Starting Your First Campaign
Opt for a Quick Start campaign
Quick Start campaigns are easy to set up, fully automated, and typically provide the highest return for partners in this program.
Create One Campaign per Hotel
If you're managing multiple properties, create a separate campaign for each hotel. This allows distinct targeting, easy budget management, and the ability to activate or pause hotels independently.
Opt for "Always On"
Rather than choosing a set end date for your campaign, set it to "Always On." This way, you can pause and restart it as needed, without having to create a new campaign each time the end date passes.
Consider Budget Recommendations
One of the steps for creating a campaign is to set a budget. The platform provides you with a budget recommendation based on the number of travelers looking for a property in your market and the current level of competition. You can adjust it as needed, but this provides a good starting point.
Starting with a Custom Campaign
A Custom Campaign allows you to fine-tune targeting and settings. If you choose this option, here are some tips:
Opt for "Always On"
As with Quick Start campaigns, setting your Custom Campaign to "Always On" will allow you to pause and restart the campaign without creating a new one.Set Daily Budgets
Set a Daily Budget so you have full control over how your Budget is spent throughout the monthOpt for a ROAS Goal of 10
A Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) goal of 10 strikes a balance between exposure and return. For every $1 spent, aim to generate $10 in return. This is also a reference point for how your bids will be optimized.
If you have opted for Bid Automation, The AI will optimize your campaign towards this goal if you choose Automation. For manual bidding, the ROAS goal serves as a reference.
The ROAS goal is the return you would like to achieve with your campaign. E.g. for ROAS Goal = 10, you wish to generate $10 for every dollar spent.
If you have opted for automation, the auto-bid will aim at reaching this return goal. A ROAS goal of 10 provides a good balance between exposure and return.
4. Choose ASAP Pacing
ASAP pacing spends your budget immediately when opportunities arise. It works best with Daily Budgets to optimize your budget over time.
5. Use Bid Automation
Activate Bid Automation for AI-driven optimization. The system will adjust your bids daily, improving performance and helping you reach your budget and ROAS goals. When Bid Automation is activated, bids are optimized to reach the ROAS goal set.
How to Set Up a Custom Campaign
Starting with a Custom Campaign
A Custom Campaign allows you to refine your campaign settings and targeting parameters. If you prefer this option, here are a few recommendations for you.
Opt for "Always On"
Because you need to create a whole new campaign every time the end date has been reached, we recommend opting for "always on". This way, you can pause and restart your campaign whenever you wish, without needing to create a new campaign.
Set daily budgets
The Budget is the maximum amount you are willing to spend for your campaign within the timeframe selected. You have a few Budget-Type options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Custom. We recommend setting a Daily Budget, so you have full control over how your Budget is spent throughout the month.
Opt for ROAS Goal of 10
The ROAS goal is the return you would like to achieve with your campaign. E.g. for ROAS Goal = 10, you wish to generate $10 for every dollar spent.
If you have opted for automation, the auto-bid will aim at reaching this return goal. A ROAS goal of 10 provides a good balance between exposure and return.
Opt for ASAP Budget
Pacing defines how often your budget should be spent when opportunities arise. ASAP pacing spends your budget on every opportunity right away, based on the levels of demand. We are seeing higher returns on ASAP budget in larger markets or when the budget is lower than recommended.
Opt for Bid Automation
We recommend letting our AI automation technology do the bidding for you! This way you do not need to manually edit your bid. The auto-bid will be automatically optimized on a daily basis to reach your budget and ROAS goals. We also see usually better performance (in terms of spend and ROAS) with bid automation on.
Targeting Best Practices
The Sponsored Listings program allows you to target travelers in an infinite number of ways. Read below for best practices!
Leverage Targeting Automation
This feature offers the potential to optimize your performance through automated targeting bid adjustments, setting the stage for enhanced ROAS and more efficient budget utilization. Targeting Automation works well with bid automation (you can opt for it at the campaign level).
Add Targeting... Later!
While the minimum bid for the program is $0.50, activating exact targeting moves your minimum bid to $0.75. This can increase your production but also impact your return. So we recommend starting with a blank canvas: no targeting in the beginning.
Optimize targeting based on your performance
As your campaign gets activity, you will be able to leverage the reporting table and identify opportunities on certain segments directly on the reporting page, by selecting a Dimension under Filters and Dimensions. For example, you can view performance per traveler country, device type, hotel, daily date, campaign...
You can then identify cohorts that bring the most bookings, and add a boost or a multiplier towards those. We recommend starting small with the minimum boosts of $0.25. Increase it as you go.
Prefer Boosts and Multipliers over Exact Targeting
Using exact targeting means narrowing the reach of your campaigns, as you are limited to travelers matching certain criteria. We recommend using the boost or multipliers instead, so you increase visibility where it matters but your campaign does not lose exposure.
Limit the number of targeting layers
As targeting increases your bid, we recommend no more than 2 layers per campaign at the same time.