When a hotel wants to increase bookings through digital marketing campaigns, one of the toughest and most important questions it faces is, “how much should I be spending?” In this post, we will show you how budget recommendations in Koddi Demand instances can help hotels drive 87% more bookings and 161% more revenue per month.

Budget recommendations within Koddi Demand platforms can serve as a great starting point for determining digital marketing budgets for your hotel. Our system utilizes all the relevant data we have about your hotel, processes it through a machine learning model, and generates a recommendation that you can fine-tune based on your business goals. Following the recommendation and enabling campaign automation will offer most hotels the highest likelihood of hitting their goals while maximizing bookings and revenue.

 

How It Works

Our recommendation model utilizes historic spend and performance data for your property across partners. Based on this data, it predicts the maximum volume available across searches, impressions, clicks, and bookings. It then uses the actual predicted outcomes to determine performance at different levels of volume. This allows us to provide preliminary recommendations at different levels of ROI. These recommendations are further fine-tuned and customized for the specific brand instance, incorporating relevant additional optimizations and applied business logic.

All this number crunching happens behind the scenes, and your recommendations will continuously update throughout the month and year based on new data, seasonality, performance observations, and market conditions. You can view the recommendation at any time within your media plan.

 

Tips for Interpreting Recommendations 

Most of the time, these recommendations will be very accurate. If you’re unable to fund a campaign to the fully recommended level, that is perfectly fine! Simply input what you are comfortable spending, and the engine will allocate funds to the areas predicted to deliver the best performance.

Recommendations can usually be viewed 12 months into the future and should account for seasonality of your hotel. In some cases, recommendations may not reflect the full opportunity for your property. Here are some common scenarios we see and what you can do:

• New Hotel: With limited historical data, the model will analyze similar hotels in comparable market(s) for insights. The accuracy of these forecasts will significantly improve when specific hotel data becomes available. Your account manager or Koddi Support will be able to provide recommendations in this scenario.
• Major Shift in Demand: When demand for a market changes dramatically due to unforeseen circumstances (such as natural disasters, canceled large events, etc.), the forecast may end up being higher than the actual outcome. Future months will factor in this data, leading to more accurate forecasts.
• New Channel Addition: When a new channel is integrated into Koddi Demand, the model requires some time to accurately understand the optimal click/revenue metrics.

 

Getting the Most Out of Recommendations

Here are some common scenarios we see and how you can leverage the system to maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns:

• I am willing to spend any amount as long as the ROAS target is achieved.
  • Allocate budget to reach the full forecast while ensuring appropriate balance is available to cover budget.
  • Review performance weekly and update the Media Plan as new forecasts are developed.
• I am only willing to spend a fixed amount.
  • Allocate budget to what is available.
  • Review performance weekly; if you are able to add additional funds at any time, consider increasing the Media Plan budget mid-month.
• I am willing to add additional budget in mid-month, provided there is a need
  • Allocate budget to match the full forecast and fund to the available amount.
  • Review performance weekly; if performance suggests, add additional funds to cover the remaining budget.

 

FAQs

The following FAQs provide insights into the dynamic adjustments of forecasts, the reasons behind forecast fluctuations, and how channel recommendations are determined in Koddi Demand:

Why did my forecast change mid month?

As our model receives more data throughout the month, forecasts are adjusted to accommodate the shifting dynamics observed in the marketplace. While not all forecasts will always be updated, it’s best advised to check in on your Media Plan at least once per week to ensure that you are maximizing your opportunity.

Why is my forecast decreasing/increasing?

The forecasts are dynamic and change over time. As we receive more insights about your specific hotel and market, the forecast will adjust to accommodate these new learnings. When there is increased demand in your market, your forecast may raise; and if there is decreased demand, it may decrease.

Why is my forecast recommending more for one channel versus another?

The forecasts aim to maximize revenue across all available channels. Depending on the dynamics of each channel, there may be more profitable opportunities available in certain channels compared to others, resulting in increased or decreased recommendations for those channels.

 

Conclusion

Determining effective budget amounts for individual hotels is a big challenge. Utilizing the Koddi Demand Budget Recommendations removes the guesswork. When coupled with leveraging Koddi Demand automation, you can feel confident that your hotel will achieve the best results.

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