After being cooped up for nearly two years, Americans and people abroad are ready to travel again.
This is confirmed by Google’s data, showing an 800% year-over-year increase in the search term “can I travel.”
Tourism businesses can benefit from Google Ads’ vast advertising capabilities. It gives them all the tools they need to drive up bookings, sales, foot traffic, phone calls, website traffic.
Whether your company works in hotels and accommodations, souvenir shops, sight-seeing tours, local landmarks, restaurants, etc., Google Ads will help your company get more attention and stand out above your competition.
If your company is interested in setting up Google Ads for tourism, continue reading to learn about Google Ads campaign types. We’ll discuss their applications, and how you can use Google ads to drive business for your tourism company.
How Google Ads Works and What Paid Ads Look like on Google’s SERP
Google Ads manager is the leading online advertising platform. The company makes around $150 billion a year, and is used by more than 7 million advertisers.
The most common type of Google Ad is the Search Ad, a text-based ad that appears at the top of Google’s search engine results page (SERP).
Using biddable keywords, advertisers can research which specific or broad keywords and phrases their audience is searching for online. They can then create specific ads that will solve their audience’s problems.
For example, when somebody searches “bed and breakfast Washington DC,” Google will trigger paid ads to show local hotels, Airbnb, and Expedia links.
Once a user clicks on the link, they’ll be forwarded to a landing page where they’ll be prompted to buy tickets, book a room, or perform another specific action.
Paid search ads are considered an active form of advertising. They only show relevant ads to people based on their specific search.
Google Ads can be used for passive advertising too, showing banner Google Display Ads on their network of over 2 million affiliated websites. This means ads can show in the display network, even if the user wasn’t specifically looking for tourism-based ads.
Different Google Ad Types and Campaigns
Google originally started out with its Search ads. They quickly created more ad and campaign types as Google and the internet grew more sophisticated.
Today, Google has several different ad and campaign types. They’re often combined to create a multi-channel marketing approach that will meet your audience wherever they are online.
Search campaigns
Text-based ads that feature a headline, a meta-description, and a website link. Ads are shown on Google’s SERP once a specific keyword has been searched for.
Display campaigns
Display ads are graphic ads in the form of banner images or square photos placed on the sidebar or top of websites and blogs in the Google Display Network. These ads are good for showing eye-catching products or images that will demand clicks.
Tourism-based ads will have more success when they’re being shown on travel-related blogs in the Google Display Network.
Shopping campaigns
Picture and text-based ads will appear in Google’s Shopping Tab once a user searches for a product. These ads are automatically populated based on meta-descriptions provided by advertisers in their Google Merchant Center account.
Video campaigns
Advertisers can produce video ads that can be shown before, during, or after YouTube videos. Ads are based on biddable keywords selected in Google Ads manager.
App campaigns
Drive app installations by creating App ads through Google’s Ads network, including Google Play, YouTube, Search, and the Google Display Network. Ads are automatically generated by Google and don’t need to be created.
Local Campaigns
Get your store’s location upfront and visible on Google Maps and Google’s search network using Local Campaigns. This is a great option for physical stores that want to attract more foot traffic, phone calls, and sales.
Hotel Campaigns
Hotel campaigns let advertisers bid for hotel ads that appear on Google Search, Google Travel, and Google Maps.
These hotel ads are dynamic. This means they’re automatically generated based on the advertiser’s input data, such as the hotel list, prices, and specific landing pages for deals.
This means hotel ads automatically populate with a search module that has up-to-date hotel photos, names, prices, and directions. These ads can appear globally in every major language and currency.
Hotel ads can be set up to target travelers by the country they live in and their device type (desktop/mobile).
The Advertising Advantages of Using Google Ads for Tourism Businesses
Tourism-based businesses can be tricky to advertise. You’ll likely only want your ads being shown to visiting tourists, not the local demographic who’s already familiar with your business. Luckily, Google offers smart ways to target your desired audience.
Geographic Targeting
Show your ads to people in the right location to get more traffic.
For example, create a 20-mile radius based on your souvenir shop’s location to only show ads to people in the immediate area.
You can also leverage the power of Google Maps by promoting your business’ listing above your competitors to make it as easy to call or visit your store.
Ad Extensions
Using Ad extensions, advertisers can place more information in their Search ads, such as a quick call option or directions to improve their ad’s quality and improve conversions.
Remarketing Ads
Google Ads remarketing lists are a feature that allows you to track people who clicked on your link and visited your website, but left before they made a purchase.
They are especially helpful for targeting people who visited a hotel’s site, but left before they booked a room.
With remarketing ads, you can remind people to come back to your website to finish booking their room by showing a banner ad in the sidebar of travel-related blogs they’re visiting.
Similar Audiences
Google’s Similar Audience feature helps you show your ads to people who share the same characteristics as people in your remarketing lists. This means you can cast a wider net and show your ads to more people who are likely to purchase your product.
How to Measure the Success of your Google Ads Campaign
Before you start your campaign, you’ll need to determine your key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your success against.
For many tourism companies, this is driving up sales, conversions, bookings, foot traffic, and phone calls.
At Denver PPC, we create monthly reports showing important metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rate, return on ad spend (ROAS), cost per click (CPC). Using this data, we can analyze how effective your campaigns are, and make necessary optimizations to improve your campaign’s performance.
Choosing an Ad Budget and Strategy
Managing a Google Ads campaign is an art and a science. It often takes a few months to generate enough useful data that can be analyzed and used to optimize your campaign.
For this reason, we encourage our clients to pick a modest budget, to begin with for a few months.
Google Ads makes it simple to create a daily spend limit, ensuring you’re not spending more than your day’s allotted budget.
As time goes on and data is collected, our account managers will continually aim to improve your ad campaign’s performance, whether it’s pausing underperforming ads, split testing landing pages, or creating new ads.
Hire Denver PPC to Manage Your Google Tourism Ads
Denver PPC is a certified Google Partner company specializing in pay-per-click advertising.
All of our account managers are Google Ads certified and have experience managing campaigns in various industries and online spaces.
Do you already have an existing Google Ads account that you need help with?
Contact us today to get your free 10-Point PPC Analysis Review. See how Denver PPC can make your Google Ads for tourism success.
Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels
