Part I: The most common errors on metasearch - we show you how to avoid them

Just placing a link on Google, trivago, & Co. is never enough. We uncover the biggest flops in metasearch and show you what really matters for a successful campaign!

Error #1 - Everything for the top position!

It is the biggest mistake per se: Who wants to achieve the most bookings, should always try to be listed on position 1 in the price comparison. This myth is still widespread and a frequent reason for (too) high costs. 

Interested people usually want to get a first impression of your hotel. They click on the link that first comes into their view. In the rarest of cases, however, the user then also books directly on the page. Either the search process is terminated immediately or the user goes back to the price comparison to get an overview of the various offers. 

The position to be targeted varies from channel to channel and above all also depends on the device type. For mobile ads, however, the first place should always targeted, since often only the top position is visible in the mobile view. 

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Error #2 - Rate problems and rate parity 

A coherent rate strategy is the required condition when it comes to increasing your direct bookings with the help of meta searches. Net prices and wholesale rates that appear as room offers on trip.com, ebookers.com & Co. can kill your campaigns. 

If the wholesaler offers are significantly cheaper than your website rate, it loses attractiveness for the booker. In addition, there is a negative side effect: with more expensive prices than the competition, a higher CPC is needed to be visible on one of the top positions. Even in the case of rate parity, i.e. the same price as the competitors, a higher click price is required. 

These are undoubtedly unnecessary costs! Therefore, you should always be careful to offer the best price. Otherwise you risk passing your potential booking to an OTA, or worse, losing it entirely to another hotel. So it's best to use a rate monitoring program like the myhotelshop Rate Inspector to see at a glance how your website performs compared to other providers of your room rates.

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Error #3 - No (custom-fit) bidding strategy

Probably the most common mistake in the matters of metasearch marketing is related to a insufficient bid management. Very often, a click price is set at the beginning of the campaign and remains untouched for weeks and sometimes even months. However, the CPC price model is not static, but very dynamic. The same click price can put the ad in 1st place on one day and can lead to invisibility the next day. 

In order to successfully manage campaigns, therefore it is essential to check the position and performance of an ad several times a week and adjust the click price accordingly. In highly competitive markets such as Paris or Berlin, it is even necessary to monitor developments on a daily basis in order to keep the CPC as low as possible but at the same time as high as necessary. 

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Stay tuned and learn more about how to drive your campaigns to success in our second part of the series "The most common errors in metasearch".