Metagenius User Guide

MetaGenius User Guide

Self-Service Version

14/05/2019 Copyright 2019 D-EDGE. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement or non- disclosure agreement. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of those agreements. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaser's personal use without the written permission of D-EDGE.

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Contact the Client Success Team

l Europe and Africa: [email protected]

l Asia: [email protected] CONTENTS CHAPTER Manage Manage Get Help Welcome How Use How About How methods What Modifications Step Hotels Step Account Step Properties About Step Step Step Started Clusters to to 1 much 3: 2: 1: 3: 2: 1: MetaGenius Budget a Getting are Add Configure Bid Configure General Into Make Create Set- Budget to Group Level for the the Models, up Groups. budget Budget adding Granular available Clusters Initial MetaGenius of Management Settings Started MetaGenius Hotels Clusters, Your should Bids budget? Bid to payment Account Organize I allocate? and Online at the to Your 20 23 23 20 24 24 22 21 10 21 21 9 8 8 11 9 What happens when my budget reaches 0? 24 Review Budget Orders 24 CHAPTER 2 About the Dashboard Understand the Dashboard 26 Campaign Status 26 Campaign Results 27 Viewing the Results 27 KPIs - Key Performance Indicators 28 Viewing the Graph 29 Filtering the Results 30 In-Depth Analysis 32 How to View KPI Layers 32 In-depth KPIs 33 Opportunities 34 Manage Bid Activity from the Dashboard 35 Using the Pause Switch 35 Using the Manage Button 38 Using the Manage Bids Pop-Up 40 Bids Tab 40 Devices Tab 41 Point of Sale Tab 41 Bid Multipliers Tab 42 CHAPTER 3 Bid Management Manage Bids Overview 46 How long does it take for bid changes to take effect? 46 Metasearch Engines - Configuration Overview 47 More About Models and Bids 51 A note about Bid Models 51 Google Hotel Ads 51

iv Trip Advisor 53 Trivago 54 Account, Cluster, and Property Bids 55 Manage Bids at the Account Level 55 How to Manage Account Level Bids from the Dashboard 55 Manage Bids at the Cluster and Property Level 57 How to Manage Bids at the Cluster Level 57 How to Manage Bids at the Property Level 59 How to Revert Cluster or Property Bids to a Higher Default Level 60 Granular Bid Modifiers 62 What are the available granular bid modifiers? 62 Bids 62 Devices 63 Point of Sale 64 Bid Multipliers 65 Bid Management Tips 68 Analysing KPIs on the Dashboard 68 Analyse Your Performance with Opportunities 70 What is the opportunity? 70 What is the possible action to take? 71 5-Minute Manager 72 Check your available Budget 72 Review your Dashboard 72 Look In-depth on your Dashboard 73 Make Adjustments to Your Bids 74 Review Your Availability & Prices on Your Booking Engine 74

CONTENTS CHAPTER 4 FAQs General 76 Which metasearch engines does MetaGenius connect to? 76 On which devices will my ads be visible? 76 Bid Management 77 How long does it take for bid changes to take effect? 77 Can I set different bid models for different properties within the same metasearch? 77 Budget Management 78 What are the available payment methods for adding budget? 78 How much budget should I allocate? 78 What happens when my budget reaches 0? 78 Dashboard & KPIs 78 What does CPC mean? 78 CHAPTER 1 GLOSSARY

vi CHAPTER 1 This Getting Manage Manage Get Welcome chapter Review How Clusters How About Started to to discusses MetaGenius Budget Add Budget Configure a to Group Started the Budget the Orders MetaGenius of following: Your Hotels Account Online to Use Help 20 23 24 23 21 9 8 8 Welcome to the MetaGenius Online Help

About MetaGenius MetaGenius allows you to manage all your metasearch efforts in one platform. With connections to the major metasearch engines, you can devise strategies to increase your direct bookings. Having an active metasearch strategy allows you to connect directly with users when they are searching for hotels across different entry-points and devices. It gives you the opportunity to connect with customers for their entire journey, allowing you to gain more insight into your customers behaviours which you can use to improve your metasearch efforts. With metasearch, you can capture high quality leads deeper in the booking process at a point when customers have already narrowed their search to focus on their specific needs. MetaGenius works with any Booking Engine that has agreed to implement our tracking tags. You also need a Channel Manager connected and certified by D- EDGE.

A NOTE ABOUT FIGURES IN THIS GUIDE Throughout this guide we have used some figures in examples to demonstrate certain aspects of the MetaGenius application. These figures are examples only and are not to be taken as advice towards your own bidding strategy.

8 Get Started The first time you log into MetaGenius, you have to configure your set-up. There are three main steps:

1. General Settings 2. Budget Management 3. Bid Management

The system takes you through doing each step in turn, but it is not mandatory to follow this order. For example, you can configure your General Settings followed by your Bid Management settings, and then do the Budget Management last. Step 1: General Settings

General Settings is where you configure general information about your hotel (s) such as Property and Contact Information.

1. On the main Property Information screen, click Resolve to finish completing any missing information.

l Your Property Information should be at least partially completed from your on-boarding process.

l Contact Information and Technical Information are not mandatory to complete. Tip: Providing a Contact Email will ensure that you receive email notifications from the MetaGenius application. These email notifications include reporting information, budget alerts, and performance alerts. Tip: Entering the Technical Information and keeping it up to date will help to ensure that your MetaGenius application functions correctly. If you change this information at a later date, the platform administrators will be notified. You can also Contact Support or your Account Manager to inform them of any changes. 2. After you have completed any necessary Property, Contact, or Technical Information, click Save. You return to the main Property Information list. 3. Resolve any missing information for other hotels and when you are ready, click Next.

Get Started Step 2: Budget Management

Budget Management is where you define how much you want to spend on your metasearch efforts. The budget defined here is for ALL hotels associated to your account. The first time you visit this screen, the budget will be 0. To add budget:

1. On the Bid Management screen, under Add Budget click Choose.

2. In the pop-up, select the amount you want to add to your account. The minimum amount you can add is 500€, and the maximum amount is 30,000€. For more about the amount of budget to allocate, see How much budget should I allocate?. 3. Click Next and select your payment option. For the first release, we only allow payment by credit card. 4. Click Next, type in your credit card information and click Pay. The MetaGenius application uses the secure payment system, Stripe, for all credit card transactions. Your budget will show as status pending until the transaction is approved; this can take a few minutes depending on the location and speed of connection to the bank. You can continue with configuring your Bid Management which will become active as soon as your budget is confirmed. 5. Click Next to continue to Bid Management, or click on any of the menu options to go to a different screen.

10 Step 3: Set-up Initial Bids

Bid Management is where you configure your bids, or spend, for each of the metasearch engines you choose to use. Each metasearch engine has different configuration options - some allow you to go into great detail, while others simply allow you to turn them on or off. Bidding can be defined as the amount you are willing to pay to attract customers to your booking engine. During the initial set-up, configure your Bid Management at the Account level. This means that it applies to all hotels associated to your account. After the initial configuration, you can make small adjustments on a more granular level; see "Manage a Group of Hotels" on page 20 for more information.

WHAT DOES CPC MEAN?

CPC means Cost Per Click, it's also known as PPC or Pay Per Click. When bids are using the CPC model, this means that you pay the metasearch engine each time an ad is clicked. In CPC models, only the clicks are counted; actual bookings are not considered.

