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 […]
HSMAI Marketing Strategy Conference 2023 Highlights
“HSMAI Marketing Strategy Conference is my favorite conference of the year! It’s not only a reunion of the best and brightest advancing digital marketing for hotels, but I also love the lightning rounds and jam-packed sessions,” said Stephanie Smith, CEO at Cogwheel Marketing & Analytics. While it was impossible to attend all the sessions, here […]
Navigating Traveler Behaviors: Key Insights for Hotel Marketing Pros
Stephanie Smith, CHDM, CEO and Digital Matriarch, Cogwheel Marketing, HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board Member Recently Expedia Group released their 2023 Q1 Traveler Insights Report. I brought this interesting piece of research to the great minds at the HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board to discuss the trends and explore if they align with what we are seeing […]
Isn’t It Time We Were More Direct?! [Video Replay with Revenue Hub]
![Isn’t It Time We Were More Direct?! [Video Replay with Revenue Hub]](https://cogwheelmarketing.com/assets/2025/05/Isnt-It-Time-We-Were-More-Direct_-Video-Replay-with-Revenue-Hub-1024x576.webp)
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 […]
HSMAI: Challenging Mindsets in B2C Marketing
To optimize our digital marketing spend, it is crucial to stay on top of the trends in digital marketing and regularly challenge our assumptions. Stephanie Smith, of the the HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board, led the discussion around this thought-provoking video 5 Tenets to Enhancing your 2022 Go-To-Market Strategies. Short vs Long-Term Marketing Goals Advisory board […]
10 Differences Between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4
Although you will be able to access your previously processed data in Universal Analytics property for six months, on July 1, 2023 Google Analytics standard Universal Analytics (UA) properties will no longer process data. UA will be replaced by Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a more advanced and comprehensive analytics platform […]
Cayuga Hospitality Consultants Panel: Rethinking Technology
In November 2022, Cayuga Hospitality Consultants led a panel about rethinking technology. Stephanie Smith, Partner at Cayuga Hospitality Consultants and CEO of Cogwheel Marketing and Analytics, moderated these exceptional panelists: Hotel Technology Adoption Q: The hospitality industry gets a bad rap for being late adopters to technology. What do you see as the biggest obstacles […]
Hunter Hotel Investment Conference: Revenue Strategy Panel Recap
Our team at Cogwheel Marketing attended the 2023 annual Hunter Hotel Investment Conference for a consecutive year and we wanted to be sure to share with our network the 10 Key Takeaways we extracted after packing in 3 days of education, collaboration and relationship building with hotel industry experts. The Hunter Hotel Investment Conference welcomed […]
Stephanie Smith of Cogwheel Marketing is Awarded 2022 HSMAI ‘TOP 25’ Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality Sales, Marketing and Revenue Optimization
The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has selected Stephanie Sparks Smith as one of its “Top 25 Extraordinary Minds“ for 2022. This is the 20th year HSMAI has compiled the list, which annually recognizes exemplary achievement and leadership in the hospitality sales, marketing, revenue optimization, and distribution. Stephanie joined an exclusive list when […]