Moving Past ROAS as Marketing KPI
For years, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) has been treated as the gold standard for evaluating hotel marketing performance. But as traveler behavior evolves and the planning journey becomes longer and more complex, it’s clear that ROAS no longer tells the full story. A more strategic, full-funnel approach is needed. One that aligns marketing, revenue […]
The Evolving Commercial Landscape: Key Takeaways from HSMAI’s 2025 Strategy Conference
Three members of our leadership team from Cogwheel attended The HSMAI Commercial Strategy Conference in Indianapolis in June 2025. The conference was dominated by three major themes: artificial intelligence’s impact on marketing, the realignment of commercial strategy through data storytelling, and the growing need for authenticity in audience segmentation. Each insight reflects not only where […]
Case Study: Cogwheel Analytics gives hotels a competitive edge with AI
Cogwheel Analytics partnered with Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Labs to create an AI-powered Analysis and Recommendation Engine aimed at providing hotel clients actionable insights they can use to drive growth and build their competitive advantage in digital marketing. “The hands-on approach from the Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Lab was instrumental in helping us rapidly prototype a solution that would […]
Evolving Past ROAS as the Primary Marketing KPI
Stephanie Smith, CEO and Digital Matriarch, Cogwheel Marketing & Analytics, HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board Member Traditionally, Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) has dominated as the primary metric for evaluating the success of marketing initiatives. As we evolve past ROAS, I wanted to get the take from my fellow experts on the HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board. […]
How Companies Can Use Big Data to Make Better Action Plans for Their Digital Marketing
In today’s digital age, businesses inside and outside the hospitality industry are generating more data than ever before. This data is a valuable asset, and should be used to gain insights into customer behavior and make better decisions about marketing campaigns and the customer journey. Owners regularly receive digital marketing performance reports or reports from […]
Hotel Marketing KPIs Must Change to Achieve Commercial Strategy
If you are measuring your marketing success today the same way you did last year, you are not providing the value that your external stakeholders and ownership expect and that your internal business partners, like sales and revenue strategy, deserve. It is not enough anymore to measure how many guest rooms are booked per dollar […]
Hotel Digital Marketing: Is Data Helping You Ask the Right Questions?
In June 2023, Stephanie Smith, Founder & Digital Matriarch at Cogwheel Marketing, the company behind Cogwheel Analytics spoke with Trevor Grant of Revenue Hub. They discuss the impact to hotels of combining multiple digital marketing datasets. Hotels face challenges when trying to pull different information from multiple sources and the value of aggregating data from your website marketing, paid […]