HOW TO CONFIGURE YOUR BIDS

1. To configure a metasearch engine, click the one you want to configure.

The configuration options for the selected meta automatically appear below. 2. The first thing to do is to select if you want to use this meta; in the Default Configuration ensure ON is selected to use the selected meta. 3. Then, configure the available options for each of the metasearch:

l "Google Hotel Ads" on the next page

l "Trip Advisor" on page 15

l "Trivago" on page 18

l "Hotels Combined" on page 19

l "Kayak" on page 19 See "Manage Bids Overview" on page 46 for a summary of bid configurations.

Get Started GOOGLE HOTEL ADS

1. Select Your Hotels: De-select any hotels you do not want activated for this metasearch engine. By default, all hotels are selected. 2. Model and Bidding: There are 3 model types and the Bidding configuration changes for each model. The bid you enter in the Bidding section is your base bid. After setting your base bid, you can modify this bid using additional parameters.

Model Bidding

Commission Select a commission of either You don't pay for clicks, but you 10% or 12%. pay a commission when bookings Note: This will apply to ALL hotels, originate through Google. and all other configurations are handled by Google when you choose this model.

MAXCPC - Percentage of Room Enter the maximum percentage Price of your room price you are willing This enters you into a bidding war to pay for a click. with other booking channels. Each For example, if you enter 0.20% party bids the maximum percent and the next bid is 0.10%, you will of room price they are willing to pay a small amount more than pay per click. The party with the 0.10% (i.e. 0.11%). largest bid is displayed first and, if Figures are an example and are not clicked, will pay a marginal meant to be accurate amounts. amount more than the next highest bid. This model is relevant for budget hotels. The room price used is the room price available in Google.

CPC - Fixed Bid / Night Enter the percentage of your room This is a fixed cost per click, which rate, per night, you are willing to is a percentage of your room price pay per click. per night. For example, if your room is 100€ This model can be costly for long per night and you bid 1% per night stays. (i.e. 1€ per night), a booking of 7 nights will cost you 7€.

12 3. Select Your Device: You can deselect if you do not want your bids applicable for a certain device, and then for the selected devices you can modify your base bid amount for each device. i. For each device selected, from the drop-down select to Increase or Decrease your base bid. ii. In the percentage field, enter the percentage amount by which you want to increase or decrease your bid. For example, you have a base bid of 1% and want to decrease your mobile bid by 25%. This means that your bid for clicks from mobile devices will be 0.75%.

If you do not want to change the base bid amount by device, leave the bid field at 0%. 4. Select Your Point of Sale: You can de-select if you do not want your bids applicable for a certain country or region. Google determines users based on their IP address location and will filter out any users from countries you have not selected. For the selected countries and regions, you can modify your base bid amount for each. i. For each country/region selected, from the drop-down select to Increase or Decrease your base bid. ii. In the percentage field, enter the percentage amount by which you want to increase or decrease your bid. For example, you have a base bid of 1% and want to increase your bid by 25% in the UK, Australia, and the UK. This means that your bid for clicks from these countries will be 1.25%.

Get Started If you do not want to change the base bid amount by Point of Sale, leave the bid field at 0%. 5. When you have finished configuring this metasearch engine, click Save.

14 TRIP ADVISOR

1. Select Your Hotels: De-select any hotels you do not want activated for this metasearch engine. By default, all hotels are selected. 2. Model and Bidding: TripAdvisor offers 2 Model types. The bid you enter in the Bidding section is your base bid. After setting your base bid, you can modify this bid using additional parameters.

Model Bidding

Autobidding: Objective ROIx12 This is a Cost per Click option that is managed by the MetaGenius application. It is aimed at providing a return on investment that is 12x your This model has no bidding option and all initial investment. other configurations are handled by For example, an MetaGenius when you choose this model. investment of 100€ will return 1200€ of revenue. In this model, the MetaGenius platform responds dynamically to traffic and demand to give the ROI.

Get Started Model Bidding

CPC Bid to First: The platform will adapt your bid with the objective to reach the first This allows you 3 bidding position in ranking. This is an expensive options on a Cost per Click option because you will be in a constant model. These options are bidding war against large OTAs; large OTAs not related to performance, can usually outspend hoteliers. The price they are only related to will continue to increase, but traffic will visibility position on stabilize. This option can be used for short TripAdvisor. periods to increase pick-up, but only if closely monitored. Bid to Top 3: The platform will adapt your bid with the objective to reach an average top 3 position over a long period of time. A top 3 position is highly visible. This option offers a mix between aggressive visibility and conservative budget management. Bid X Eur CPC: This option allows you to enter a currency amount to use as your static bid. This option does not give the meta search engine an objective to aim for. This is a completely manual option that requires you to monitor your performance so you can adjust your bid as needed.

3. Select Your Device: You can deselect if you do not want your bids applicable for a certain device, and then for the selected devices you can modify your base bid amount for each device. Trip Advisor combines the Desktop & Tablet devices into one category. i. For each device selected, from the drop-down select to Increase or Decrease your base bid. ii. In the percentage field, enter the percentage amount by which you want to increase or decrease your bid. For example, you have a base bid of 1% and want to decrease your mobile bid by 25%. This means that your bid for clicks from mobile devices will be 0.75%.

16 If you do not want to change the base bid amount by device, leave the bid field at 0%. 4. Select Your Point of Sale: You can de-select if you do not want your bids applicable for a certain country or region. Google determines users based on their IP address location and will filter out any users from countries you have not selected. For the selected countries and regions, you can modify your base bid amount for each. i. For each country/region selected, from the drop-down select to Increase or Decrease your base bid. ii. In the percentage field, enter the percentage amount by which you want to increase or decrease your bid. For example, you have a base bid of 1% and want to increase your bid by 25% in the UK, Australia, and the UK. This means that your bid for clicks from these countries will be 1.25%.

If you do not want to change the base bid amount by Point of Sale, leave the bid field at 0%. 5. When you have finished configuring this metasearch engine, click Save.

Get Started TRIVAGO

1. Select Your Hotels: De-select any hotels you do not want activated for this metasearch engine. By default, all hotels are selected. 2. Bidding: Trivago offers only one bidding option, the Bid X Eur CPC. This option allows you to enter a currency amount to use as your static bid. This option does not give the metasearch engine an objective to aim for. This is a completely manual option that requires you to monitor your performance so you can adjust your bid as needed. 3. Select Your Device: Trivago does not allow you to manage your bids by device type. The bid you make is applicable across all devices. 4. Select Your Point of Sale: You can de-select if you do not want your bids applicable for a certain country or region. Google determines users based on their IP address location and will filter out any users from countries you have not selected. For the selected countries and regions, you can modify your base bid amount for each. i. For each country/region selected, from the drop-down select to Increase or Decrease your base bid. ii. In the percentage field, enter the percentage amount by which you want to increase or decrease your bid. For example, you have a base bid of 1% and want to increase your bid by 25% in the UK, Australia, and the UK. This means that your bid for clicks from these countries will be 1.25%.

If you do not want to change the base bid amount by Point of Sale, leave the bid field at 0%. 5. When you have finished configuring this metasearch engine, click Save.

18 HOTELS COMBINED

For Hotels Combined, you can only select to turn this option ON or OFF. By turning it ON, this means that this meta option is active for all hotels associated to your account. Hotels Combined is commission-based; you will pay a 12.5% commission for bookings that originated through Hotels Combined.

