What is PMax for Travel Goals?

Where Do Ads Appear When Running Performance Max for Travel Goals?

When running Performance Max for travel goals campaigns, your ads can appear across all of Google’s major channels, giving your property the broadest possible reach. 

• Google Search - Ads appear when people search for your property, similar hotels, or travel-related queries.
• Google Maps - Prominent placements appear when users search for hotels or accommodations in a specific location.
• Hotel Booking Module - Displays your live rates and availability directly in the hotel booking engine - alongside or instead of OTAs.
• YouTube - Video ads or banners appear while users are browsing or watching travel-related content.
• Google Display Network - Visual ads are shown across millions of partner websites and apps.
• Google Discover - Ads featured in the personalised Discover feed on Android devices and the Google app.
• Gmail - Ads appear within the Promotions and Social tabs of users’ Gmail inboxes.

By covering this full range of placements, PMax ensures your hotel is visible throughout the entire customer journey, from research to booking, with a strong focus on driving direct conversions.

How does Performance Max for travel goals work?

Performance Max (PMax) for travel goals is designed to make advertising simpler, smarter, and more effective for hotels and accommodation providers. It uses Google’s powerful AI to automatically show your ads to the right person, at the right time, in the right place, all with the goal of increasing direct bookings and reducing reliance on OTAs. Sounds like magic, right? Here’s how it works:

1. You Provide the Foundation

To get started, you’ll need to supply key information to help Google build your campaign:
Hotel property feed: This includes details like your hotel name, address, images, star rating, amenities, and more. (This data is pulled straight from your Hotel Centre feed.)

• Budget: You choose how much you want to spend each day.
• Bidding strategy: Typically focused on conversions or conversion value (e.g., “Maximise bookings” or “Maximise booking revenue”).
• Creative assets: You can optionally provide headlines, descriptions, images, logos, and videos to enhance your ads.
• Audience signals (optional but recommended): Provide insights like remarketing lists, website visitors, or CRM data to help the algorithm learn faster.

2. Google’s Algorithm Takes Over

Once your campaign is live, Google’s AI starts working its magic. It:

• Pulls your live rates and availability from your Hotel Centre feed.
• Automatically places ads across Search, Maps, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and the Hotel Booking Module.
• Optimises in real-time to show your ads to the most likely bookers, whether they’re researching destinations or actively looking to book.
• Test different combinations of your assets (if provided) to identify the best-performing variations.

3. All Roads Lead to Direct Booking

When someone clicks your ad, they’re taken directly to your website or booking engine, not an OTA, which means:

• You own the customer relationship
• You avoid third-party commission
• You increase the chance of upsells, upgrades, and return visits

In Summary:

PMax for travel goals combines your hotel data with Google’s automation and reach, creating a campaign that’s constantly learning and optimising. You give Google the inputs and it delivers targeted, performance-driven ads across every key platform, working 24/7 to drive more direct bookings at the lowest possible cost.

How to Set Up Performance Max for Travel Goals in Google Ads

Getting started with Performance Max for travel goals is straightforward, especially if your hotel is already listed in Google Hotel Centre. Here’s a simple step-by-step overview of how to set it up:

1. Ensure You’re Connected to Hotel Centre

Before launching your campaign, your hotel needs to be listed in Google’s Hotel Centre. This is where Google pulls your property feed, images, amenities, rates, and availability. You can manage this through:

• A direct integration (via your own booking engine)
• A third-party integration (like a connectivity partner or hotel tech platform)

2. Create a New PMax For Travel Goals Campaign in Google Ads

1. Log in to your Google Ads account.
2. Click + New Campaign.
3. Choose the campaign objective: “Create a campaign without guidance.
4. Select Performance Max.
5. Select your conversion for purchases
6. Select Hotels

3. Select Your Properties

Google will pull your available properties from your Hotel Centre feed. You can choose to advertise all properties or specific locations.

4. Set Budget and Bidding

• Choose your daily budget.
• Select a bidding strategy: either Maximise conversions (focus on more bookings) or Maximise conversion value (focus on higher-value bookings).

5. Add Creative Assets

To enhance ad variety and performance, you can add:

• Headlines and descriptions
• Images and logos
• Video assets

6. (Optional) Add Audience Signals

While not required, providing audience signals (like CRM data, remarketing lists, or past website visitors) can help Google’s machine learning accelerate performance.

7. Review and Launch

Check your settings, preview your campaign, and go live.

Benefits of Performance Max for travel goals

Now we know what PMax is and how to actually begin using it, let’s talk about the most important thing - the benefits!

Drive More Conversions with Google AI

• Achieve an average of 18% more incremental conversions at a similar cost per action.
• Google AI serves your ads across seven key surfaces, including Google Search, Maps, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and the Hotel Ads channel.
• Automatically targets users when they are actively searching for your property, maximising intent-driven bookings.

Simplified Campaign Setup & Creative

• Google suggests headlines, descriptions, and images based on your hotel’s listing.
• Pulls from high-quality hotel images already available in Google’s hotel feed, or you can upload your own.
• Scan your website or social media for additional visuals.
• Create property lists directly in Google Ads or sync with Hotel Centre.

Property-Specific Reporting

• View performance by individual hotels, making it easier to measure ROI and make property-level optimisations.

Increased Efficiency

• Fully powered by Google AI meaning no need to manually manage multiple campaigns or placements.
• Spend more time on strategy, budget allocation, creative, and analysing performance.

‘Made for You’ Travel Audiences

• Google automatically generates audience signals based on your property’s location, amenities, star rating, and more, helping you target the right guests at the right time.

For travel marketers and hoteliers, these benefits translate to more direct bookings, less reliance on OTAs, and greater guest lifetime value; all with less manual effort.

Drawbacks of Performance Max for Travel Goals

Limited Visibility and Control

• Google’s automation means less manual control over targeting, bidding, and placements.
• Search term data is restricted, making it harder to see exactly what users searched for before converting.

Creative Dependency on Google AI

• The system automatically generates ads using your inputs, but creative outputs aren’t always brand-aligned unless carefully reviewed and managed.
• Poor-quality images or incomplete hotel data can result in underwhelming ad visuals.

Performance May Vary by Property

• If you’re advertising multiple hotels, not all properties will receive equal visibility or performance.
• High-performing properties may dominate impressions, leaving others under-supported.

Learning Curve and Setup

• Requires Hotel Centre integration or property feed setup, which can be technically challenging for teams without prior Google Ads experience.
• Initial setup takes time to ensure asset quality and feed accuracy.

Attribution Complexity

• Conversions are driven across multiple channels (Search, YouTube, Display, Hotel Ads, etc.), making it harder to attribute success to individual touchpoints.

Despite these drawbacks, Performance Max for travel goals can be a powerful tool when strategically managed, especially when combined with a focus on driving direct bookings and reducing OTA commission.