INTRODUCTION
According to Statista, the travel industry is expected to spend more than $4.5 billion on digital advertising in the United States. In addition, 82% of restaurants in the United States use social media as part of their marketing strategy, which includes boosts and paid ads.
To stay competitive, hospitality businesses should monitor how their competitors use sponsored content to reach potential guests, including which platforms and the type of media they use.
Following are some ways your hotel or restaurant can track competitors’ paid ads.
USE GOOGLE ADS MONITORING TOOLS
Hospitality and restaurant marketers can use the Google Ads Transparency Center to view competitors’ search, display and video ads that have appeared across its network, including YouTube and Gmail, for the past 30 days.
Enter your competitor’s name or website in the search box to view the ads they’ve run. You also can filter the ads by date, location (by country only) and format (e.g., image, text, video).
Use their copy or creative to guide your own advertising efforts, or at the very least, use the tool to gain insights into how they brand themselves or which products, services or amenities they’re showcasing.
Of note, Google Ads Transparency Center only shows ads from verified advertisers, so you may not see ads from all of your competitors, even if they’ve run them in the past 30 days. You also cannot view the destination URLs, just the ads themselves.
Other search engines, like Bing, are also expected to launch similar ad libraries in the future, so those could be tools to take advantage of.
There are also several SEO monitoring tools on the market, some of which can also track your competitor’s Google Ads. SpyFu is an example of a platform with this feature. With this tool, you can enter your competitors’ websites to view the search ads they’ve run, as well as relevant keywords and approximate spending–this information is not available in the Google Ads Transparency Center.
You can use these extra insights to develop keyword lists and approximate budgets for future search ad campaigns for your hospitality business.
TAP INTO THE META AD LIBRARY
Visit the Meta Ad Library to monitor your competitors’ active Facebook and Instagram ads and boosts. In the “Search ads” section, make sure the location is set to the United States and select “All ads” for the ad category. Then search for ads by keyword (e.g., dining, reservation, getaway, vacation) or research specific advertisers, such as a hotel or restaurant in your city.
You will see the number of search results (if there are active ads), as well as information for each individual ad or boost. For instance, you will see the start date, the platforms the ad is running on (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, audience network) and the ad creative. You also can click “See ad details” to learn more about the advertiser’s social media accounts and view all the ads they are running or click the call-to-action buttons to view the individual ad destinations.
This information will give you insights into what your competitors are promoting and which platforms they are using. Plus, it could help guide your own promotions or advertising efforts. For instance, you may find that your competitor is offering a booking discount for hotel rooms or a banquet hall that you want to match or undercut. With frequent monitoring, you may also identify cyclical trends, such as a nearby restaurant that runs the same promotion every summer.
You can further filter ads if you’d like to focus on a specific platform or media type. For example, you could filter by ads that contain video to get inspiration for a future video ad campaign.
Save relevant searches to speed up the process for future searches. Click “Save search” and name your search to easily view ads for a specific keyword or advertiser, plus your desired filters the next time you visit the Meta Ad Library.
WATCH YOUR PERSONAL CHANNELS
Odds are, you will come across competitors’ ads while scrolling through your personal social media feeds, watching YouTube videos or conducting a Google search. After all, your internet habits as a hospitality professional will likely align you with the very interests and affinities hotel and restaurant marketers use to target potential guests.
Save the ads or take screenshots when you can and click on the call-to-action to view the destination URLs. This can help you see your competitors’ next steps, such as the language they use on their landing pages or the conversion parameter they are measuring, such as booking a reservation. This action could also trigger a remarketing campaign, which can tell you how competing hospitality businesses reengage potential customers.