KAYAK

For Kayak, you can only select to turn this option ON or OFF. By turning it ON, this means that this meta option is active for all hotels associated to your account. Kayak is commission based; you will pay a 10% commission for bookings that originated through Kayak.

To learn more, see the topics under "Manage Bids Overview" on page 46.

Get Started Manage a Group of Hotels Depending on the number of hotels you have linked to your MetaGenius account, there are three different levels you can use to manage your bids:

l Account Level: The Bid Management settings you configured during the first configuration are Account Wide; these settings apply to all hotels associated to your account.

l Cluster Level: For Accounts that manage a large number of hotels, Clusters can be used to organize hotels into smaller groups that have a some commonalities, such as resorts or business hotels.

l Property Level: You can also manage individual hotels at the property level, for example, if you have a flagship hotel where you want to focus a more aggressive metasearch strategy.

WHY SHOULD I DIVIDE MY HOTELS INTO CLUSTERS? Dividing your hotels into Clusters allows you to better target your metasearch efforts. If you have a group of hotels that are targeted towards a specific customer-type (i.e. business travellers, holiday makers, etc.) you could decide to group these hotels into one Cluster. Even when a hotel is in a Cluster, you can still modify bids at the property level if there is an individual hotel where you want to target a specific metasearch campaign. About Bid Models, Clusters, and Properties

The bid model is set account-wide; you cannot have different bid models for different properties within the same metasearch. For example, for Google Hotel Ads you have selected the Commission model; this applies to all Clusters and Properties in your account. You can change the bid Model only on the Bid Management screen. However, you can modify the bid amount (percentage or CPC) per Cluster or Property but they will all have the same Model applied. You can also make more granular modifications at the Account, Cluster or Property level.

20 How to Configure Your Account to Use Clusters The steps below provide an overview for setting up your MetaGeniusaccount to use Clusters. Step 1: Configure MetaGenius at the Account Level

The Bid Management configurations during the Getting Started process are at the Account Level. After you have done the initial configuration, you can then continue with steps 2 & 3 below. You can always return to the main Bid Management screen to change your Account configurations, or adjust your bidding model. You can also "Manage Bids at the Account Level" on page 55 on the Dashboard.

Step 2: Create Clusters to Organize Your Hotels Into Groups.

How you decide to organize your hotels depends on your strategy and the type of hotels. Some possibilities may be to organise hotels by city, region, or country, or you may choose to organise your hotels by type such as resort and business. How to Create a Cluster of Hotels

1. From the Dashboard, access the Clusters page in one of two ways:

l Click Manage in the Clusters box in the Campaign Status section of the dashboard.

l From the menu, select General Settings and then Clusters. 2. In the Cluster Name field, type in a name for the Cluster and click OK.

The cluster is created. 3. Select the hotels you want to be included in the Cluster, and then click Save at the bottom of the page.

Manage a Group of Hotels 4. Your Cluster can now be managed from the Dashboard.

Step 3: Make Granular Bid Modifications

After you have set up your Clusters, you can then start to make granular adjustments to your bids. Managing bids at the Cluster and Property level is done exclusively from the In-depth Analysis section of the Dashboard. See "Account, Cluster, and Property Bids" on page 55 for more information.

22 Manage Budget Budget Management is where you define how much you want to spend on your metasearch efforts. The budget defined here is for ALL hotels associated to your account. The Budget Management screen also displays an overview of your budget orders, including the amount, the date the budget was added, when the budget started being used, and when it finished.

How to Add Budget You will add budget the first time you configure your MetaGenius account, and you will need to add budget periodically depending on your campaigns. To add budget:

1. On the Bid Management screen, under Add Budget click Choose.

Manage Budget What are the available payment methods for adding budget?

Currently, only credit card payments are accepted.

How much budget should I allocate?

The amount of budget you should allocate depends on several factors, including the number of properties you manage and how aggressive or conservative you want to be with your metasearch efforts.

What happens when my budget reaches 0?

Before your budget reaches 0, when you have approximately 5-10% of your budget left or 3 days before your budget is estimated to reach 0, the system starts to pause your campaigns automatically in an attempt to save your budget and prevent you from reaching 0 or a negative number. The MetaGenius application pauses, metasearch by metasearch, the campaigns that are consuming the most budget in order from most expensive to least expensive until everything is paused. Note: Reaching 0 or a negative budget is possible if the current pace of clicks increases before the automatic pause has taken effect.

Review Budget Orders The Budget Order section of the screen provides an overview of your previous budget orders. It includes the date when the budget was added, the start date when the budget began to be used for campaigns, and the date when the budget had been completely used. It also shows the payment method and the amount.

24 CHAPTER 2 This About Dashboard Manage Campaign Understand chapter Using Using Using In- Filtering Campaign Depth the the the discusses Bid the the Analysis Status Manage Manage Pause Results the Activity Results the Dashboard Dashboard Switch following: Bids Button from Pop- the Up 26 26 40 35 38 30 27 35 32 Understand the Dashboard After your initial set-up, the Dashboard will be your main screen for monitoring and managing your MetaGenius application. The Dashboard provides you with an overview of your metasearch campaign status as well as performance reports. There are many options for filtering the reports and changing the view to help you analyse the data. Campaign Status

The Campaign Status displays your remaining budget, the number of active properties and the number of active metasearch engines, and the number of properties in clusters.

The current budget you have as well as an estimate of the number of days your budget will last given the current strategy and current pace of clicks. Click Manage to access the Budget Management screen.

The total number of properties you have and how many MetaSearch (i.e. Google Hotel Ads, Trip Advisor, etc.) are currently active. Click Manage to access the "Manage Bids Overview" on page 46 screen.

The total number of properties and the number of Clusters that have been created to manage these properties. Click Manage to access the "Account, Cluster, and Property Bids" on page 55 screen.

Note: The Bid Management and Clusters features are for the Self-Service version of MetaGenius. If you have opted for the Full Service MetaGenius offer, these elements are managed for you by D-EDGE.

26 Campaign Results By default, the Campaign Results shows the KPIs for the previous month. Using the Date Filter, you can select a different date range and you can also select a comparison period. Viewing the Results

The large numbers are for the selected date range, the smaller grey numbers are for the selected comparison period.

The red and green arrows show the change between the selected period and the comparison period. Arrows that are pointing up indicate an increase, while arrows that are pointing down indicate a decrease. Green arrows and numbers show a positive change, while red arrows and numbers show a potential negative change.

EXAMPLES

An increase in the number of Clicks is positive

A decrease in total Revenue is negative.

Campaign Status An increase in the amount Spent could be negative, depending on other metrics.

KPIs - Key Performance Indicators

Use the KPIs to monitor your performance and make decisions on your metasearch strategy.

l Clicks: This is the total number of clicks your metasearch efforts have generated.

l CPC: This is the average Cost Per Click; calculated by dividing Spent by number of Clicks. If you have selected a commission model for a metasearch, the CPC value is calculated from the amount spent on commissions and the number of Clicks - this gives an average value for the CPC.

l Spent: This is the total amount you have spent on your metasearch campaigns. If you have selected a commission model for a metasearch, the Spent figure is a percentage of the booking revenue.

l Bookings: This is the total number of bookings that have been generated by your metasearch campaigns. This is all bookings including cancellations, no shows, etc.

l Revenue: This is the gross booking value generated, based on the total number of bookings.

l Dist Cost%: This number represents an equivalent commission percentage. For example, if you pay your OTAs 20% commission you can compare this to your Dist Cost % and analyse the results.

