What will be the impact on hotel marketing of Google abandoning its vision for a future without third-party cookies?

by Max Starkov

Background

Google just announced it was abandoning its quest to remove support of third-party cookies in its popular browser Chrome after four years of delays to find an alternative, citing “the amount of work it would take to move away from cookies, and the amount of impact it would have across the digital ad industry.” There were also rumblings by some government authorities in the UK and EU, which were concerned that Google’s stopping its support to third-party cookies in Chrome would be anti-competitive.

Third-party cookies have had an important impact on digital marketing for decades. They enable advertisers a) to track user behavior across the Internet, deliver targeted ads, and measure campaign performance, b) to track the digital customer journey and attribute conversations to specific touchpoints, and c) to track users across multiple devices.

Why was Google pursuing the elimination of the third-party cookies? The Firefox browser and Apple have already stopped supporting third party cookies awhile back. In the same time, Google was under pressure by government privacy regulations like the European Union’s GDPR and California’s CCPA, which demanded stricter consumer privacy.?

Another reason was that unlike digital marketers, Google did not and does not need third-party cookies. Google and Facebook control 55 cents of every digital marketing dollar spent globally. They have built humongous “walled gardens” with billions and billions of users and their first-party data and they “know exactly who their customers are. This is because they have to log in with their own accounts linked to either an email address or a phone number. “This is a major advantage, enabling them to build detailed, granular and complex profiles of their users (IAB)”

How this latest move affect hotel marketing?

It's business as usual for hotel marketers. With or without support for third-party cookies, for years hoteliers have systematically underspent in marketing. Ex. Independent hoteliers spend on marketing, including payroll for the sales and marketing team, a mere 2%-2.5% of room revenue. Compare this to 28%-36% of revenue for the major OTAs.

Hotel marketing today means digital marketing. Over 90% of travelers turn to the Internet when looking for a place to stay, which is more than all other sources of travel inspiration combined, including family, friends, travel guides, travel advisors, tour operators, etc. Hoteliers should boost their investments in digital marketing and do their utmost to become savvy digital marketers and understand in depth the complexity of the Digital Customer Journey.

So, what should hoteliers do?

With or without Google’s support of third-party cookies, hotel marketers should focus on boosting their first-party data, including first-party cookies, which allows marketers to establish direct relationships with their potential, past, present and future customers.?

Without question, first-party data marketing is the most cost-efficient and effective digital marketing format.

First-party data is the customer data (past customers & guests, website users, opt-in email subscribers, lists of corporate travel managers, meeting planners, wedding and event planners, SMERF group leaders the property has been doing business with or at least in communications with, etc.) that comes from the PMS, CRS, WBE, CRM program, from the property's website, opt-in email sign-ups, even customer lists sitting on laptops of sales and marketing personnel.?

The hotel CRM platform is the best technology to collect, cleanse, dedupe, augment and enrich the property’s first-party data and turn it into a powerful marketing tool, and ensure deep engagements with your past, present? and future guests. The CRM marketing automation keeps “the conversation going” with your upcoming and past guests, keeps them engaged and steer them in the right direction: to book your hotel, take advantage of upsells and upgrades, and book your hotel when it’s time for them to visit your destination again.

In addition, you can use your CRM first-party and zero-party data about your best guests to launch similar audiences marketing on Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc. to target potential customers with similar characteristics as your best guests. CRM initiatives in combination with ORM (Online Reputation Management) tech can turn your happy guests into brand ambassadors and avid social media influencers.

How do you increase the size of your first-party data?

There two main approaches:

1. Provide value for customer information.

The goal of these initiatives is to entice potential or existing customers to provide their information voluntarily (opt-in) through incentives or future gains, perks and benefits so they can be marketed to directly. RevTrax, a company empowering retail brands deliver dynamic promotions across channels, has coined the phrase “value exchange” to describe this process.

Incentives like “Sign-up to receive our weekly newsletter and get a coupon for 10% off from your next stay at our hotel” go a long way. Vouchers for spa treatment, suite discounts, free upgrades, F&B incentives, gas reimbursement vouchers, etc. are only some of these value-for-information trade-ins available to hotel marketers at many touch points throughout the Digital Customer Journey.

2. Launch Content Marketing:

This is an equally powerful channel to increase your first party data. Review and optimize your property’s Content Marketing initiatives, whose role has been highly elevated by the recent privacy protection moves. The objective here is to create unique and relevant content that provides real value to the travel consumers and that can be “gated” i.e. content that is enticing enough so users are willing to provide their information in order to access it or subscribe to receiving it.

Your property’s Expert Knowledge Marketing initiatives provide the perfect “gated” content opportunities, including podcasts, webinars, virtual cooking classes, valuable spa and wellness-related advice, chef recipes, cocktail recipes, wedding and social event how-to guides, etc.

Conclusion:

The timely but limited reprieve Google has given hotel marketers should be used wisely:?

• Create a first-party data collection and management strategy.
• Invest in CRM technology to be able to market directly to potential, past, present and future customers, provide personalized pricing and customer service, and improve operational efficiencies.
• In-source or outsource the ongoing creation of unique and engaging content worthy of customers to sign up to access it.
• Come up with enticing offers and promotions to increase conversion rates from your digital marketing, CRM and loyalty marketing efforts.
• Adopt a value-for-information incentive program to trade-in customers’ voluntarily provided information for future hotel value adds, perks and benefits.