Introducing Smartads: ad campaigns for hotels that want more visibility and more direct bookings

You have your website, your booking engine, a social media account you update regularly, great reviews, strong photography, and information that is always up to date.

And yet, your property still struggles to increase its share of direct bookings. OTAs seem to reach potential guests before you do.

That impression is correct, and it is not just because platforms like Booking.com and Expedia have built strong worldwide brand recognition over the years.

The reason is that OTAs invest heavily in marketing and paid campaigns to increase their online visibility and capture demand first.

How much do they invest? In 2025, Booking Holdings spent more than $8.1 billion, equal to around 30% of its annual revenue, according to its Booking Holdings Reports Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results.

What are they investing in? One of the techniques OTAs use is, for example, brandjacking: they use your hotel’s name inside their paid Google campaigns so they appear as the top search result even when a user is searching specifically for your property.

But the “problem” does not stop at Google. OTAs are investing more and more in Meta Ads as well — in other words, paid campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.

The solution? Compete with OTAs on the advertising side too.

That is why Smartads was created, the new Smartness service dedicated to managing Google and Meta ad campaigns for hospitality businesses.

What is Smartads and why choose it

Smartads is the Smartness service that manages and optimizes advertising campaigns on Google and social platforms to help you strengthen your property’s online presence, reach new high-intent guests, and generate more direct bookings.

Every property has different goals, seasonality, strengths, and priorities. That is why the Smartads team supports you with a consultative approach, selecting the most effective campaign mix based on your budget and your needs, and optimizing it throughout the year based on results.

The point is not to be everywhere indiscriminately, but to activate the right campaign for each specific goal.

What you get with Smartads

Smartads helps you use Google and social channels in the most effective way to support your direct channel, reaching guests throughout their booking journey.

Here is what you get in practical terms.

Protect your direct bookings by getting ahead of OTAs

To prevent brandjacking, Smartads helps you protect Google searches for your property’s name and make your official website appear before OTAs.

It does this through campaigns such as Brand Protection, Google Hotel Ads, and Search campaigns — the most effective options for intercepting users who are already very close to booking.

This way, you protect your brand by redirecting searches away from OTAs and toward your website, and you can achieve up to 15% more revenue.

Increase visibility and attract new guests in your target audience

Smartads helps your property appear not only when a user searches for your name, but also while they are exploring a destination, comparing alternatives, or viewing travel-related content.

To do this, Smartads uses Performance Max and activates ads on Google Maps, YouTube, Display, and Gmail, with Google AI distributing the budget across the most effective channels.

This way, you build a broad and consistent online presence and reach new high-intent guests, with conversion potential of up to 50%.

Inspire users and bring them back to your site to increase direct bookings

Not every guest books on the first visit. Many discover the property, consider it, and then stop there. Smartads helps you avoid losing that demand along the way.

With Meta Ads, interest-based targeting, Advantage+ Shopping, and dynamic remarketing, your property captures attention on Facebook and Instagram, keeps brand awareness high, and brings back users who have already visited your website but left without booking.

This allows you to guide more users all the way to booking and support your booking engine with a complete strategy, achieving up to +66% more direct bookings.

Which Smartads plan is right for you?

Smartads is available in three service levels, designed to adapt to different goals, budgets, and support needs.

Smartads Base

This is the ideal plan if you want to start with the essential activities needed to protect your direct channel.

It includes the most useful campaigns for defending direct bookings, such as Brand Protection, Google Hotel Ads, and Search campaigns, along with monthly reports and a quarterly call to review campaign performance.

It is the best solution if:

• you want to protect searches for your property name on Google and avoid losing bookings to OTAs
• you want to start strengthening the direct channel with a more contained investment

Smartads Premium

This is the right plan if you do not just want to protect direct bookings, but actively stimulate them.

With Performance Max, you gain maximum visibility across all Google channels and work on conversion. With Meta Ads, you maintain a presence on Facebook and Instagram and help new users discover your property.

In addition to everything included in the Base plan, it also includes Google Maps, YouTube, Display, Gmail, and Meta Ads, plus a monthly call and a quarterly review.

It is the right choice if:

• you want to be present throughout the entire journey that leads to booking, from inspiration to conversion
• you want to adopt a broader strategy from the start in order to maximize return on investment

Smartads Ultra

This plan is designed for businesses that want even more continuous, strategic, and personalized support.

It includes everything in Premium and adds biweekly check-ins, priority support, and advanced market analysis, so your campaigns can be adapted even faster to results, trends, and opportunities.

It is the best plan if:

• you want more frequent contact with an expert
• you want to optimize campaigns more reactively throughout the year

Now that you know how Smartads works, the next step is simply to speak with one of our experts to understand exactly which campaigns make sense for your property and what results you can realistically expect.