28 Viewing the Graph

The chart provides a graphical view of performance over the selected date range. By default, the chart shows the Revenue generated by day for the previous month. The graph is dynamic. If you are viewing a month, it will show data day by day, but if you are viewing a year it will show data month by month.

Use the drop-down to view another KPI in the graph:

l Bookings: This is the total number of bookings that have been generated by your metasearch campaigns. This is all bookings including cancellations, no shows, etc.

l Clicks: This is the total number of clicks your metasearch efforts have generated.

l Conversion%: This is the conversion rate and is calculated using the number of bookings divided by the number of clicks.

l Dist Cost%: This number represents an equivalent commission percentage. For example, if you pay your OTAs 20% commission you can compare this to your Dist Cost % and analyse the results.

l Revenue: This is the gross booking value generated, based on the total number of bookings.

l Spent: This is the total amount you have spent on your metasearch campaigns. If you have selected a commission model for a metasearch, the Spent figure is a percentage of the booking revenue.

By changing the date range and selecting a different KPI, you can view a different performance metrics.

Campaign Status EXAMPLE

In this example we have selected to view the amount spent for 2 months starting from 1 August 2017 and are comparing it to the previous 2-month period. The chart shows the spend per week for the selected time period.

Filtering the Results You can use the drop-down filters to narrow the scope of the results . By selecting multiple filters, you target specific areas of your metasearch campaigns. When you select filters, they are applied to all date displayed on the Dashboard. Depending on your overall strategy, this can help you make decisions on how to manage your bids.

AVAILABLE FILTERS

l MetaSearch: Select to view results for a specific metasearch engine, i.e. Google Hotel Ads.

l Clusters: Select to view results for a certain Cluster of hotels.

l Properties: View results for a specific property.

l Point of Sale: Choose to narrow the results to performance in a specific country or region.

l Device: Narrow the results to view only performance for a specific device type.

30 EXAMPLE OF TARGETED FILTERS

In the Example below, we have selected to view results for, Google Hotel Ads, for only the Prince Albert Opera property, and we are interested in seeing our performance in France.

Campaign Status In-Depth Analysis Towards the bottom of the Dashboard screen you can view a more in-depth analysis of your performance. By default, it displays results by MetaSearch and by Device. If you have applied Filters above, these will also be applied to this portion of the Dashboard. Use the drop-down filters to view different KPI layers and cross-analyse the data. For example, you could select to view the data by Properties and Point of Sale.

The option you have selected in the first drop-down appears as the first layer, and the second drop-down option appears as a sub-layer. How to View KPI Layers

1. Click the + sign to expand. In our example, the KPIs for each Device on Google Hotel Ads is displayed.

2. Click the T to close.

32 In-depth KPIs

By using different filters, you can obtain different views of the KPIs.

l Impression Share: The number of clicks divided by the number of impressions; an impression is the number of times your ad was displayed to a user. This KPI is not available on Trip Advisor.

l Clicks: This is the total number of clicks your metasearch efforts have generated.

l Spent: This is the total amount you have spent on your metasearch campaigns. If you have selected a commission model for a metasearch, the Spent figure is a percentage of the booking revenue.

l Average Ad Pos: This is the average ad position you have achieved. This figure shows the average trend of your ad position; it is not an exact number. This KPI is not available on Trivago.

l Bookings: This is the total number of bookings that have been generated by your metasearch campaigns. This is all bookings including cancellations, no shows, etc.

l Conversion%: This is the conversion rate and is calculated using the number of bookings divided by the number of clicks.

l Revenue: This is the gross booking value generated, based on the total number of bookings.

l Dist Cost%: This number represents an equivalent commission percentage. For example, if you pay your OTAs 20% commission you can compare this to your Dist Cost % and analyse the results.

Campaign Status Opportunities

When you are viewing the layers MetaSearch and Properties the dashboard displays Opportunities. These are suggestions made by the MetaGenius platform on how you can improve your performance. WHAT OPPORTUNITIES ARE DISPLAYED

l Est Click for Top Visibility: The estimated number of clicks you would have had if you were always in the top position. You can compare this to the number of clicks you actually received.

l Est Bid for Top Visibility: This is the estimated bid amount you would have had to spend to achieve the top position. In the case of Google Hotel Ads, this is the percentage of room price you would have had to pay per click. For Trip Advisor and Trivago, this is the amount per click. This number can tell you what others are willing to pay to achieve the top position; for example, an amount of 4.24% tells us that a competitor is willing to pay 4.23%. For a room price of 100€, this is 4,23€ per click.

l Est Click Growth: This is the estimated percentage growth of clicks if you had paid the Estimated Bid to reach the top position.

HOW TO VIEW OPPORTUNITIES

1. From the drop-down, select MetaSearch & Properties. 2. Click the View Properties switch. The opportunities are displayed in the last 3 columns of the table.

For more about using the Opportunities, see the topic "Analyse Your Performance with Opportunities" on page 70.

34 Manage Bid Activity from the Dashboard You can manage bids from the Dashboard at the Account, Cluster, and Property Level, as well as for Devices and Points of Sale. This is done using the Manage button and Pause switch. These appear when MetaSearch is selected as the first filter option and any of the options are selected for the second filter; Device, Point of Sale, Cluster, Properties. For more information about managing bids at different levels, see "Account, Cluster, and Property Bids" on page 55.

Using the Pause Switch The Pause switch allows you to pause your activity at any level. You can pause an entire metasearch, and also for each of the options for each metasearch; Devices, Point of Sale, Cluster, and Property. If you pause at the metasearch level (e.g. Google Hotel Ads), it pauses all hotels in that metasearch. If you pause at the hotel level, you will have to re-activate all of your hotels. You can also pause a Device type or Point of Sale. When done in the table, it is account wide. If you want to pause a specific Device type or Point of Sale for a Cluster or Property, you can do this in the Manage Bids Pop-up.

Manage Bid Activity from the Dashboard PAUSE AT THE ACCOUNT LEVEL

You could select to pause your bid activity for Tablet on Google Hotel Ads and also pause your activity for Mobile on Trip Advisor. This pause would be account wide and would affect all properties or clusters in the account.

If you do not see the pause button for a Device or Point of Sale, this could be because the Model you have selected for the Account does not allow for this option. For example, the Commission model in Google Hotel Ads does not allow for further configuration at any level.

36 PAUSE AT THE CLUSTER AND PROPERTY LEVEL

If you want to pause activity for a specific Property or Cluster on ALL metasearch, you have to do this for each property item under each metasearch. Use the Manage Bids Pop-up to pause a specific Device type or Point of Sale for a Cluster or Property.

Note: You should be careful when pausing at the property level because to re- activate each hotel can be time-consuming; consider pausing at the metasearch level instead.

Manage Bid Activity from the Dashboard Using the Manage Button Click the Manage button to access a pop-up that allows you to configure and modify your bids. Depending on which level you clicked the Manage button, the pop-up will show slightly different configurations.

