A first quarter review of the 2017 lodging marketing trends

Back in December and early January, many marketers were making predictions about hot trends for hospitality marketing and we wanted to do a little check-in to see if the trend flopped or if we should ask them the winning lottery numbers.

Mobile-first world

The prediction: Not only will mobile website visits be growing but about 44% of online bookings will happen on a mobile device. Google’s already discussed making the move toward a mobile-first index and prioritizing websites that are optimized for mobile devices.

The reality: In the first quarter of 2017, we did see a rise in mobile traffic coming to sites and about 62% of smartphone users have made a purchase on their mobile device in the last six months. We have no doubts that optimizing for a mobile-first world will continue to be a hot trend for 2017 and beyond.

OTAs growth in market share

The prediction: OTAs will face some challenges in Europe with rate parity bans but will have 52% of the market share in the U.S.

The reality: OTAs continue to have a strong hold on the market share but these metasearch sites are also considered essential tools for most hospitality marketers. That doesn’t mean go pay for a listing on every OTA out there but you should be listing inventory on the right channels and then marketing to those guests for future direct bookings.

PPC + social PPC

The prediction: The PPC space would change with more competition and better ad layouts. We’d also see more advertising dollars moved to social channels like Facebook and Instagram.

The reality: With expanded text ads on Google AdWords, we have seen a shift in paid strategies and increased CTR with more real estate per ad. Social media budgets doubled from 2014 to 2016 to $31 billion and advertisers continue to invest in social media ads in 2017 with predictions of ad spending to exceed $35 billion this year. Instagram alone earns $595 million in mobile ad revenue. 

Bing rising’s market share

The prediction was that Bing’s market share would continue to grow and be an important search engine.

The reality: In June of 2016, Bing has 31.3% of the market share in the U.S. with 160 million unique searchers. Though Google does grow at a faster rate than Bing with its market share, Bing is proving itself with its ROI as Bing users typically spend 25% more online than other searchers.

Video + livestreaming

The prediction: Video would be an important part of content marketing with bigger budgets and better storytelling. Another option was to use social media livestreaming to connect with audiences.

The reality: Video is definitely a hot trend for 2017! Landing pages with a video can increase conversions by 80% or more and 87% of marketers are using video content. Facebook’s live stream feature has seen a 300% increase in usage in the first months of the new year from media and bigger brands.