Well-known for its consumer-based first-hand reviews and ratings of hotels, destinations and leisure activities, TripAdvisor is now pivoting to offer a revenue-based ad path to hotels through its sponsored placements option as part of TripAdvisor Ads.
The global rollout, which was in December 2017, allows hotels part of the company’s Business Advantage programme to choose from three monthly budget plans based on the clicks the property hopes to receive. The ads, TripAdvisor said, will allow hotels to appear on top of the search page — both on mobile and website — when users are looking to stay in the area giving the property “premium exposure” according to the travelling site.
In terms of payment for the placements, hotels will pay on a cost-per-click basis. This is based on a number of factors, such as location, accommodation type and other advertisers in the hotel’s area, a statement said on TripAdvisor’s website.
So what is a click? The website terms the click as anytime a traveller clicks on the sponsored placement and is directed to another page — a hotel’s main website or bookings page. The property’s name, photo, review count or deal link are all considered clicks. However, if a traveller clicks on the heart-shaped “save” icon, it won’t be counted as a click as the user won’t be directed to another page.
For the programme, TripAdvisor is offering hotels a variety of payments methods including credit cards, direct debit as well as Automated Clearing House (ACH). However, in what the company is calling “risk-free,” hotel properties can cancel at any time without any hidden fees.
For hotels with multiple properties, each requires a separate campaign to sign up. The programme, besides streamlining users to hotels, also allows businesses that sign up to review the performance of its placements. On TripAdvisor’s ads overview page, hotels can monitor amount spent, campaign views, campaign clicks and the click-through-rate.
While sponsored listings are not entirely new on travelling sites, take Expedia’s Travel Ads, this is a first for TripAdvisor.
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