MANAGE BUTTON FOR METASEARCH, CLUSTER, OR PROPERTY

The pop-up allows you to configure a default bid for each level, as well as managing Devices and Points of Sale. If you want to pause a Device type or Point of Sale for a specific Cluster or Property, you can do this in the pop-up. For more about managing different levels, see "Manage a Group of Hotels" on page 20.

EXAMPLE: MANAGE PROPERTY POP-UP

38 MANAGE BUTTON FOR DEVICES AND POINT OF SALE

The pop-up allows you to modify the Account Default Bid by increasing or decreasing the bid by a percentage; this is the same method used as when you did the first configuration of MetaGenius on the Bid Management screen. You can also pause a Device or Point of Sale in the pop-up; this will be account wide for the selected device of the selected metasearch.

EXAMPLE: MANAGE DEVICE POP-UP, TRIP ADVISOR

Manage Bid Activity from the Dashboard Using the Manage Bids Pop-Up In the pop-up, you can manage your Bids, and by clicking the tabs Devices, Point of Sale or Bid Multipliers you can manage your bid for each of these at a more granular level, like you did during the first configuration of MetaGenius. These options are available depending on what the metasearch offers. If available they can be used at the Account, Cluster, or Property Level. Bids Tab

The Bids modifier allows you to adjust the default bid, at the Account, Cluster, or Property Level. On the Bids tab through the Dashboard, you can see the current bid. The platform provides different bid options which give a Bid amount and an estimated number of Clicks, Cost and Impression Share for each opportunity. The Bids modifier is available for Google Hotel Ads, Trip Advisor, and Trivago. In our example below, the current bid is at a Cost Per Click (CPC) of 0.80€, and we can see the CPC to achieve the First, Third, or Next position.

40 Devices Tab

The Devices bid modifier allows you to adjust the default bid per device. Available for Google Hotel Ads and Trip Advisor, you can modify the bid by device at the Account, Cluster or Property Level. On the Devices tab, we can see our current bid of 2% of Room Rate per Click, the current settings per device and the current KPIs. In our example below, we can see that Tablet is not active and that Desktop has an increase of 20% and Mobile has an increase of 50% from the base bid.

Point of Sale Tab

The Point of Sale bid modifier allows you to adjust the default bid per Point of Sale (booking location). Available for Google Hotel Ads, Trip Advisor, and Trivago, you can modify the bid by device at the Account, Cluster or Property Level. On the Point of Sale tab, we can see our current bid of 2% of Room Rate per Click, the current settings for each point of sale and the current KPIs. In our example below, we can see that the Rest of Europe and Spain are not active, and that there is an increase of 30% for France and 15% for Germany.

Manage Bid Activity from the Dashboard Bid Multipliers Tab

On the Bid Multipliers Tab, there are 4 additional options for modifying your Bids: Check-In Days, Advance Booking Window, Length of Stay, and Date Type. Each of these are described in more detail below. Bid Multipliers are only available on Google Hotel Ads. They can be used at the Account, Cluster, or Property Level.

CHECK-IN DAYS Using multipliers for Check-in Days, you can modify your bids for customers looking to check-in on certain days of the week. Depending on your strategy, you could decide to target weekend says by increasing your bid for arrivals on Fridays and Saturdays. This could improve your position and so increase direct bookings for these days.

42 ADVANCE BOOKING WINDOW Multipliers for an Advance Booking Window gives you the opportunity to modify your bid for advance bookings. This gives you the opportunity to target different booking windows to improve your position depending on your strategy and market.

LENGTH OF STAY The Length of Stay multiplier allows you to target bids depending on the length of stay customers are booking. You can change the different lengths of stay:

l Click the Trashcan icon to delete a length of stay.

l Enter a number of days in the field and click Add, to add different stay lengths.

Manage Bid Activity from the Dashboard DATE TYPE The Date Type multiplier allows you to choose if you want to modify your bids depending on the date type in Google Hotel Ads.

l Selected Date is for your position when the customer enters their preferred dates.

l Default Date is for the default date provided by Google Hotel Ads.

44 CHAPTER 3 This Bid 5- Bid Granular Account, Manage chapter Opportunities Analyse Analysing modifiers? What Level Manage Manage More Overview Metasearch Minute Management Management About are discusses Bids Your Bid Bids Bids Cluster, Manager the KPIs Engines Modifiers Models Overview Performance available at at the on the the and Tips following: the Cluster Account and - Configuration Dashboard Property granular Bids with and Level bid Property Bids 68 46 62 72 55 47 70 68 62 57 55 51 Manage Bids Overview Bid Management is where you configure your bids, or spend, for each of the metasearch engines you choose to use. Each metasearch engine has different configuration options - some allow you to go into great detail, while others simply allow you to turn them on or off. Bidding can be defined as the amount you are willing to pay to attract customers to your booking engine. When you adjust your bids on the Bid Management screen, these are the default bids that apply account-wide to all hotels. See "Manage Bids at the Cluster and Property Level" on page 57 for information about more granular modifications at the Cluster and Property level. How long does it take for bid changes to take effect?

Depending on the metasearch engine, changes to bids can take anywhere from one hour to one week. Details for each metasearch engine are provided below:

l Google: For both bid updates and using the Pause button, changes to Google Hotel Ads take approximately one hour to be in effect.

l Trip Advisor: Changes to bids are updated everyday when Trip Advisor refreshes their site; in general, you can expect your information to be updated around 16:00 UTC. For Trip Advisor, using the Pause button can take 10 minutes to 12 hours to be in effect. This depends on how recently Trip Advisor has refreshed the cache of your data and how long until it is refreshed again.

l Trivago: Changes to bids are updated once per week. Using the Pause button for Trivago can be 10 minutes to 12 hours to be in effect. This depends on how recently Trivago has refreshed the cache of your data and how long until it is refreshed again.

l Hotels Combined and Kayak: Both of these metasearch engines are commission based with only an On or Off function, it can take 10 minutes to 12 hours for a change to be in effect. This depends on how recently these sites have refreshed the cache of your data and how long until it is refreshed again.

46 Metasearch Engines - Configuration Overview Each metasearch provides slightly different options for configuration and bidding, depending on their platform. The table below provides an overview of the configuration options for each metasearch engine.

TABLE: CONFIGURATION OVERVIEW

Account Trip Hotels Level Google Trivago Kayak Combined Settings Advisor

Default OFF OFF Possible OFF OFF OFF configuratio Possible to turn ON Possible to Possible to Possible to n to turn Editable turn ON turn ON turn ON for ON according to Editable Options Options ALL hotels Editable options according below are below are associated accordin below to options NOT editabl NOT editabl to the g to below e e Account options below

Select By By default, By All hotels All hotels Hotels default, all hotels are default, all are are all hotels selected. hotels are selected. selected. are Editable selected. Not Not selected. Editable editable editable Editable

Model 1. 1. Autobidding CPC Commission Commission Commissio (default 2. CPC – with 3 n model bid options 2. MAX selected in These options CPC account are not related settings) 3. CPC - to Fixed Bid / performance, Night they are only related to visibility position on TripAdvisor.

