Flywheel News | June 2024 Hotel Digital Marketing News | GCommerce

1. Google improves GA4 attribution models for better paid search conversion tracking

Google has updated its GA4 attribution models to more accurately assign conversions to paid search campaigns. Previously, some conversions were incorrectly attributed to organic search due to issues with the 'gclid' parameter in single-page applications. This update ensures that campaign information is correctly captured and attributed to paid search, potentially increasing the number of conversions reported for these campaigns. Learn more here.

2. The crucial importance of owning your website

Having a robust online presence is not just advantageous- it's essential. While social media platforms offer visibility and engagement, they shouldn't be your sole digital outpost. Instead, owning your website is paramount for establishing credibility, control, and long-term success online. Discover the top reasons why owning your website is crucial for your property.

3. Meta accelerates GA4 integration, highlights 22% surge in conversions

Meta is encouraging advertisers to integrate Google Analytics 4 (GA4) data, claiming a 22% boost in conversions from improved campaign performance. This integration allows for better tracking of ad influence on website traffic and user behavior. Despite its benefits, GA4 has limitations, including privacy regulations and challenges with longer sales cycles.For more details, you can read the full article here.

4. Which ad performed best? Can you guess?

Facebook ads are a powerful tool for businesses to reach their target audience through personalized and engaging content, but selecting the perfect elements for an ad is like finding the missing puzzle piece to campaign success. Take a look at these Facebook ad variations and see if you can guess which one outperformed the others? Discover more here.

5. Facebook experiments with 'Clear Mode' for enhanced reels viewing experience

Facebook is testing a "Clear Mode" for Reels, aimed at providing a cleaner, less cluttered viewing experience by removing on-screen distractions. This feature is currently in limited testing and could enhance user engagement by focusing solely on the content. Check out the full article, here.

6. Google transitions hotel ads to AI-Driven bidding strategies

Google is transitioning its hotel ads to AI-powered bidding strategies, phasing out commission-based bidding by October 2024. The new strategies, including target Return on Ad Spend (tROAS) and expanded Performance Max, aim to optimize ad performance using AI and adapt to a privacy-focused advertising environment. Learn more here. 

7. California Assembly Bill No. 537 goes into effect

Starting July 1st, California’s Assembly Bill No. 537 goes into effect. This requires transparency in pricing. It applies to displaying rates to travelers in California, and applies even if your property is located outside of California. All advertised room rates must include mandatory fees, excluding government taxes - so no more hidden resort fees or charges. Our advertising that features rates and metasearch, is already updating to be in compliance with this law but it’s important for you to consult your legal counsel and ensure your website/other channels are in compliance.

8. Google consent mode updates

Google has launched consent mode v2. This is an update to their consent mode tag setting that allows your website visitors' cookie preferences to be passed via their selections on your domain’s cookie banner/consent management platform to Google’s suite of ad products, such as Google Ads and Google Marketing Platform. You can learn more about the details of consent mode here.

Flywheel News | May 2024 Hotel Digital Marketing News | GCommerce

1. Google Marketing Live 2024: Key takeaways from the GCommerce team

Every year, the marketing industry eagerly awaits Google Marketing Live, Google’s annual event to showcase what’s new in the world of Google advertising. Discover our key takeaways from Google Marketing Live 2024.

2. Google announces new ad creative and targeting tools for AI overviews, PMax & more

Google has been working on making it easier and faster to produce great creative assets for ads across marketing channels. Discover more now. 

3. Canva announced an enterprise platform, AI features and refreshed UI

A whole new editing experience and Canva Enterprise package targets businesses using a mixed bag of workspace tools. Learn more here. 

4. Is your property adjusting your metasearch bids for direct bookings?
Hotel Metasearch Bid Modifiers allow you to adjust your hotel metasearch default bid by a percentage at various levels. Learn how to adjust your metasearch bids for maximum direct bookings, here. 

5. Meta adds automated video ad option to Automated Catalog Ads offerings

Catalog product video allows advertisers to upload video assets directly into their catalog at the product or SKU level. Once uploaded, advertisers can leverage the AI in Advantage+ solutions to pinpoint ideal users, deliver impactful content and ultimately drive conversions. Learn more here. 

