Category: Paid Marketing

Case Study: How We Transformed a Hotel’s Booking Game with Google Ads

The Challenge: Lacking Experience with Paid Campaigns   This case study focuses on a hotel company aiming to boost bookings for their branded hotel in the United States. Prior to engaging with our services, the company had experimented with Google Ads but had not achieved the desired outcomes.   They didn’t have a strategy to […]

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 […]

Isn’t It Time We Were More Direct?! [Video Replay with Revenue Hub]

Are you struggling to win the direct booking “war”? Wondering if it’s even possible for non-branded properties without massive marketing budgets to beat the OTAs at their own game, and drive more bookings to their website? Watch this discussion involving top Direct Booking experts to discover the answers to those questions and more – and […]

Hospitality Marketing Show with Loren Gray: Revenue Management and Marketing

Cogwheel Marketing’s CEO, Stephanie Smith, and Loren Gray, Founder of Hospitality Digital Marketing, discuss the innovations in revenue management in August 2022. Podcast Highlights: More about Loren Gray and Hospitality Digital Marketing Loren Gray is the Founder of Hospitality Digital Marketing and Podcast & Live Video Show Host / Keynote Speaker / Published Author / […]

Marketing a Dual Branded Hotel 

Your dual brand hotel already offers separate public areas and room design, has separate budgets and maybe sales departments, but now you need separate addresses, phone numbers, websites and you guessed it, marketing plans. 

Hotel Digital Paid Media Planning

Updated: October 2023   2024 Budget season is here! Do you feel stuck in your paid media campaigns for your hotels?   Founder, Stephanie Smith, in her 2022 presentation talks about different strategies and budgets for paid media for your hotel that you can apply when focusing on your 2024 paid media planning.   There […]

Stephanie Presents at HSMAI: ROAS is Dying, A Love Story

During Commercial Strategy week at HSMAI 2022 in Orlando, owner Stephanie Smith gets on the main stage to discuss a somewhat controversial topic. The presentation is done in a style called Pecha Kucha, so 20 slides and only 20 second per slide. The entire presentation can be viewed in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. A […]

Map Advertisements: Should You Be Using Them?

Capturing last-minute demand aka walk-ins is still relevant. In fact, it may be more relevant now than it was pre-pandemic. I know we all love and adore our highway signage from the local department of transportation and advertising billboards, but for a hotel that is struggling to ramp back up post-covid, why not put a little funding into something that is “with the times?” I am talking about Map Ads. 

Determining Your Hotel’s Channel Strategy within Koddi

Each brand has slightly different channels and opportunities within Koddi, but most are fairly similar. But, you need to understand WHEN and HOW to use each channel based on your hotel needs. You don’t have an unlimited budget, so choose wisely. Direct Media MetaSearch Description: A search engine that displays rates across multiple websites for […]

Which Tripadvisor Platform is Right for My Hotel?

Tripadvisor continues to try to find ways to generate revenue, but how do you know which platforms are best for your hotel? The review-giant-turned-distribution-platform-turned-membership-program just rolled out its fourth program, Tripadvisor PLUS, and time will tell if their membership-based approach (think Amazon Prime of travel) will succeed. Before we get there, let’s review the previous platforms […]