Manage Bids Overview Account Trip Hotels Level Google Trivago Kayak Combined Settings Advisor

Bidding 1. 10% or 1. Objective Bid X Eur 12.5% 10% 12% CPC: This (default bid ROI x12: This Not Not bid allows selected in 2. model is a editable editable you to enter account Percentag Cost Per a currency settings) e of Room Click option. amount to Price: It has no use as your Enter the bidding static bid maximum option and per percentag all other click. This e of your configuratio option does room price ns are not give the you are handled by metasearch willing to MetaGenius. engine an pay for a 2. Three objective to click. This options aim for. This will be available: is a variable - Option 1: Bid completely and you to First manual will pay - Option 2: Bid option that anywhere to Top 3 requires up to this you to percentag - Option 3: Bid monitor e per click. X Eur CPC your This performanc model is e so you relevant can adjust for budget your bid as hotels. needed. 3. Fixed Bid / Night: Enter the percentag e of your room rate, per night, you are

48 Account Trip Hotels Level Google Trivago Kayak Combined Settings Advisor

willing to pay per click. This is a flat amount that doesn't change.

Bid Modifiers

Bid Editable Editable Editable Not Not

Account Account Account available available

Cluster - Cluster - Cluster - Dashboar Dashboard Dashboard d Property - Property - Property - Dashboard Dashboard Dashboar d

Device Editable Editable Ads visible Ads visible Ads visible

Desktop Desktop & on on Desktop on Desktop Tablet Desktop & & Tablet & & Tablet & Tablet Tablet & Mobile Mobile Mobile Mobile Mobile Bid amount Bid amount Bid not not amount editable - editable - not default bid default bid editable - is applied is applied default bid is applied

Manage Bids Overview Account Trip Hotels Level Google Trivago Kayak Combined Settings Advisor

Point of Editable Editable Editable Bid Bid Sale amount amount not not editable - editable - default bid default bid is applied is applied to all to all

Bid Editable Not available Not Not Not

Multipliers Check-in available available available Days

Booking Window

Length of Stay

Date Type

50 More About Models and Bids Below is some additional information about the different models and bidding options for the three metasearch engines that allow you to configure options:

l "Google Hotel Ads" below

l "Trip Advisor" on page 53

l "Trivago" on page 54

A note about Bid Models

Google Hotel Ads provides different models, or methods, for managing your metasearch campaigns. Selecting a model has to be considered in line with your overall strategy and budget.

COMMISSION MODEL The commission model for Google Hotel Ads is a flat commission percent and it applies to ALL hotels for your account. With this model, you can't select a different commission percentage for different Properties, Devices, or Points of Sale.

Manage Bids Overview MAX CPC With this option, you specify the maximum percentage of your room price you are willing to pay for a click on an ad. The amount you pay depends on the amount of the competitive bids. For example, if your bid is 2.5% of your room price and the next highest bid is 2.2% of room price, if your ad is clicked you will pay an amount slightly higher than 2.2%. The bid with this model can fluctuate up to your maximum bid, depending on competitor bids. This bidding model can be useful for budget hotels and/or if you are planning on controlling and monitoring your performance very regularly.

CPC - FIXED BID/NIGHT This bid that you set as a fixed percentage of your room price. Because this option is charged per night, it means that all bids are multiplied by the number of nights in a customer query. For example, if your room price is 100€ per night and your bid is 2%, a click for a single night would cost 2€. If the customer had searched for a stay of 5 nights, a click would cost 10€. This option can be used to align your metasearch investment with your potential revenue, but it can also cause increased costs if your customers are searching for a lot of multi-night stays.

GRANULAR BID MODIFICATIONS AVAILABLE FOR GOOGLE HOTEL ADS

With Google Hotel Ads, you can make individual modifications of the default bid at the Cluster and Property Level. In addition, the following granular modifications can be made at all levels - Account, Cluster, and Property:

l Devices

l Point of Sale

l Bid Multipliers Check-in Days Advance Booking Window Length of Stay Date Type

Note: Granular modifications are not available if you have selected the Commission model.

52 Trip Advisor

AUTOBIDDING This is a performance-based model aimed at providing a return on investment that is 12x your initial investment. For example, if you spend 100€, the platform will aim to return an income of 1200€. With this model, the MetaGenius platform responds dynamically to traffic and demand to give the ROI. This model is more effective over a longer period of time, meaning that the return will be more precise the longer this model is applied. Because of this, your analysis when using this model needs to be for several weeks and months as day-to-day analysis won't show the same results.

CPC MODEL This model is aimed at bidding for ad position. The first two bidding options, Bid to First and Bid to Top 3, allow the system to manage your bids for you. Depending on the amount your competitors bid, these can be expensive options - particularly Bid to First, as many OTAs have the budget to outbid hotels. The Bid X EUR CPC option allows you to select the amount of your bid, by currency, per click. This is a completely manual option that requires you to monitor your performance so you can adjust your bid as needed. Trip Advisor doesn't provide a report for your Impression Share; by using Trip Advisor your hotel is displayed when users visit the Trip Advisor page, so your focus with Trip Advisor is on improving your Ad Position.

GRANULAR BID MODIFICATIONS AVAILABLE FOR TRIP ADVISOR

With Trip Advisor, you can make individual modifications of the default bid at the Cluster and Property Level. In addition, the following granular modifications can be made at all levels - Account, Cluster, and Property:

l Devices

l Point of Sale

Manage Bids Overview Trivago

Trivago does not provide information about your Average Ad Position so, unlike some Trip Advisor options, your bidding is not related to improving your ad position. For Trivago, you need to monitor your Impression Share. In effect, the more you are willing to pay per click the more Trivago rewards you with a higher impression. Keep in mind that an impression does not guarantee clicks; it only increases the percentage of times your ad was displayed. This is a completely manual option that requires you to monitor your performance so you can adjust your bid as needed.

GRANULAR BID MODIFICATIONS AVAILABLE FOR TRIVAGO

l Point of Sale

54 Account, Cluster, and Property Bids If you have configured your account to manage your bids at the Account, Cluster and Property level, this topic explains how to modify bids at each level. If you have set specific Cluster or Property bids, you can also revert back to a higher default level at any time. For example, if you have set bids for a specific property for a special campaign, when the campaign is over you can return the property back to using Cluster or Account Default Bids. See "Manage a Group of Hotels" on page 20 for information on configuring your account for these different levels of management.

Manage Bids at the Account Level To manage bids at the Account Level, you can do this on the Bid Management screen accessed through the menu or by clicking the Manage button in the In- depth Analysis section of the Dashboard. The Manage button appears when you have MetaSearch selected as the first layer filter in the bottom section of the Dashboard. How to Manage Account Level Bids from the Dashboard

1. In the In-depth Analysis section of the Dashboard, ensure MetaSearch is selected as the first layer filter.

2. Click Manage for the metasearch engine you want to modify. In the pop-up the current Account Default Bid is in the top row.

Account, Cluster, and Property Bids 3. You can choose to manually enter a new Bid in the top row, or select one of the Opportunities provided. 4. If you change the bid or select an opportunity, click Save. 5. You can then select any of the tabs to make more granular modifications to this bid, depending on your strategy. Remember, that any changes you make on this pop-up are applied account-wide for this metasearch. Note: Due to Trivago's current configuration, you cannot manage devices for Trivago.

56 Manage Bids at the Cluster and Property Level You can perform in-depth management of your properties and clusters, modifying the Account Default Bid for the selected Cluster or Property as well as making modifications for Devices and Point of Sale. You can apply a Bid for the selected Cluster or Property and modify this bid for Devices and Points of Sale. Managing bids at the Cluster or Property Level is done from the In-depth Analysis section of the Dashboard. How to Manage Bids at the Cluster Level

Clusters can help you to target metasearch strategy towards a group of hotels that you have grouped based on similar characteristics. For example, you may decide to adopt a more aggressive strategy for a group of resort hotels during the lead-in time for vacation periods.

