Last quarter, Google introduced intraday bidding for metasearch on Google Hotel Ads, adding to their already expansive arsenal of bid multipliers. Intraday bidding, also referred to as dayparting or ad scheduling, is a campaign-level bid multiplier and has been a valuable digital marketing tool for quite some time. However, its recent release on Google Hotel Ads marks the first time it is available for metasearch.

 

WHAT INTRADAY BIDDING IS AND HOW IT WORKS

Intraday bidding is a campaign-level bid multiplier created by Google. The multiplier is designed to make bid adjustments and turn ads on or off during specific hours and days, adding greater potential for customization and optimization.

Below is a screenshot from the Google Ads center. The multiplier is located under the “Ad Schedule” tab on the left-hand side navigation menu. From here, you can adjust bids at certain times of the day or certain days of the week, or turn them completely on or off.

 

 

Once you create your desired time slot, you can set the percentage increase or decrease for bid adjustments. After the adjustment percentage is set, intraday bidding will consistently adjust bids during the specified time slot.

 

 

WHAT INTRADAY BIDDING CAN AND CAN’T DO

Intraday bidding provides hoteliers the opportunity to:

• Turn ads on or off during pre-set hours of the day or days of the week
• Specify pre-set hours and days of the week to adjust bids
• Adjust CPC bids by percentage increases or decreases
• Increase visibility and the potential for bookings

 

The limitations of intraday bidding:

• Can’t be utilized with other automated bid strategy tools which include eCPC, CPA, and commission bidding
• Intraday bidding is a Google-only automated bidding strategy tool
• Campaign level only

 

HOW TO INCORPORATE INTRADAY BIDDING INTO YOUR MARKETING

Hypothetical use case 1:

• Roadside properties in Arizona notice they receive more demand on Friday nights between 6pm and 9pm. With intraday bidding, these properties can set a +25% multiplier between these peak hours to increase visibility and drive additional bookings.

Hypothetical use case 2: 

• A hotel in Florida has an existing ad group max CPC bid of $1.00. Based on recent trends they’ve seen, Tuesdays and Thursdays between 2pm and 6pm have increased traffic. With intraday bidding, this hotel can set a bid adjustment of +10% for these time periods. Their maximum bid for these time periods would be $1.00 x (+10%) = $1.10.

Hypothetical use case 3:

• Roadside properties in Texas notice they receive almost no traffic Monday through Wednesday mornings from 6am until 11am. Intraday bidding empowers these properties to turn off their bids during these hours, to make sure they aren’t spending excess money during low peak hours.

 

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT INTRADAY BIDDING

The introduction of intraday bidding for metasearch is a groundbreaking development for digital marketers and the travel industry for numerous reasons.

• Allows advertisers to bid up or down depending on time of day
  • Intraday bidding can set specific times of the day and/or week for incremental or overridden bid adjustments to take place.

• Applied at the campaign level
  • Intraday bidding is a campaign-level bid modifier, which means that any bid adjustments or actions carried out are applied to all hotels within a campaign.
  • If conversion based on time of day varies for different brands, property types, devices, etc., campaign restructuring may be necessary in order to adjust intraday bidding multipliers based on those distinctions.

• Easy to overlook and allow unmonitored bid adjustments
  • Since intraday bidding is designed to continuously operate during pre-set hours and days, using the multiplier can lead to unmonitored bid adjustments.
  • Using intraday bidding can also increase the likelihood of double-bidding, without a user having full knowledge of the hours when adjustments are automatically happening, it can be easier to overlook than other multipliers.

• Requires booking data with a high degree of granularity
  • As a result of intraday bidding functioning on an hourly basis, it requires booking data to be dissected into hourly values to measure performance effectively.
  • Typically advertisers view their analytics data aggregated at a daily level. In order to analyze this data appropriately, you will need to segment this data by hour.

 

The release of intraday bidding on Google Hotel Ads is another valuable tool for digital marketers and hoteliers alike. Since intraday bidding is brand new to metasearch, our team will continue to monitor the pros and cons of utilizing intraday bidding as we continue to incorporate it into Koddi’s system.

 

Follow our blog and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest metasearch news.