Hotel Advertising and Hotel Promotion Using Pay-Per-Click Marketing

How to Use Keyword, Pay-Per-Click and other Online Hotel Advertising

Apart from hotel promotion through travel websites and other commission-taking intermediaries, there are several opportunities for hotel advertising and hotel promotion on the Internet. Internet hotel advertising options generally consist of either search engine keyword advertising, banner and other display advertising.

Search engine keyword advertising, also known as 'pay-per-click advertising', is by far the most popular - and effective - form of Internet advertising. When somebody types a word or term into a search engine your advertisement is displayed along with the search results. You don't pay for the display of your advertisement,

Before you do any key word advertising you must know what key words are effective for your hotel and your destination.

only for the clicks through to your website. If you choose your key words that are specifically focused to your hotel and destination keyword hotel advertising can provide you with qualified, highly focused visitors to your website and result in increased bookings. Better yet, since these bookings are made via your own website they are free of the commissions charged by travel agents, GDS representatives and other intermediaries. Keyword advertising can also be a very focused and cost-effective way of generating wedding, conference and other business for your hotel.

Google AdWords, the keyword advertising service offered by the search engine Google, is currently the market leader in key word advertising. Google handles over 112 million searches per day, nearly a third of all searches, and Google keyword advertisements are also delivered to AOL, EarthLink, HowStuffWorks, & Blogger. Advertisers bid for key words, with up to 8 advertisements being displayed alongside search results, ordered according to the amount bid. There's no minimum monthly charge - just a $5 activation fee. You can get more information about Google AdWords here.

The other important keyword advertising service is Overture, which delivers keyword advertisements to MSN, Yahoo!, AltaVista, InfoSpace, AlltheWeb and NetZero, among others, and claims to reach over 80% of active Internet users. Overture therefore serves more searches than Google AdWords, including searches on the highly popular Yahoo! Overture works in basically the same way as Google AdWords. There is a minimum US$50 charge to sign up with a minimum US$20 monthly spend. You can get more information about Overture keyword advertising here.

There are also other keyword advertising opportunities, such as Findwhat.com. However Google Adwords and Overture are the main ones.

You can also advertise your hotel online by using banner advertisements and other display advertising. However banner advertisements can be of limited effectiveness in hotel promotion, and should be used only on websites with a highly-focused audience directly related to your hotel or destination. This might include local and destination websites, event websites and websites related to your hotel's facilities and services.

One advantage of Internet advertising is that there is an electronic record of the traffic that various advertisements generate, allowing you to fine tune your advertisements and the keywords you use.

1. Identify the most important keywords for your hotel and destination.
2. Review the Google, Overture and Findwhat.com keyword advertising services.
3. Engage Hotel Sales Online to prepare and manage your keyword advertising campaign.