This article will walk you through getting your property listed with Google Hotel Ads, or GHA, through your ThinkReservations account. Using Google Hotel Ads is completely optional for your business.
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Pricing
There are two components of pricing for using Google Hotel Ads. There is a monthly fee based on the number of units in your account and the budget that you spend on the ads. Both of these fees are paid to ThinkReservations, not to Google. The monthly budget you set is the maximum that you will be charged for that budget. If you have a balance from the previous month, you are only charged what is needed to bring your credit to your monthly budget amount. The per/month fee is charged to your account once this feature is enabled. There is NO commission percentage charged for reservations that book through your ad.
| Number of Units | Monthly Fee |
|---|---|
| 1 - 10 Units | $29 per month |
| 11 - 25 Units | $49 per month |
| 26 - 50 Units | $69 per month |
| 51 - 75 Units | $99 per month |
| 76 - 100 Units | $129 per month |
| 101 or More Units | $169 per month |
Getting Started with Google Hotel Ads
Enabling Google Hotel Ads is easy.
- In ThinkReservations, navigate to Settings > Google Hotel Ads. If you are logged in, click here.
- Change the STATUS to Enabled.
- Fill out the form, and click Save at the bottom.
- Please wait about 3-5 days for the information to propagate through to Google's servers. After a few days, you should start seeing your ad!
Your Google Hotel Ads are not connected or linked to your personal or business Google Account. In fact, no Google account is needed. You only need a Google Account if you would optionally like to update your Google My Business information (which you should).
- CREDIT AMOUNT
- This is the amount of funds left that can be spent. Every month, your account will be refilled to your monthly budget.
- STATUS
- This shows if your account is active or "enabled".
- MONTHLY BUDGET
- This is the maximum amount of funds that are available per month for ads.
- DAILY SPEND
- This is the maximum amount that you are willing to spend on Hotel Ads on a particular day.
- MAX COST PER CLICK
- This is the maximum bid you are willing to spend for your ad to show on Google. This amount is multiplied by the number of nights in the booking.
- AD DISPLAY TYPE
- Display room bundles or not. Room bundle information includes room name and rate types, photos, and room information such as bed count and type extracted from your room name and description in your booking engine. Will also say "Non-refundable" even if your property offers free cancellation or is partially refundable. Google is working on a solution for this. When you don't display room bundles, "Non-refundable" is not exposed.
Room Bundle Information
Your ad will show the lowest possible rate when users search your property and see your GMB listing column on the right-hand side of Google whether you opt to show the room bundle information or not. Google exposes room bundle information only on the Prices tab of your Google Hotels listing page, and only for ads in the 1st position at the top. The Prices tab is accessible by clicking the "View more rates" link.
On the Prices tab, if you opt to show room bundle information, it will look something like this, with the option to show more room rates with a link:
If you choose not to show room bundle information, your ad will look something like this:
Using Google Hotel Ads
If you need to make changes to your budget amounts, update them on the Google Hotel Ads page in Settings, and click Save.
ThinkReservations sends the lowest public (no coupon code or customer group required) rate and availability to Google. The details and information Google displays about your property come from your Google My Business page. Take this opportunity to make sure your My Business page is up to date with Google. If you opt for displaying room bundles, then on the "Pricing" tab of your Google Hotel Ads page, google will show additional information about your rooms they extract from your room name and description that you have in ThinkReservations.
Google Ads Campaign Report
There is a corresponding report in the reports suite to track information about your campaign. You can track the effectiveness of your campaign and see your conversions.
Reports > Google Hotel Ads > Google Ads Campaign Report
This report allows you to see details on your Google Hotel Ads campaign. The information in this report comes directly from Google through our connection. The ThinkReservations report shows the following information:
- Clicks - This is the number of times that a user clicked on your ad.
- Impressions - This is the number of times that a user viewed your ad.
- Cost - This is the total that was paid to Google for the clicks on the same day.
- Conversions- This is the number of reservations booked as a result of viewing your ad.
- The click-through conversion window is 30 days. - Conversion Value - This is the subtotal of the reservations that booked as a result of your ad.
- Budget Increase - This is the amount that your budget was increased.
- Balance - This is the amount of your remaining balance for Google Ads
Adding Funds
If you need to add funds because your credit amount is low, you don't have to wait to the start of the next month. Click the Add Funds button.
In the popup, enter the amount you would like to add, and click the Add button. The funds will be added to your account shortly.
If your credit amount drops to $3.00 or less, your account will automatically be suspended until funds are added either at the next month or manually using the Add Funds button.
Google Analytics
How do you measure the effectiveness of your ads with Google Analytics? Track your conversion rate and learn more about the users who click on your ad in your own Google Analytics account as well as the Google Ads Campaign report in ThinkReservations.
Please note that Google tracks conversions differently in Analytics than in Google Hotel Ads. Google Hotel Ads, and therefore the reports in ThinkReservations attribute conversions to the last Google Ads click. On the other hand, Analytics uses the last click across all channels (excluding direct). For example, let’s say a user clicks on your Google Hotel Ad, then returns the next day via a Google organic search result and books with you. Analytics will attribute the Goal or Transaction to google/organic. However, Google Ads will attribute the conversion to the Google Ads campaign. The click-through conversion window is 30 days. This means that a guest can click on your ad, and if they book within 30 days, it will count as a conversion for that date it was clicked. This is why the reports in the past can be updated with new information.
Learn more about that from Google here.
In Google Analytics, the source is identified as google.com / cpc and the campaign is identified as googlehotelads.