Google Ads--Have you tried them?
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Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:
I think they are highly preferred under certain conditions.
You aren't competing for general words that require high CPC. Like "NYC Bed and Breakfast"
You focus on "long tail" search terms. Think more like "Victorian Bed and Breakfast Staten Island"
You use negative terms to weed out searches with "free", "cheap", etc. Not the kind of clicks you want!
You don't shoot for #1 at all costs. #3 and #4 tend to be good.
You limit the zip codes, counties, states, whatever to only solicit traffic from people who are likely to seek you out. Same for weeding out zip codes with really low incomes.
You become knowledgeable about landing pages, sales funnels, calls to action, etc.
Your title and text of the Adwords is sophisticated and tested.
FIRST, you should do everything possible to clean your website, get on all the free useful directories, etc.
ALSO, ensure your site is freshened often, and has top notch SEO.
You aren't competing for general words that require high CPC. Like "NYC Bed and Breakfast"
You focus on "long tail" search terms. Think more like "Victorian Bed and Breakfast Staten Island"
You use negative terms to weed out searches with "free", "cheap", etc. Not the kind of clicks you want!
You don't shoot for #1 at all costs. #3 and #4 tend to be good.
You limit the zip codes, counties, states, whatever to only solicit traffic from people who are likely to seek you out. Same for weeding out zip codes with really low incomes.
You become knowledgeable about landing pages, sales funnels, calls to action, etc.
Your title and text of the Adwords is sophisticated and tested.
FIRST, you should do everything possible to clean your website, get on all the free useful directories, etc.
ALSO, ensure your site is freshened often, and has top notch SEO.
Copperhead
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Their PPC campaigns were at one time economical and allowed small businesses to compete with the big boys.
But today's G. Ad words have developed into a money sucking business. We had several campaigns and in the beginning of our efforts they really assisted us to be noticed in certain markets that we had failed at in generic SEO ranks.
But after the competition became strong and the cost per click became too costly we turned off our campaigns but kept them in a list on file so to speak.
Twice they were placed back active without our involvement and did not see them activated until money came out of our account to pay. The first time it happened the G. help stated it was a malfunction in their system, apologized and gave us a credit of equal value. (not what we wanted, we wanted our $ back, not a credit).
We started keeping a good eye on the account and even though we did not initiate a new campaign, one was started 'on our behalf' and set the ball rolling again.
After this last attempt by Ad words we have removed our campaigns and our CC number was changed.
But today's G. Ad words have developed into a money sucking business. We had several campaigns and in the beginning of our efforts they really assisted us to be noticed in certain markets that we had failed at in generic SEO ranks.
But after the competition became strong and the cost per click became too costly we turned off our campaigns but kept them in a list on file so to speak.
Twice they were placed back active without our involvement and did not see them activated until money came out of our account to pay. The first time it happened the G. help stated it was a malfunction in their system, apologized and gave us a credit of equal value. (not what we wanted, we wanted our $ back, not a credit).
We started keeping a good eye on the account and even though we did not initiate a new campaign, one was started 'on our behalf' and set the ball rolling again.
After this last attempt by Ad words we have removed our campaigns and our CC number was changed.
Generic
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We use them with a small budget but a very targeted audience. The most important rules.. don't go after the big words because you will compete with everyone. For example, don't target the word "St. John's" because that is just going to bring you unwanted traffic. Be VERY specific. Create a target audience... for example, we have just a few countries and areas targeted... no use advertising in Morocco when you guests come from Maine. Create a negative set of keywords to prevent your ad from showing when you don't want it to... like cheap or hotel. I never want to appear when someone is looking up the word cheap or hotel... I'm neither.
From Google's standpoint, the wider your search words, the better. From your standpoint, the more targeted the better. They estimate you will get 10 clicks a month... good! You can't afford to target the 1000 clicks a month.
Find your niche.... and use your words to guide them. Are you the best B&B or are you special? What makes you special? It's all about targeting your little budget.
And finally, make an add that even if it is third on a list is going to get you clicks....
LOSER:
Stay at our B&B
WINNER:
Great beds... better bedding
From Google's standpoint, the wider your search words, the better. From your standpoint, the more targeted the better. They estimate you will get 10 clicks a month... good! You can't afford to target the 1000 clicks a month.
Find your niche.... and use your words to guide them. Are you the best B&B or are you special? What makes you special? It's all about targeting your little budget.
And finally, make an add that even if it is third on a list is going to get you clicks....
LOSER:
Stay at our B&B
WINNER:
Great beds... better bedding
happykeeper
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Wow. We haven't done ad words for years, but this makes me want to try it next year on a very specific and limited basis. Very informative. Thanks
Highlands John
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They do work for us, goog le is the biggest driver of traffic to our site and adwords is a big chunk of that. We are very targetted to age groups and countries.
I tend to keep my budget low most of the year, but put it higher during the busy cooking period.
The price per click works out much cheaper than a ta business listing.
I tend to keep my budget low most of the year, but put it higher during the busy cooking period.
The price per click works out much cheaper than a ta business listing.
Generic
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Believe it or not, Google also has reps that will help you and show you some of the tools to better target what you want to do. They change regularly so don't get too attached. I think it's a security thing. But they can be helpful in figuring out what negative keywords to add. For example, because of a park near me, I had to add negative keyword Missouri.
Fontaines
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Google Ads work quite well for us even though the ads are a bit tricky to set up.
Some keywords cost a lot of money but will give you big traffic to your website. Other keywords cost much less but well nobody uses them... You have to choose what is your strategy.
Some keywords cost a lot of money but will give you big traffic to your website. Other keywords cost much less but well nobody uses them... You have to choose what is your strategy.
LogCabinResort
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Over 13k new visitors over the last 12 months, with almost 1/2 of them staying on the site. That's about 500 people a month checking us out, and staying on the site from Adwords. I don't have conversion tracking working right due to me not changing booking engines yet, but I know that 90 people selected they heard from us from Google, and I'm sure some of them are from ads.
happykeeper
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we know others have been happy with the results they get, but our try with Google was such an expensive mess way back when that we have never gone back to it, but we are interested in what Google is doing with their hotel finder. Has anyone investigated this yet? I will likely take a look when our travels slow down.
Maybe I could learn a few tips on finding the right balance between overspending when we don't need it and choosing keywords that are effective. I think is will probably stay on my marketing list through the end of year.
I only recommend doing adwords on your own hotel/inn name and bid low like 20c-50c per click, the problem is usually because your competing with the big OTA and affiliates who are spending $7-$15 per click.
Even at these low prices you will find a conversion costing around $5-$10 or around 10%, which after giving a discount for booking direct equates to just as expensive as letting the OTA's getting booking for you.
But.... if your lucky enough to find keywords which nobody is bidding on but people are searching on then count yourself lucky!
Even at these low prices you will find a conversion costing around $5-$10 or around 10%, which after giving a discount for booking direct equates to just as expensive as letting the OTA's getting booking for you.
But.... if your lucky enough to find keywords which nobody is bidding on but people are searching on then count yourself lucky!
Generic
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If you have TM your name, you can ask Google to not allow adwords on your trademark.
GoodScout
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Oh, I LIKE that! So glad I shelled out the extra $300 when I bought the place to ™ it!Generic said:
I'm not quite sure but I thought that the contract with the OTA's specifically gives them permission to advertise on your name. But worth a try!Generic said:
Generic
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You can refuse to sign to get conditions. For example, I allowed languages other than the two we advertise to be used by the OTA. It's in the contract.
