Google has recently announced an end to its trial implementation of Google Tags, an advertising service that allowed businesses to show little yellow “tags” next to their listings on Google.com and Google Maps in order to call out and highlight their offerings. The announcement came on the heels of Google’s launch of Boost, a local ad platform allowing the same local businesses to actually create their own contextual search ads from their Google Places account.
In response to this new development, many hospitality businesses are questioning whether they should be getting in line to jump on the Google Boost wagon. In truth, Google Boost does make sense for some businesses, but it may not be the best option for hospitality and destination marketing.
The advantage of Google Boost is its ability to display an ad to local searchers on Google Maps (“local” as defined by 15-20 miles from the property). However, by using the Google AdWords interface instead, a business can advertise on Google Maps without local restrictions—and with greater control over the campaign, the cost per click and the ad copy.
Google AdWords provides more advertising options and finer controls. With AdWords, you can control keyword selection and bids, target both locally and nationally, get advanced reporting, take advantage of different ad formats (such as video), display on thousands of partner sites and more.
It is also important to note that visitors who click on an ad through the AdWords interface can be directed straight to the business’s website, as opposed to Google Boost, which sends users to the business’s Google Places listing first, thereby putting more steps between the visitor and the booking engine. As the connection from an ad to a business’s booking page should be as quick and smooth as possible, sending visitors to an in-between stage is unlikely to be beneficial to hospitality and destination marketing efforts.
Search advertising is an important component to any marketing campaign—although it is often overlooked or misunderstood by businesses that are not well informed on the medium. If you’d like more information about discovering the best options to “boost” your efforts in this area, contact mdamico@danacommunications.com.
