Recommendations to boost your Metasearch or Retargeting campaign performance

Juss Reyes

Updated February 06, 2025 19:41

Overview

Various (internal and external) factors can significantly impact your property's Metasearch or Retargeting performance. This article presents the most highly recommended actions in different scenarios after following a thorough analysis of your metrics in the Digital Marketing Suite Performance Dashboard.

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Recommended actions per Metasearch scenario

Low/No views

The typical Metasearch performance

Generally speaking, it takes at least 1,000 views to generate 1 booking with metasearch for a typical property with competitive rates and positioning.

The math explains why:

A standard click-through rate (CTR) on a metasearch ad is 2% - 3%. If your ad has 1,000 views and a fairly strong 3% CTR, you’ll have 30 clicks.
A 3% conversion rate on those 30 clicks = 1 booking ( 0.9, but good enough)
Of course, all of this will vary greatly depending on several factors, such as your property’s rates, location, number of rooms/availability, competition, etc.

Potential causes

Recommended actions

- The property is new, not well-known, or in a remote area with little to no draw, so people are not searching for it.
- The property does not have a strong or unique enough brand to stand out amongst the other properties in the area.

- The property may not be available, have set closeouts, or have a custom allotment, which won’t work with metasearch.

- Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile, Tripadvisor, and Trivago listings.
- Get more 5-star reviews, especially on Google: Reviews increase the visibility of your listings on each platform, which in turn increases the number of times your ad is viewed. With metasearch, Google drives 80%+ of the views and clicks.
- Add OTAs (up to 6) for maximum “billboard effect” to increase your property’s overall visibility.
- Review your closeouts and allotments to ensure optimal performance
- Focus on marketing your property name and brand. This may include advertising and marketing strategies outside of metasearch campaigns.

Good views, but low/no clicks

Potential causes

Recommended actions

- Low click-through rates in metasearch (below 2%) are typically caused by poor price competitiveness or poor reviews.

- Review and work on your rate competitiveness.
- Check your price competitiveness score in the Digital Marketing Suite Performance Dashboard. If your score is “average” or “poor,” this means that your direct rate is equal to or higher than the rate offered by OTAs for the same room.
- Check your guest reviews. Very few reviews and/or a review score below 4.2 may deter potential guests from clicking on your property/ad and opting for a place with better reviews. Learn more about managing guest reviews with Reputation.

Good views and clicks, but low/no bookings

Potential causes

Recommended actions

- Low metasearch conversion rates (below 3%) are due to your property's getting most of its bookings via phone or walk-in.
- Another cause is often a poor booking engine experience (no branding, missing photos or descriptions, etc)

- Examine your guest’s typical direct booking behavior and also review how your booking engine looks to potential guests.
- If your guests book directly offline, check the Channel Production report to see how guests typically book. (Be sure to select “direct bookings” and “show sub-channels.”)
- If the majority of the direct bookings come via phone or walk-in, the property is likely benefitting from Metasearch. Still, because these bookings take place offline, they are not attributable to Metasearch. In other words, those clicks are turning into phone calls and walk-ins, so we can’t report on them.

✨To keep in mind

A poor booking engine experience can negatively impact metasearch performance. Take the time to view your own booking engine as if you are a guest.
Answer key questions about basic features, such as:
- Do the colors match your website branding?
- Have you uploaded a logo?
- Do all of the rooms have high-quality photos and descriptions?
- Are you incentivizing direct bookings?

Recommendations for Retargeting

Retargeting ads can be described as banner or display ads. They operate quite differently from metasearch ads, keyword ads, or online travel agency (OTA) listings. The primary objective of retargeting ads is to increase the visibility of the advertisement.

Retargeting within the Cloudbeds Digital Marketing Suite Performance Dashboard allows you to convert visitors who didn't book your property into bookers. Here are some recommendations to improve your Retargeting ads:

Remember the goal: The fundamental principle of retargeting is reaching and maintaining frequency with a highly targeted audience. This audience consists of individuals who are already familiar with your brand and have visited your site.
Optimize your ad: The number of clicks vs. views depends on the property’s ad (the image, headline, and description) for Retargeting. The more enticing the ad, the more clicks it will gather.
Take care of the visual elements: Ensure the visuals are well done; a compelling, beautiful image is the most important.
Monitor your growth: Pay attention to the Channel Production Report. Over time, anticipate an increase in the percentage of direct bookings compared to the period prior to the launch of your Retargeting campaign.
Place your tracking script (code) on your website: Adding the tracking script to your website will increase the views of your retargeting ad and improve the tracking for your ad so we can show you all of the bookings that Retargeting helped to create.