If you‰’ve been using Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to advertise your hotel, you may have noticed that Google is no longer displaying ads in the right sidebar of the search engine results page (SERP). This change will make the advertising marketplace on desktop search results more competitive. Increased competition for the top three spaces in the search results will likely lead to higher CPC (cost per click) and ultimately higher CPA (cost per acquisition).

Although in some cases on desktop computers, when the key search terms are highly commercial (like ‰”hotels in New York City”‰) a 4^th ad position will be added to the SERP, ad space for most search results will just be limited to those three coveted spots above the organic search results, plus a few more at the very bottom of the page. As a hotelier in the highly competitive hospitality space, this could have a significant impact on how much you need to spend on SEM to get noticed by travelers.

Despite the possibility of an additional 4th ad on SERP pages for major markets, the hospitality [itg-tooltip href=”http://www.travelmediagroup.com/hotel-marketing-glossary/#p” link-target=”_blank” tooltip-content=”<p>Pay-Per-Click advertising<br /><em>Click to read more.</em></p>”]PPC[/itg-tooltip] marketplace on Google is already extremely competitive. The dominance of OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) on Google advertising is getting stronger and stronger. In the past, hotels (or hotel chains) may have had the chance to show up on the first page of Google‰’s SERP on the sidebar ads using a modest advertising budget, but now hoteliers will need to bid high enough to beat OTAs fighting for the top few ad slots. For instance, after conducting a Google search using the query “hotels in Orlando”, we found that 9 of the 10 ads showing up on the first two SERP pages were OTAs.

How can a hotelier compete?

Hoteliers who are advertising on Google will likely need to invest more in advertising to appear on the first page of search results. Whether or not a hotelier is able to compete in this aggressive advertising channel, marketing experts recommend a diverse digital strategy for marketing hotels. Using a combination of reputation management, social media, local listing accuracy and a commission-free booking channel such as a vanity website, hoteliers can improve their digital profiles to increase annual revenue.