The Complete Guide to Google Ads for Hotels: Every Campaign Type, Explained

If you work on Google Ads for a hospitality brand, you know just how complex it is. Even beyond the intricacies of ad strategy, there’s also the matter of staying up-to-date on any changes Google is making to the ads platform. Being in-the-loop on the latest updates can help you and your team maximize Google Ads, make sure you’re using it as strategically and effectively as possible. 

Google Ads isn’t just one tool, but instead includes seven distinct campaign types. Each one is built for a different moment in a traveller’s decision, whether that’s a potential guest typing your hotel’s name into a search bar, or a would-be traveller who hasn’t even started actively looking. 

Here, we’ll walk through every type of campaign on Google Ads and how hotels can use each one. We’ll also get into the latest update to hit the platform this year: Display Advertising folding into Demand Gen.

Why Google Ads Still Matters for Direct Bookings

Paid advertising is one of the only channels that a hotel controls completely. Organic rankings can be influenced but move on their own schedule. Or, consider an online travel agency (OTA) listing, which plays by somebody else’s algorithm and takes a commission on the way out. Google Ads is decidedly different: you choose the guest, the message, and the moment.

It’s also important to keep in mind that a guest doesn’t experience a hotel’s marketing as separate channels. Instead, they experience one continuous decision, from the first search to the confirmation email. With that in mind, most lost bookings don’t fail at a single touchpoint, and instead fail because the experience doesn’t hold together across channels. Getting the right campaign type in front of the right traveller, at the right stage of their decision, is what turns ad spend into genuine revenue.

What are the Main Google Ads Campaign Types?

Google Ads is built from seven campaign types. Most hotels only need three or four of them working together, rather than the full suite. But, it helps to understand what each one actually does before deciding which to run, so you can make the best strategic decision for your hospitality brand.

Search

Search shows text ads to people actively typing a query into Google, such as “best boutique hotel in Charleston” or your property’s own name. This is the highest-intent, closest-to-booking traffic Google Ads offers. If there’s any campaign type almost every hotel should run, this one is it. It’s worth it even if you’re just running a Search campaign as a baseline to protect brand searches from OTAs bidding on your name.

Hotel Ads (Free Booking Links and Hotel Center)

Hotel Ads is Google’s hospitality-specific ad unit. It shows live rates, photos, and a direct booking link alongside your listing on Search and Google Maps, positioned next to (and competing directly with) OTA rates for the same room. If you have a hotel and are trying to reduce depending on OTAs, this can be a strong strategic option.

Performance Max

Performance Max is Google’s automated, cross-channel campaign type. It runs from a single budget across Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, and Discover, and uses machine learning to try and predict the best-performing placements and audiences based on your goal. Performance Max can be great at extending reach, but it doesn’t offer much granular control. With that in mind, most hotels run it alongside a dedicated Search campaign.

Demand Gen

Demand Gen is built for visual, discovery-led advertising, which looks like rich image and video ads across YouTube (including Shorts), Discover, Gmail, and Map. These are aimed at travellers who haven’t actively started researching yet. For luxury and independent hotels selling a sense of place instead of just a room rate, Demand Gen is usually the strongest fit for top-of-funnel storytelling.

Video (YouTube)

Video campaigns run ads on YouTube, which is historically strong for brand-building formats like non-skippable or bumper ads aimed at pure reach. However, we’ve seen conversion-focused video be steadily absorbed into Demand Gen over the past two years, which is increasingly the default home for YouTube advertising built around bookings rather than views.

Display Advertising

Display Advertising serves image ads across the Google Display Network (GDN), which includes more than two million sites and apps. It has long been the standard tool for retargeting past website visitors and building broad awareness cheaply. As of this year, it is no longer a standalone campaign type (we’ve explained more about what that means in the next section).

App

App campaigns are fully automated campaigns made to drive app installs and in-app actions. They matter mainly for hotel groups and brands with their own booking or loyalty app, so the majority of independent and boutique properties won’t need this type of ad.

The Big Change: Google Display Ads Is Moving Into Demand Gen

Here’s the big recent change for hospitality brands to know about: Google is retiring the standalone Display Ads campaign type. The Google Display Network (GDN) isn’t going anywhere, and you can still run GDN-only campaigns. But, what’s changed is that the campaign is now built and managed inside Demand Gen alongside YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps, instead of having its own workflow.

The timeline

What do hotels gain from this change?

According to Google, advertisers who add GDN inventory into a Demand Gen campaign see an average increase in return on investment of 9.5%. Plus, migrating unlocks features Display Ads never had on its own, such as:

• Carousel ads, and a wider range of uploaded and generated video formats.
• Lookalike segments that let you reach new travellers who resemble your best past guests.
• Generative image and video tools built directly into the campaign.
• Channel-level reporting, so you can see what’s actually working across YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps, and GDN.
• New bidding options, including target cost-per-click and campaign-level total budgets.

