June 20, 2018
Sponsored Placements Impressions vs. Clicks Explained
June 20, 2018
The goal of Sponsored Placements is to drive more traffic to your Tripadvisor listing and ultimately, to drive more business to your property. Sponsored Placements is a performance-based advertising product, meaning you’ll only pay when a traveler clicks your ad. However, this doesn’t mean impressions aren’t important. Let’s cover the difference between impressions and clicks — and why both are essential to your Sponsored Placements campaign.
An impression represents every time your ad is shown to a traveler. Said differently, it is every time a traveler sees your ad. A click, on the other hand, is every time a traveler clicks your ad.
We built Sponsored Placements on a cost-per-click payment model because we believe owners should pay based on the performance of their campaign. While impressions are important for measuring your visibility, we know that most hotels value the clicks their ads have received and potential guests that have been driven to their business more.
You’re only charged when someone clicks your ad, meaning each impression your ad receives from a traveler who doesn’t click, is free to you. Your ad will continue to appear to travelers until you’ve met your monthly click limit (determined by your budget). This means you will continue to generate impressions and exposure for your ad – at no additional cost – until your monthly budget is met.
Yes, impressions still matter because they build awareness and interest in your property. In fact, they’re a critical part of driving success for your business. Remember, your ads are automatically targeted to a highly qualified audience of travelers looking for a place to stay, in your area, for dates when you have availability, and when their search parameters match your property. So, anyone who sees your ad, regardless of if they click or not, is a high quality potential lead. These quality leads may not click your ad the first time they see it, but as any marketer knows, the more your name and ad appears in front of travelers, the better.
In order to make the most of these impressions, and drive more clicks to your property, it’s important to optimize how your listing appears in search results across the site.
For all registered owners, it’s best practice is to choose a high quality primary photo and check that your amenities are up to date. Doing these two things ensures that travelers searching for specific amenities, which you offer, will see your ad — and that they will then be enticed to click your ad because of what they see in your primary photo.
If you’re a Business Advantage subscriber, you have even more control over how your ads appear. Be sure you’re running a Special Offer and have an accurate website link posted as one of your Contact Details. Once set up, both links will appear in the ad unit, in prime viewing position for travelers. This way you can capitalize on the qualified impressions and clicks you’re receiving — and drive more direct booking referrals. Read “How to Get More Clicks on Your Sponsored Placements” to learn more.
Yes, you can track your ad impressions and clicks along with your current spend and click-through-rate in the Campaign Performance report in the Management Center.
