Hotel PMax FAQ

Overview

Hotel PMax is a new, AI-powered marketing campaign type from Cloudbeds designed to help hotels increase direct bookings. This article covers the most frequently asked questions to help you better understand how it works, how to get started, and what benefits it brings.

1. What is Hotel PMax and how does it work?
2. What are the key benefits?
3. How do I get started?
4. Why did my uploaded image fail validation?
5. What's the Daily Budget Target and Spend Behavior?
6. Is a tracking code required?
7. What is Ad strength and where can I find it?

🎯 What is Hotel PMax and how does it work?

• Question: What is Hotel PMax?
• Answer: Hotel PMax is an AI-powered campaign from Cloudbeds designed to increase direct bookings. Built on Performance Max for Travel Goals with Google Ads, it runs personalized ads across Google’s entire network from a single platform.

• Question: How does it work?
• Answer: Once you set your budget and visibility, the system handles the rest. It uses Google's travel signals to target travelers actively planning trips to your destination. The system also uses dynamic asset creation and real-time optimization to help you reach high-intent travelers.

• Question: How does Hotel PMax target the right guests?
• Answer: Google uses machine learning and AI to test and optimize targeting. It evaluates signals such as engagement with ads, location, and conversions after the ad pixel is installed.
  
  In addition, our team gives your campaign a head start by providing audience signals to Google Ads during setup. This guides the machine learning models toward the ideal way to optimize performance.
  
  Because this testing and learning requires data, it also requires time. PMax can start generating bookings within the first couple of weeks, but we generally recommend allowing 6–9 weeks for optimization. Budget accordingly.

🎯 What are the key benefits?

• Question: What are the main advantages of using Hotel PMax?
• Answer: Hotel PMax helps you boost direct bookings and protect your brand. It provides transparent ROI tracking, linking every booking back to your campaign with a unique transaction ID. You can also customize your ad's images and copy with optional AI-generated suggestions.

🎯 How do I get started?

• Question: How do I subscribe to Hotel PMax?
• Answer: To subscribe, go to the Digital Marketing section in your Cloudbeds PMS and click the Hotel PMax tab. Click Get Started, review the subscription details and fees, then set your campaign budget. You can choose to auto-refill credits to keep your campaign running smoothly.

• Question: How much should I budget for Hotel PMax campaigns?
• Answer: It depends—your location, property size, competition, uploaded assets, and visibility setting all influence the required budget. Hotel PMax requires testing and learning to drive results, which takes both data and time. PMax can start generating bookings within the first couple of weeks, but we generally recommend allowing 6–9 weeks for optimization.
  
  Budget accordingly and consider using the auto-refill feature to keep your campaign funded and active so it can learn and improve.

🎯 Why did my uploaded image fail validation?

• Question: Why did my uploaded image fail validation?
• Answer: The AI Image Quality Validator analyzes each image uploaded to your Hotel PMax campaign and assigns it a quality score from 0–5. Images scoring 0 or 1 are automatically rejected and will not be added to your campaign assets.

• Question: What criteria does the validator check?
• Answer: The AI model evaluates several factors:
  • Image Quality (30%) – sharpness, clarity, lighting.
  • Aesthetic Appeal (30%) – composition and emotional impact.
  • Relevance (20%) – whether the image accurately represents your property.
  • Thumbnail Performance (20%) – how well the image works in small formats.

• Question: What file types can I upload?
• Answer: Only .jpg and .png images are supported for Hotel PMax campaigns.

• Question: How can I improve a low-scoring image?
• Answer: Choose images that are bright, clear, visually appealing, and instantly recognizable as part of your property. Avoid blurry, dark, or overly complex visuals. Landscape or room images with good lighting typically score best.

• Question: Does image validation affect campaign activation?
• Answer: Yes. If your campaign does not meet the minimum number of required image assets due to failed uploads, the system may show a “Campaign not active” warning until acceptable images are added.

🎯 What's the Daily Budget Target and Spend Behavior?

• Question: What is the Hotel PMax Daily Budget target control?
• Answer: It’s a control that allows you to set a specific target amount, in credits, you want to spend per day on your Hotel PMax advertising campaigns.

• Question: What are the available daily budget options?
• Answer: You can select between 10, 25, or 50 credits per day as your daily budget target.

• Question: What is the default daily budget setting?
• Answer: The default setting is 25 credits per day.

• Question: Will the campaign spend exactly my daily budget every day?
• Answer: Not necessarily. Actual daily spend may vary. On some days, you might spend less than your daily budget, and on others, up to twice as much. However, over a month, you will never pay more than your daily budget multiplied by the average number of days in a month.

🎯 Is a tracking code required?

• Question: Do I need to add a tracking code to use Hotel PMax?
• Answer: Yes, a tracking code is required to properly track visitor behavior and bookings. If you use a Cloudbeds Website, the code is automatically inserted. If not, copy your unique tracking code from the Resources section of your Digital Marketing page and paste it into the <head> section of your website’s HTML. The code is automatically added to your booking engine for you.

• Question: Can I set up a PMax campaign with Google Ads directly?
• Answer: Customers can set up many ad types in Google Ads. However, they do not—and cannot—have direct access to the Cloudbeds Google Hotel Center feed connection, which Google’s Performance Max for Travel Goals with Google Ads requires.
  
  Hotel PMax campaigns available via Cloudbeds utilize the full functionality of Performance Max for Travel Goals, including the Hotel Center feed, to simplify setup, management, and reporting. In addition, Cloudbeds provides the actual booking reservation IDs for every reservation attributed to Digital Marketing campaigns in Cloudbeds—Google Ads reporting cannot do this.

🎯 What is Ad strength and where can I find it?

• Question: What is “Ad strength”?
• Answer: Ad strength is an indication of the relevance and diversity of your ad combinations. Having more relevant and unique content can help improve your ad's performance.
  
  For a breakdown of available Ad strength statuses, visit the Open the Customization Panel and review Ad strength section in the Hotel PMax in Digital Marketing article.

• Question: Where can I find the new Asset Strength feature?
• Answer: The Ad strength score and recommendations are available inside the asset drawer, where Ad Strength appears as the first tab. You can access it by clicking on Edit my ads.

• Question: Will I see suggestions even if my ads are performing well?
• Answer: No. The system shows recommendations only when improvements are needed. If an ad combination already has an Excellent rating, no suggestions will be shown.

• Question: Why does my Ad strength show “Pending”?

• Answer: When you add a recommended asset, your Ad strength status automatically changes to Pending. This status may remain for up to 48 hours.