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Travel PPC

Google Ads for Australian Hotels, Tours & Travel

Direct bookings that beat Booking.com and Webjet commissions.

We run Google Ads for Australian independent hotels, tour operators, ATAS-accredited travel agencies, and destination marketing organisations. Our focus is on direct bookings at a cost that materially beats OTA commission structures — and on Google Hotel Ads for properties where real-time rates are the battleground.

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10+ yrs
Inside Google before this
500+
Brands we've worked with
Vertical
Travel & Hospitality-specific playbooks
What breaks

Why Travel & Hospitality Google Ads fail.

01

Booking.com, Expedia, Webjet outbid hotels on brand terms

Australian OTAs (and international OTAs in AU market) routinely bid on your hotel's brand name, intercepting direct-booking searches and taking 15-20% commission. Most Australian hotels either ignore brand protection or do it ineffectively, losing 10-25% of potential direct revenue to commission bleed.

02

Google Hotel Ads feed complexity blocks most properties

Google Hotel Ads (Property Promotion Ads) require real-time rate and availability feeds via a booking engine integration. Most independent Australian hotels either don't have the integration or have it misconfigured — leaving the rate-comparison battle entirely to OTAs.

03

Australian Consumer Law and ATAS rules restrict copy

ACL requires accurate representation of price (inclusive of unavoidable charges), cancellation rights, and service guarantees. ATAS accreditation for travel agents adds consumer assurance obligations. Most PPC agencies produce travel ad copy that technically fails ACL — risking ACCC action and consumer complaints.

What works

Travel & Hospitality PPC tactics that actually produce revenue.

Tactic 01

Brand-term defence against OTAs

Bid aggressively on your hotel or tour brand name to outrank Booking.com, Expedia, and Webjet. Your Quality Score on your own brand is near-perfect so effective CPC stays low. Reclaimed commission (15-20% of each direct booking) dwarfs the brand-term ad spend by 5-10x.

Tactic 02

Google Hotel Ads / Property Promotion Ads activation

For Australian hotels, Google Hotel Ads (now inside Performance Max Travel) is non-negotiable. Requires rates and availability feed via your booking engine (Siteminder, RMS Cloud, Preno, RoomRaccoon, Guestline, DerbySoft). Without activation, OTAs win the real-time rate-comparison battle in SERP.

Tactic 03

Destination vs property-level campaigns

Destination intent ('hotels Byron Bay', 'tours Blue Mountains') gets destination-specific Search campaigns. Property intent ('[Hotel Name] Noosa') gets brand-protection campaigns. Mid-funnel ('boutique hotels Margaret River') gets Search with property-cluster landing pages.

Tactic 04

Seasonal and booking-window targeting

Australian seasonal hotels bid 3-5x baseline during peak booking windows (March-April for winter snow, October-November for summer coastal). Reef, outback, and rural properties have distinct booking-window patterns. Static year-round bidding leaves 20-40% of peak-season revenue to OTAs.

Tactic 05

Booking-completed conversion with cancellation adjustment

Pass full booking revenue (room rate × nights) as conversion value — but offset cancellations via offline conversion adjustments. Smart Bidding optimising toward gross bookings without cancellation adjustments will scale toward high-cancellation channels that look profitable on reports and aren't in reality.

Our playbook

How we run Travel & Hospitality campaigns.

01

Week 1: OTA audit + Hotel Ads feed readiness

Audit how much commission bleed goes to Booking.com, Expedia, and Webjet on brand-term searches. Assess Google Hotel Ads feed readiness via your booking engine. Review ACL and ATAS copy requirements for compliance gaps.

02

Week 2: Brand defence + Hotel Ads activation

Brand-term campaigns live with OTA-conquest bidding. Google Hotel Ads activated with rates/availability feed. Destination-specific campaigns built for mid-funnel intent. ACL-compliance copy review completed.

03

Week 3: Launch + seasonal bid automation

Campaigns live with seasonal bid modifiers. Booking-completed conversion tracking with full revenue value. Offline cancellation adjustment configured. First optimisation cycle on day 7.

04

Month 2+: Scale on ADR and length-of-stay

Once booking data flows back, shift Smart Bidding toward higher-value bookings (longer stays, premium room types, package add-ons). This is how an Australian hotel shifts from 'cost per booking' to 'cost per high-ADR booking with 3+ nights and F&B add-ons'.

Frequently asked

Questions about Travel & Hospitality Google Ads.

What is a realistic cost per direct booking for Australian hotels?

Independent Australian hotels: 6-12% of ADR on brand terms, 15-30% of ADR on non-brand destination campaigns. Tour operators: A$60-A$250 per booking. B&Bs and smaller properties: 8-15% of booking value. The comparator that matters is direct-booking cost vs OTA commission (typically 15-20%) — any direct campaign coming in under 15% commission is economically superior to OTA distribution.

Should Australian independent hotels use Google Hotel Ads?

Yes, non-negotiable for competing against Booking.com, Expedia, and Webjet. Google Hotel Ads (Property Promotion Ads inside PMax Travel) show your hotel with real-time rates directly in SERP next to OTAs. Without participation, OTAs win. Requires booking engine integration (Siteminder, RMS Cloud, Preno, RoomRaccoon) — usually already in place on most Australian properties.

How do I prevent OTAs from bidding on my hotel's brand name?

You can't fully prevent it — OTAs have contractual rights under most rate parity agreements. But you can outrank them by running your own brand-term campaigns with high max-CPC and strong Quality Score. Effective CPC stays low on your own brand. For a A$250 ADR booking, paying A$4 CPC to reclaim a 15% commission (A$37.50) is excellent economics.

What's the minimum ad spend for Australian hotel Google Ads?

A$1,500-A$2,500/month for independent boutique hotels focused on brand protection and Hotel Ads. A$5,000-A$15,000/month for mid-size properties running full direct-booking campaigns. A$25,000+/month for luxury and resort properties competing on destination terms. Below A$1,500/month, you cannot meaningfully compete against OTA spend in your category.

How do Australian seasonal hotels handle Google Ads off-season?

Scale back, don't pause. Pausing loses Smart Bidding learning and brand auction history. Reduce budget to maintain brand-term coverage (cheap) and kill non-brand destination campaigns during deep off-season. Re-activate destination campaigns 60-90 days before peak booking window opens — for Aussie summer coastal that's August-September, for winter snow that's February-March.

How do ACL and ATAS rules affect travel Google Ads?

Australian Consumer Law requires prices to include unavoidable charges (no hidden fees), accurate representation of services, and clear cancellation rights. ATAS accreditation for travel agents adds consumer assurance obligations. Package Travel is regulated with specific pre-contract disclosure requirements. Ad copy missing required disclosures risks ACCC action and consumer complaints.
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