1. In the In-depth Analysis section of the Dashboard, ensure MetaSearch is selected as the first layer filter, and Cluster as the second layer. In the table you can see each metasearch engine with all your clusters below each one.

2. Click Manage for the Cluster you want to modify. In the pop-up you can see the current Account Default Bid; in the example below this is 1% of Room Rate. 3. To modify the default bid for this cluster, select Cluster Default Bid.

Account, Cluster, and Property Bids Note: The KPIs displayed are based on the existing bid, or in the case of the opportunities these are estimated performance values based on yesterday's activity. 4. You can choose to manually enter a new Bid in the top row, or select one of the Opportunities provided. 5. If you change the bid or select an opportunity, click Save. 6. You can then select the Devices or Point of Sale tabs to make more granular modifications to this bid, depending on your strategy. Note: If you have selected to stay with the Account Default Bid, you can't make changes to the Devices or Point of Sale for the Cluster.

58 How to Manage Bids at the Property Level

If you have a specific property where you want to target your metasearch campaign, you can manage this using bids at the property level.

1. In the In-depth Analysis section of the Dashboard, ensure MetaSearch is selected as the first layer filter, and Properties as the second layer. In the table you can see each metasearch engine with all your properties below each one.

2. Click Manage for the Property you want to modify. In the pop-up you can see the current Account Default Bid as well as the Cluster Default Bid. 3. To modify the bid for this property, select Property Specific Bid.

Account, Cluster, and Property Bids Note: The KPIs displayed are based on the existing bid, or in the case of the opportunities these are estimated performance values based on yesterday's activity. 4. You can choose to manually enter a new Bid in the top row, or select one of the Opportunities provided. 5. You can also select to apply the Cluster Default Bid to the property. 6. If you change the bid or select an opportunity, click Save. 7. You can then select the Devices or Point of Sale tabs to make more granular modifications to this bid, depending on your strategy. Note: If you have selected to stay with the Account Default Bid or the Cluster Default Bid, you can't make changes to the Devices or Point of Sale for the Property.

How to Revert Cluster or Property Bids to a Higher Default Level

At any time you can revert a cluster or property bid back to the next default level. Keep in mind that once you do this, you can no longer make granular modifications to the Devices or Points of Sale for the Cluster or Property. For example, if you select to change a Property bid back to the Cluster default bid, the Cluster bid settings for Devices and Points of Sale apply to the property and any changes to these must be done at the Cluster level and will apply to all hotels in the Cluster.

1. In the In-depth Analysis section of the Dashboard, ensure MetaSearch is selected as the first layer filter, and Properties or Cluster as the second layer. 2. Click on the Manage button for the Cluster or Property you want to modify. 3. In the pop-up, select the Default Bid you want to use.

60 l For Clusters, you can select to revert to the Account Default Bid.

l For Properties, you can select to revert to either the Cluster or the Account Default Bid.

4. Click Save. The default bid selected is applied to your Cluster or Property.

Account, Cluster, and Property Bids Granular Bid Modifiers In addition to the main bid, you can also modify your bids to target your campaign in different areas, such as for different Devices, Point of Sale (geographic location), or Bid multipliers such as arrival date, length of stay. These granular modifications can be made at the Account, Cluster, or Property level, and the modifications available depend on the metasearch engine. At the Account level, these granular bids can be configured on the Dashboard or on the Bid Management page. At the Cluster or Property level, these granular bids can only be configured on the Dashboard.

What are the available granular bid modifiers? Below is an overview of the granular bids available. These options are available depending on what the metasearch offers. If available they can be used at the Account, Cluster, or Property Level. You can use these through the Manage Bids Pop-up on the Dashboard.

l "Bids" below

l "Devices" on the facing page

l "Point of Sale" on page 64

l "Bid Multipliers" on page 65

Bids

62 Devices

Granular Bid Modifiers Point of Sale

64 Bid Multipliers

Granular Bid Modifiers ADVANCE BOOKING WINDOW Multipliers for an Advance Booking Window gives you the opportunity to modify your bid for advance bookings. This gives you the opportunity to target different booking windows to improve your position depending on your strategy and market.

LENGTH OF STAY The Length of Stay multiplier allows you to target bids depending on the length of stay customers are booking. You can change the different lengths of stay:

l Click the Trashcan icon to delete a length of stay.

l Enter a number of days in the field and click Add, to add different stay lengths.

66 DATE TYPE The Date Type multiplier allows you to choose if you want to modify your bids depending on the date type in Google Hotel Ads.

l Selected Date is for your position when the customer enters their preferred dates.

l Default Date is for the default date provided by Google Hotel Ads.

Granular Bid Modifiers Bid Management Tips Below are some hints and tips you can use to help you manage your bids. These are to provide additional information and some example, but this content is not intended to give comprehensive information about how to manage your metasearch efforts.

l "Analysing KPIs on the Dashboard" below

l "Analyse Your Performance with Opportunities" on page 70

We also have a Full Service offering where we do all the hard work for you to get the most out of MetaGenius. Contact your Account Manager or Customer Support Customer Support for more information. Ads only appear in the meta results if the customer has searched for dates when you have availability and prices. Metasearch connects with the availability and prices on your booking engine.

Analysing KPIs on the Dashboard Below is some additional information to help you with analysing the KPIs.

IMPRESSION SHARE

The Impression Share is an indicator of your visibility and reach and can show if there is potential to reach more users. If you have a low Impression Share, this means that customers are searching for your hotel and your ad is not being displayed. Trip Advisor doesn't provide a report for your Impression Share; by using Trip Advisor your hotel is displayed when users visit the Trip Advisor page, so your focus with Trip Advisor is on improving your Ad Position.

CPC

This is the average Cost per Click, if you are on a CPC model. For commission bidding models, this number is a calculated average for CPCs. The calculated average for commission models allows you to compare to your CPC models to analyse results between metasearch engines, and when analysed with other KPIs to possibly determine if a different model would provide better results.

68 AVERAGE AD POS

This is the average ad position. This number can give you insight into any opportunities that may be available to improve your position. Achieving the number 1 position is ideal but OTAs all want to be number 1; this makes the top position difficult and expensive to maintain over a long period. Achieving number 1 all the time is impossible - you will always be outbid at some point. This number can give you an idea of how well you are performing in the position, but you should also focus on your performance overall.

DIST COST%

This is the distribution cost percentage. Compare this number to your commission costs to OTAs to determine if you can be more aggressive on your metasearch efforts. For example, if your commission costs to OTAs are 15% or higher and your Dist Cost% is currently at 10%, you can possibly afford to bid a little higher to improve your position to increase bookings while paying less per booking than you pay to OTAs.

Bid Management Tips Analyse Your Performance with Opportunities Opportunities are provided on the Dashboard, and additional information can be found in the Manage Bids Pop-up. Below is an example of how to use Opportunities to analyse your performance and determine possible actions.

OVERVIEW OF OPPORTUNITIES

l To reach the top position across all hotels for Trip Advisor would require 1052 clicks.

l The cost of the bid would be 0.96€ per click.

l This would result in a click growth of 321% across all hotels.

