New Hotel SERP Feature Alert: Google Property Promotion Ads Carousel is Live
At the end of 2022, Google announced that a new Property Promotion Ads carousel was coming to it’s mobile search results. Previously out in beta, the new Google Property Promotion Ads carousel is now live in the mobile and desktop search results. Are you seeing this in your hotel google searches yet? You can see the new feature in the below screenshot.
What are Property Promotion Ads?
Property Promoted Ads are a campaign type available within the Google Hotel Ads inventory space. It is a separate campaign type from standard Google Hotel Ads and does require a separate campaign type in order to run. These ads appear at the top of destination searches in the Google Travel Planner, Google Maps, and now directly at the top of the search results for hotel searches.
Property Promotion Ads allow you to get in front of consumers when their shopping for hotels in a destination and tend to be higher up the funnel in their research process compared to standard Google Hotel Ads, which appear within a hotel’s knowledge panel or travel planner listing. Property Promotion Ads also tend to have higher CPCs since the inventory is in a premium position, which can also result in lower ROAS compared to standard Google Hotel Ads placements.
Where Did the Standard Text Based Paid Search Ads Go?
One important observation from the screenshot above is that there are no standard text ads shown above the hotel map pack. We’re only seeing the Property Promotion Ads carousel in this search for “Calistoga Hotels”. We did get standard text ads to trigger with other searches, including “San Diego Resorts”. The takeover of the top position on the Google SERP will have a huge impact on paid search advertising visibility and push hotels to shift their focus and media dollars to Google Hotel Ads and Property Promotion Ads, in particular, in order to maintain visibility for destination searches.
Google Now Showing Updated Search Filters for Hotel Searches
A secondary but essential update found with this new SERP for hotel searches is the new set of filters shown under the search bar. The search shown below for “Calistoga hotels” includes filter options such as “luxury”, “with hot springs”, “with spa”, “cheap”, and “with pools”.
It looks like Google is pulling in these new features directly from attributes available within Google Business Profile and proving once again how important Local SEO, especially your hotel’s Google Business Profile, is to visibility in the search engine results and to your Google Hotel Ads performance.
How can my hotel get started with Google Property Promotion Ads?
In order to run Google Property Promotion Ads, you first need to be live with Google Hotel Ads via a hotel metasearch advertising provider. It requires connectivity to your booking engine rates and inventory, along with campaign management and ongoing optimization.
Please reach out to our team of Google Hotel Ads experts at GCommerce for more information.