6. Google Analytics 4 now showing real-time users in the last 5 minutes

Google has upgraded its Google Analytics, GA4, real-time reports to show users in the last 5 minutes. It previously showed users in the last 30 minutes, and now it shows both users in the last 5 minutes and users in the last 30 minutes. Explore this here.

7. Top travel apps harvesting your data without asking

Cybernews discovered that travel apps have built-in permissions that allow developers to access sensitive information on users' devices, including location, contacts, camera, microphone, and SMS messages. Learn more here.

Flywheel News | April 2024 Hotel Digital Marketing News | GCommerce

1. Google delays depreciation of 3rd party cookies (again) 

Brands and advertisers now have some extra time to prepare for the demise of 3rd party cookies. Google announced that it’s delaying the phase-out to 2025. Learn more here. 

2. Are you winning the battle for direct bookings?

Our founder, Scott van Hartesvelt, discusses the battle against OTAs for direct bookings and one channel that could boost your hotel’s success. Read here.

3. Bill requiring TikTok sale signed into law 

ByteDance officially has 9 months to sell TikTok, or it will no longer be allowed to be legally distributed in the US. This could mean big moves in the budget towards platforms like YouTube and Meta. Read more here.

4. What are the most popular hotel offers? 

Our team dove deep into our portfolio’s GA4 data to analyze the most commonly booked hotel offers across our clients. Discover the results here to see if your hotel is currently using these offer types.

5. E-Book: Promoting DEI In the Workplace 

There is no one-size-fits-all or off-the-shelf playbook regarding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the workplace. We knew we wanted to improve DEI in our workplace and continue learning, growing, and evolving. We wanted to share our findings, tips, and strategies. Learn more in our e-book.

6. WordPress vs Webflow: The ultimate showdown 

Wondering what website platform is best for your hotel? Learn about the differences, strengths, and unique features of WordPress and Webflow here.

7. Meta AI adds Google search results 

Meta’s AI now uses search results from Microsoft and Google within its answers. While the assistant will source and allow users to click to the source on the web, it does keep the users within the Meta app. This could have very interesting implications for its ability to grow relevant ad audiences. Learn more here.

8. How does hotel metasearch help with first-party data? 

Even with Google delaying the phase-out of third-party cookies, you should still aggressively focus on growing your hotel’s first-party data now. Learn how hotel metasearch can assist.

Flywheel News | March 2024 Hotel Digital Marketing News | GCommerce

1. Google generating AI powered travel itineraries in search results 

Users that have SGE enabled via Labs in their Chrome browsers can now start viewing Google generated travel itineraries - learn more here and see how your hotel may be visible in these searches.

2. The House votes to ban TikTok 

The move by the US government is pushing ByteDance to divest from TikTok within 6 months or face a ban in the US. Since many investors are US based, the general thought by many is that this will happen and US residents will still be able to use the platform.

3. How to optimize your hotel’s metasearch campaigns for mobile  

Did you know you can view metasearch advertising performance by device type? See what this means and how you can optimize your campaigns using this data.

4. GCommerce celebrates Women’s History Month 

GCommerce employees share their womanhood traditions during Women’s History Month. See what our team had to say.

5. GCommerce’s 2023 DEI Impact Report 

Over a year after establishing our DEI study group, GCommerce shares a recap of the work that has been done and the outcomes it’s generated. Read the full report here.

6. Google’s Consent Mode updates are here 

Google has rolled out Consent Mode v2 - learn about this update, what steps your company should consider and how it can impact your ad targeting here.

7. Say goodbye to Google’s Commission Bid Strategies for Hotel Ads 

Don't worry, saying goodbye to Google’s commission bid strategies for hotel ads doesn’t mean saying goodbye to pay per stay contract models with GCommerce. Learn more here.

8. Dive into data: LinkedIn static vs video lead generation campaigns 

Our team breaks down results seen when using static vs video ads in LinkedIn Lead Gen campaigns. Learn more here.

