick Google search and this is a specific search for the Granary in Scarborough. Okay, so as you can see, the Google map has appeared here and people can check availability. But compared to Premier Inn who are doing Google hotel ads, or the Marriott which are doing Google hotel ads, obviously the granary, we're not doing it yet. So instead of our listing appearing in here, you've got booking.com, you've got hotels.com, expedia and Kayak. They get you on their site and they make a booking and then you've got to pay between 15 and 20% of that commission cost. So this is what the Google hotel ads will stop people going to these OTAs and it will drive more people to your website. There's two types of payment with Google hotel ads. There's pay per click and there is commission. Pay per click. It started off as pay per click. So what does that mean? If anybody's ever done a Google advertisement before, a standard one, or a Facebook advertisement is you set up an ads campaign and then you do not get charged until someone clicks onto your website, which is great. It can be costly if set up the wrong way. Commission is a new thing that they've been trialing for the last couple of months. And anybody who got the Avivo email at the start of the week know that they are going to not do pay per click, they're going to do a commission. So basically Google and Aviva have worked out a rate between, between themselves, where for example, Google will charge Avivo 10% and Aviva will pocket 2% of every booking. So it doesn't matter how many times someone clicks onto your ad, you will only get charged when a booking is made. Does that make Google now an ota? The answer is quite simple, yes and no. So you get all the benefit of being on an ota so you get the increased visibility, more people seeing your property. But the main difference is, is that the guest, once they create that booking, is yours. So the whole point of Google hotel ads is not to drive people to a booking dot com. They're going to drive them to your website. Don't have the hassle of having to deal with a third party. This for me is one of the big, big, big reasons why you should be getting on board with this. The guest is yours, you've got all the details. You, you deal directly with that guest. Is it just available to Avivo customers? No, if you're with free to book, they don't currently do it at the moment. If you work with their little hotelier, none of them are working with Google Ads yet. From the discussions I've had with a few of them, they are looking at it but Aviva have jumped the gun. If you are an Aviva customer, you got their email this week. I hundred percent would be looking to sign up for it because it's going to take about four to six weeks to come into place anyway. So you might as well get on board now while they're offering this service at a lower commission rate because in my opinion if it's 10 takes off they're just going to slowly increase the commission rate. So you might as well get on board now while it is still only 12%. And at the end of the day all of the OTAs are advertising already in Google Ads, hotel ads. Do you need to have your property in there? So I hope that has explained it a lot easier simplistic terms. If you want to find out more, that's my email address. Get in touch if you enjoyed this video and you want me to do more of these types of videos. Let me know if you and I will do him. But have a great day and I'll speak to you soon.