ANALYSIS If you were to match the opportunities, the spend for this would be around 1000€, more than 8 times more expensive than your current spend of 141€. However, your Dist Cost% is only at 8% and there is an opportunity to grow your clicks. Perhaps there is a middle bid between the top bid of 0.96€ and your current bid of 0.57€. When we look into the details for the hotels, we can see that the Prince Albert hotel has a Dist Cost% of 15% which doesn't give you any leverage. But, the Londres et New York Hotel only has a 3% Dist Cost% and a 420% opportunity for click growth. What is the opportunity?

In this case, for the Londres et New Your Hotel you could pay a slightly higher bid to increase your average position and grow the number of clicks. Your Dist Cost% will increase, but there is an opportunity here for a reasonable investment to grow your bookings. Click on Manage for the Londres et New Your Hotel.

70 What is the possible action to take?

When we click on Manage for the Londres et New York Hotel, we can see more details in a pop-up. This tells us that the current Bid is 1€, but over the selected period (month) the average CPC has been 0.52€. We can also see that the Average Ad Position was 4.8 for this hotel. The platform has calculated what the bid price would be, as of yesterday, for a First, Third, and Next position bid. In this case, a First Position Bid is 0.98€. For an aggressive strategy: Select First Position Bid and then monitor the results closely; the system will continue to bid to the first position for this hotel regardless of changes to the First Position bid amount. For a more conservative strategy: Select Third Position Bid; the bidding yesterday to reach an average third position was 0.68€. This is less than what you are currently bidding and can still offer improved results. This option also needs to be monitored, but there is slightly less risk than selecting First Position Bid.

Bid Management Tips 5-Minute Manager This topic provides an overview of the basic tasks for managing your MetaGenius campaigns. We also have a Full Service offering where we do all the hard work for you to get the most out of MetaGenius. Contact your Account Manager or Customer Support for more information.

1. "Check your available Budget" below 2. "Review your Dashboard" below 3. "Look In-depth on your Dashboard" on the facing page 4. "Make Adjustments to Your Bids" on page 74 5. "Review Your Availability & Prices on Your Booking Engine" on page 74

Check your available Budget

1. Make sure you have enough budget to sustain your campaigns.

2. If needed, add more budget.

Review your Dashboard

1. Select the time period you want to analyse and, if desired, select a comparison period.

2. Review the KPIs and data provided on your Dashboard to get an overview of your performance.

72 Look In-depth on your Dashboard

1. Go to the In-depth Analysis section towards the bottom of your Dashboard and review more closely how each metasearch engine is performing.

2. Compare the results to your own campaign goals and strategy. 3. Filter the results by MetaSearch and Properties, and click the View Opportunities switch to gain more insight.

5-Minute Manager Make Adjustments to Your Bids

1. Decide what action you want to take, if any. 2. Make the appropriate bid changes at the Account, Cluster, or Property Level.

Review Your Availability & Prices on Your Booking Engine

l Keep your availability & prices up to date on your booking engine Ads only appear in the meta results if the customer has searched for dates when you have availability and prices. Metasearch connects with the availability and prices on your booking engine.

l Watch your rate parity with OTAs Keep rate parity, or a slightly lower rate, with OTAs. Because it is very expensive to out-bid OTAs for top ad positions, it can help to attract customers by making sure the rates on your site are on par, or slightly lower, than your rates on OTAs.

74 CHAPTER 4 This FAQs Dashboard Budget Bid General chapter Management discusses Management & KPIs the following: 78 76 78 77 Below are some FAQs about using MetaGenius. General Which metasearch engines does MetaGenius connect to?

MetaGenius has connections to the following:

l Google Hotel Ads

l Trip Advisor

l Trivago

l Hotels Combined

l Kayak

You can select to turn any of these metasearch engines on or off.

On which devices will my ads be visible?

The configuration for devices depends on the different metasearch engines:

l Google Hotel Ads: Available on Desktop, Tablet and Mobile; you can turn on or off any of these options.

l Trip Advisor: Available on Desktop & Tablet, and Mobile; with Trip Advisor, Desktop & Tablet are considered one option and Mobile is a separate option. You can turn both options on or off.

l Trivago: Available on Desktop, Tablet and Mobile; all options are always on.

l Hotels Combined: Available on Desktop, Tablet and Mobile; all options are always on.

l Kayak: Available on Desktop, Tablet and Mobile; all options are always on.

76 Bid Management How long does it take for bid changes to take effect?

Depending on the metasearch engine, changes to bids can take anywhere from one hour to one week. Details for each metasearch engine are provided below:

l Google: For both bid updates and using the Pause button, changes to Google Hotel Ads take approximately one hour to be in effect.

Can I set different bid models for different properties within the same metasearch?

No. The bid model is set account-wide; you cannot have different bid models for different properties within the same metasearch. For example, for Google Hotel Ads you have selected the Commission model; this applies to all Clusters and Properties in your account. You can change the bid Model only on the Bid Management screen. However, you can modify the bid amount (percentage or CPC) per Cluster or Property but they will all have the same Model applied. You can also make more granular modifications at the Account, Cluster or Property level.

Bid Management Budget Management What are the available payment methods for adding budget?

Currently, only credit card payments are accepted.

How much budget should I allocate?

The amount of budget you should allocate depends on several factors, including the number of properties you manage and how aggressive or conservative you want to be with your metasearch efforts.

What happens when my budget reaches 0?

Dashboard & KPIs What does CPC mean?

78 CHAPTERGLOSSARY 1 Bookings Average no including includes campaigns. metasearch generated that number This exact position; trend shows achieved. position This shows, is is have Ad number. of the the the your you Pos all of it cancellations, been This etc. total average is average by bookings bookings, This not have ad your figure an figure ad Clicks Conversion% Cluster generated number This using rate This hotel such elements have groups account hotels can group A metasearch Cluster create is and is as one type. the the the to of of location into of is organize hotels. is or number in hotels total conversion calculated a by clicks a common, more ad. Cluster smaller sub- a You or that your of of bookings divided by the number the sections on Opportunities for of clicks. more information.

CPC - Cost Per Click Est Click Growth

This is a type of bidding model. This is the estimated percentage When bids use the CPC model, growth of clicks if you had paid this means that you pay the the Estimated Bid to reach top metasearch engine each time position. See the sections on your ad is clicked. In CPC models, Opportunities for more only the clicks are counted; actual information. bookings are not considered. This is also known as PPC or Pay Per Impression Share Click. The count of the number of times your ad was displayed to a user. Dist Cost% An impression does not This number represents an guarantee that the ad was seen, equivalent commission only that it was displayed. Your percentage. For example, if you Impression Share is given as a pay your OTAs 20% commission percent; if your hotel has you can compare this to your Dist achieved 68% this means that out Cost% and analyse the results. of 100 times your hotel was displayed, your ad was displayed Est Bid for Top Visibility on 68 of these times.

This is the estimated bid amount Revenue you have had to spend to acheive the top position. This number can This is the gross booking value tell you what others are willing to generated, based on the total pay to reach the top position. See number of bookings. the sections on Opportunities for more information. Spent

This is the total amount you have Est Click for Top Visibility spent on your metasearch The estimated number of clicks campaign. For commission you would have had if you were models, this is a percentage of always in the top position. You booking revenue. can compare this to the number of clicks you actually received. See