9. Instagram updates hashtag search making opportunities for account discovery 

Find out what opportunities await with this update by Instagram and make sure you’re updating your account profile and posts with keywords for your top targeted searches.

10. Google starts testing AI overviews from SGE in Google search results 

Although Google hasn’t announced an official rollout for SGE in the main search results, it has started testing it for a small subset of users. Learn more here.

11. Google changes name of conversions in Google Analytics 4 to Key Events 

Although the jury is out on if this update is actually beneficial or not, Google has officially changed the name of conversions in all (but Google Ads) reports in GA4 to Key Events. It’s meant to try and help clear up confusion on the differences in conversions seen between GA4 and Google Ads platforms. Learn more here.

Flywheel News | February 2024 Hotel Digital Marketing News | GCommerce

1. A marketer’s case for hotel metasearch

Stop forfeiting direct revenue. Learn how to drive more with a marketer’s approach to the hotel metasearch channel from our Founder, Scott van Hartesvelt. Learn more here.

2. GA4 updates & releases

Google was busy with updates to the GA4 platform in February including:

• Adding a new primary channel group option - giving you an editable channel group that will be the default reporting channel grouping for reports
• Advertising section updates - including moving the Google Ads report into this section vs the previously hard to find location under the traffic acquisition overview
• Trend change detection - a new type of insight that surfaces “subtle but long lasting and important changes in your data
• New manual traffic source dimensions and report - enhancing your ability to analyze performance in cross-channel reports, explorations, and more

3. DEI origins at GCommerce 

In 2022, a fateful series of conversations led us down a path of deliberate intention and focus around our company’s culture and ensuring Diversity, Equity and inclusion are as much an aspiration as a practice. Learn more about our company’s approach and intention here. 

4. Google & Reddit sign AI content licensing deal  

Google officially announced a deal with Reddit that allows Reddit to integrate new AI-powered capabilities into its platform’s search while Google gets access to Reddit’s data API to help train its own AI models. GCommerce’s monitoring of SERP has already seen Reddit results gain visibility for a variety of search queries, including using Google’s SGE lab feature. Read the full announcement here.

5. What happened to Threads? A 2024 update  

What’s happened to the fastest app to reach 100 million users since its launch last summer? Catch up on the latest around Threads here.

6. 5 reasons to reevaluate your metasearch marketing 

Don’t miss the latest playbook on how to take back your direct bookings with metasearch advertising. View here.

Flywheel News | January 2024 Hotel Digital Marketing News | GCommerce

1. Discover GCommerce’s predictions for digital marketing in 2024 

What will happen to hotel digital marketing in 2024? Learn the top predictions from the marketing team here at GCommerce.

2. Google Search CPCs up 19% YOY

Google search CPCs are on the rise. View this study from Tinuiti on rising spend and CPCs on Google ads.

3. Hacking your marketing budget 

With outstanding management of your 2024 marketing budget, you may be able to improve performance and efficiency, but not enough to make a dent in your new revenue goals.  Learn how to generate direct revenue without spending marketing dollars from our founder, Scott van Hartesvelt.

4. 94% of SGE results different than organic results

In January, an interesting study on SGE results vs organic results found that 94% of the time, the two contained different listing results. This could allow sites not normally listed in top organic results to appear within SGE results.

5. Google starts phasing out 3rd party cookies 

Google officially rolled out the first phase of depreciating third-party cookies with its Tracking Protection feature, including 1% of Chrome users. However, more recent news out of the UK states that Google can’t move forward with the full phase-out until it addresses some concerns around proposed Privacy Sandbox changes. 

6. Facebook link history feature - a loophole to cookies? 

Facebook’s new link history feature allows users to save their link history and is a default opt-in feature. It could also be a loophole for advertisers to target audiences better as the removal of 3rd party cookies rolls out.

7. TikTok’s testing an interesting AI feature 

In one of the more interesting use cases for AI within social media platforms, TikTok is developing AI that would allow the platform to easily replicate anyone’s voice. Equal parts cool and scary, this could open the door for more use of audio creation with video content. Learn more.