PPC for Vacation Rentals: 2024 Guide to Pay-Per-Click Ads

Results are in — Americans are determined to travel, and trends show an overall increase in travel spending. Vacation rental bookings are also up, with most guests staying longer than seven days. 

There’s no better time to revamp and double down on your vacation rental marketing plan, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a good strategy to start with.

Keep reading to learn more about PPC for vacation rentals and how it can help you drive more revenue!

What is PPC for vacation rentals?

PPC for vacation rentals is a type of digital marketing that lets you place bids on different text, video, image, and search result ad space across the Internet. They usually appear as one of the top results in the search results with a “sponsored” tag above them. You can choose how much you want to spend on bids and per click with PPC ads.

How can vacation rental PPC benefit your company?

When a searcher sees a paid ad in the search engine result pages (SERPs) or on a website, it’s because they searched for something similar to the product or service advertised, making them an already-warm lead.

If they click your paid ad, they will be taken to the landing page of your choice, whether that’s a contact form to fill out for more information or a reservation page to browse upcoming availability at your rental.

A PPC campaign should be part of every vacation rental advertising plan because:

• It boosts your visibility: With 82% of all revenue in the vacation rental sector predicted to come from online sales by 2026, you’ve got to be sure your rental is visible to as many people in as many relevant places as possible. Users who click on a PPC ad are 50% more likely to book a stay than those who click on a regular search result. 
• Cost management is simple: Effective rental management involves allocating enough funds to each area of ownership and management per month, like maintenance and repairs. PPC lets you choose the maximum amount you’ll pay for your ad campaign, so it’s easy to incorporate it into your advertising budget without any surprise costs.
• You’ll stay competitive: Like it or not, your competitors likely already take advantage of PPC and other paid digital advertising. Since the top three paid spots in the SERPs get nearly half of all page clicks, running your own campaign is the best way to stay competitive.
• It’s a versatile option: PPC is flexible and easy to adapt to your current marketing goals because you choose the places you want to bid on an ad and the types of users you want to target, like people searching for rentals in your location.

What to expect when marketing your vacation rental property with PPC ads

PPC campaigns work differently based on ad type and location. For example, Google decides where your paid ad shows up in its SERPs by factoring in your bid amount, the ad quality and its relevance to the searcher, your ad rank in terms of keyword usage, and more. 

On average, a PPC campaign takes about three months to start generating noticeable results if you’re starting from scratch. However, it could take more or less time, depending on how competitive the bid auction is, what kind of ad you use and whether you create it on your own or outsource it to a professional.

The cost of vacation rental PPC ads

A paid ad in Google search results has an average cost-per-click (CPC) of $1.16, and most companies spend about $9,000 to $10,000 for a monthly campaign. Unless you outsource to a professional marketing agency — which adds anywhere from $350 to $5,000 monthly — you should also factor in these expenses:

• Finding, hiring, and training someone to design the advertisement and manage the campaign
• Necessary research tools like data analytics programs and keyword research databases
• A/B testing to determine which ad type, location, and audience gets more leads

Should you outsource your PPC management?

Outsourcing your PPC campaign — or all of the digital marketing for your vacation rental — to a professional saves you time, optimizes your investment, and gets you access to industry-leading resources and experience. 

Instead of wasting valuable marketing dollars on A/B or trial-and-error testing, a PPC pro can determine exactly where your PPC ad will work the best and conduct all the ad creation, bidding, monitoring, and analysis over the campaign’s duration.

PPC management plans from WebFX also include:

• Keyword analysis for improved ad ranking.
• Channel targeting to identify, find, and reach the right audience.
• Landing page creation with calls to action that convert.
• Ongoing testing and monitoring to maintain your ad’s rank and track success.
• Competitive analysis to see what your top competitors are doing to optimize your strategy. 

Letting someone else take care of PPC advertising for your vacation rental means you and your team have more time to focus on your business and wow your customers with your service, amenities, and quality.

Learn more about WebFX’s vacation rental PPC service

With decades of experience helping clients power business growth with leading PPC services, WebFX knows how to create a strategy that works. We currently manage more than $120M in annual ad spend and have a team of hundreds of professionals specializing in everything from market research and ad creation to Google Ad ranking and campaign management. 

Already have a PPC campaign? We can look at what you’ve got and provide consulting on improvements you can make — we’ve found that clients who use our proprietary tool MarketingCloudFX see a 20% improvement in existing PPC runs.

Whether you’re looking for a one-time campaign or want hands-on help determining the best way to implement PPC for vacation rentals, we’ve got you covered. Request a free proposal today to learn more!

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