Since last year, Bing Ads has been working in partnership with DerbySoft to run a beta for their new Hotel Ads offering. As Bing Ads continues to run and expand the beta to new international markets throughout the year, DerbySoft is pleased to announce our clients will be some of the first to have access to this new source of direct bookings.
Extending your market reach
Bing’s search market share in the US is estimated to be 24% (that’s 5 billion monthly searches). Considering these impressively large volumes, the launch of a new metasearch product presents a great opportunity to expand your advertising reach to a new channel. Especially one which will offer incremental click volume to complement your existing campaigns.
This is a big opportunity for you to increase your Web Direct mix, one you cannot afford for OTAs to claim uncontested by not participating.
How does Bing Hotel Ads work?
Just like Bing Ads’ core product, the interface will feel familiar for those with experience using Google’s solution. Bing has prioritized fast adoption, ease of transition, and is continuing to build off of positive feedback from the beta on what’s working, in comparison to Google’s HPA product.
Undeniably, familiarity reduces the barriers of entry and the interface, bidding mechanisms, multipliers, and feed formats are by and large easy to understand. This will speed up the implementation process and limit the learning curve in harnessing the opportunity of a new metasearch channel.
If you are familiar with Google Hotels Ads, you’ll be up and bidding on Bing Hotel Ads in no time.
Bing’s Past and Future with TripAdvisor
Prior to Bing’s Hotel Ads beta, the hotel search panel was supplemented with TripAdvisor data. Going forward, valuable parts of this integration such as hotel reviews will continue to be showcased alongside hotel ads.
Pricing models
For the time being Bing Hotel Ads offers a traditional bidding methodology – cost per click. This is where you pay only for clicks to your website. Whether Bing will open up a commission program is yet to be seen.
Bidding Strategies
Bids can be set at either Fixed bid per night or Percentage of Room Price. Either option can be used but we recommend the percentage of room rate as it of offers the best performance when it comes to bidding.
- Fixed bid per night: The maximum cost per click will be set as a fixed amount per night.
- Percentage of room rate (recommended): A bid is calculated as the percentage of the total hotel price per night.
Bid multipliers
There are several bid multipliers that are available, these include:
- Device Type
- Date Type
- User Country
- Length of Stay
- Check-in Day
- Advance Booking Window
It’s great to have several levers available which offer flexibility to bidding. They also go a long way in helping to maximize your return on ad spend.
Budgeting for a new channel
When adding a new channel to your mix it can be difficult to know how much budget to allocate.
Our most successful customers have an experimental fund to test new marketing programs and channels. We have no doubt that Bing Ads will graduate beyond experimental stage into a key channel. Nonetheless, we recommend an initial testing period in order to set future expectations for your Bing Hotel Ads KPI goals.
Add to your advertising success
Throughout the beta phase we have worked closely with Bing to develop a quality integration which harnesses the potential this new opportunity presents for you. We have no doubt Bing Ads will be an important metasearch channel which deserves a proactive action plan from you, especially if your key markets are based in the US or UK. We’ll keep you updated with Bing’s Hotel Ads news and help you drive more and more customers to your business.