The results that your brand can see inherently vary, as every hospitality brand has a different context and goals. And, the results you can expect still depend heavily on your creative, audience strategy, and how clean your existing targeting already is.

What to do before you are migrated automatically

Google recommends using its migration tool instead of waiting to be moved automatically or rebuilding campaigns from scratch. The migration tool also migrates performance history, and also helps to cut the usual learning period to roughly one to two days instead of a blank slate. 

Here’s a couple of to-dos to keep in mind before you migrate:

• Audit your current Display campaigns. Keep in mind that placement exclusions, managed placements, app exclusions, and audience layering don’t automatically carry over, so they’re worth reviewing now, especially if you’ve spent time cleaning up low-quality placements.
• Make sure you have a business logo and a wide set of video assets ready. A logo is required for Demand Gen, which will add a placeholder logo if you don’t have one. This is definitely worth avoiding, especially for a luxury property.
• Hold off on major bid or budget changes. It’s worth considering doing this for two to three weeks after migrating, and limit any changes you do make to around plus or minus 15% at a time.
• Know that the move is one-directional. Once a campaign is migrated to Demand Gen, it can’t be reverted back to Display Ads.

What Other Google Ads Updates Are Worth Watching?

The Demand Gen migration is the headline for 2026, but it isn’t the only change that paid marketing teams should keep an eye on this year.

AI Max for Search

AI Max is moving out of beta for Search campaigns. Google reports that advertisers using the full feature set, search term matching, text customization, and final URL expansion together, see an average of 7.0% more conversions or conversion value at a similar cost per acquisition or return on ad spend, compared with search term matching alone.

AI Brief

AI Brief, powered by Gemini, is a new way to steer AI Max in plain language. AI Brief lets you tell it about your property, the message you want told, and who you want to reach, rather than leaving tone entirely to automation. For luxury brands, this is on to know, since it’s one of the ways to keep AI-generated ad text from becoming too generic.

Brand exclusions and restrictions

Another thing to know is that Google introduced brand exclusions for Performance Max and brand restrictions for broad match in Search. This gives advertisers more control over where an increasingly automated system is allowed to show their ads. This is a useful lever for any hotel protecting a carefully built brand from showing up in the wrong context.

Real-time policy reviews

Real-time policy reviews now give instant feedback while you build Responsive Search Ads. This cuts review times from hours down to seconds, a small but genuinely useful change for hotels. This one can be especially helpful if your brand is launching last-minute seasonal offers or event-driven promotions.

How Do You Choose the Right Mix for Your Property?

There isn’t a single correct combination here that applies to every hotel. Instead, the right mix depends on what stage of the booking decision you’re trying to win. 

This can vary quite a bit depending on your brand, but here are a few general recommendations to keep top-of-mind:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads is Google’s advertising platform. It includes search ads on the search network, display ads on the Google Display Network, and video ads across YouTube and Google’s wider network.

Is Google Display Advertising going away?

No. The Google Display Network and its inventory of more than two million sites and apps still exist. What is changing is where those campaigns are built and managed: inside Demand Gen, rather than as a standalone Display Ads campaign type.

When do I have to move my Display campaigns to Demand Gen?

Google began rolling out a migration tool in June 2026. There is no fixed hard deadline yet for individual advertisers, but Google expects the full transition to complete by 2027, after which remaining eligible campaigns are migrated automatically.

What is the difference between Demand Gen and Performance Max?

Demand Gen gives you visual, discovery-led ads across YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps, and GDN, with real channel and audience control. Performance Max is fully automated across Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, and Discover from a single AI-managed campaign. Since it’s so automated, the downside for Performance Max is much less manual control.

Do hotels still need Search campaigns?

Yes. Search remains the highest-intent campaign type for guests already looking for your property or close alternatives. It’s also the most direct way to protect brand searches from OTA bidding.

What should I do before my Display campaigns are migrated automatically?

Audit your placement exclusions, managed placements, and audience settings now. It’s also a good idea to use Google’s migration tool rather than waiting, and avoid major budget or targeting changes for two to three weeks after the move to keep your data more clear.

You can think about all of the different campaign types in Google Ads as different levers for your hospitality brand. They all have an impact, but it takes strategic thinking to understand how to maximize based on your specific marketing strategy.

Pulling the right lever at the right stage of a guest’s decision is what separates paid advertising that builds a booking pipeline from paid advertising that’s scattered and ineffective. 

The right ads strategy is unique to every hotel, and getting expert insight can really help your brand make an impact. If you want a clear read on how your property’s Google Ads account is set up today, and what the Demand Gen migration means for it specifically, get in touch with Wallop for a paid advertising audit.