Paid search terms for hotels: brand keyword, generic keyword, match type and the rest

Paid search terms are the words and settings that decide which searches can show your hotel's ad. A brand keyword is your hotel's name; a generic keyword is a category plus a place, such as "hotel in İzmir"; a match type sets how closely a search must resemble your keyword; a negative keyword blocks your ad.

The monthly report arrives with columns for impressions, clicks, cost and conversions, and one line labelled "brand". The owner has to decide whether that line is protection or waste, and the report does not say. This article gives you the vocabulary to make that decision: the term types, the match types, the negatives, the landing page and the metrics, each with the question to put to whoever runs the account.

What is the difference between a brand keyword and a generic keyword?#

A brand keyword contains your hotel's name and is typed by someone who already knows the property; a generic keyword describes a place and a need and is typed by someone still choosing where to stay.

Brand terms include the name alone, the name with the town, the name with words like "official" or "booking", and common misspellings. Collect the variants you actually see in the search terms report, not the ones you imagine. Generic terms combine a place with a need: "hotel in Antalya", "boutique hotel near the old town", "family hotel with pool Bodrum". The searcher is comparing, not confirming.

The two answer different questions. Brand defends a decision already made; generic competes for a decision not yet made, so their click and booking behaviour is not comparable. Ask for the account split by brand and generic, with spend and bookings on each side, because a blended cost per booking hides which half did the work. A brand ad earns its place when another ad sits above your own free result and takes the click; whether that is happening is checkable, and the check is described further down. Bidding on another hotel's name is a separate decision with trademark and contract questions attached; treat it as an owner decision, not a default setting.

What do match types mean in plain words?#

A match type is the rule that decides how closely a search must resemble your keyword before your ad can appear, so it sets both how far you reach and how much you waste.

Exact match asks for a search that means the same as the keyword. Close variants such as word order, plurals and misspellings are usually still allowed, so ask which variants the account accepts. Phrase match asks for the meaning of the keyword to sit inside the search, with words allowed before and after it. Broad match lets related searches trigger the ad; it reaches further and it also reaches people you cannot serve, which is why it needs negatives and a monthly search terms review.

Names and behaviour change over time and differ between platforms and campaign types, so do not learn match types from an old screenshot. Ask for the account's current settings. The search terms report is the ground truth: it lists the actual queries that triggered ads. Read it monthly, because that is where match type mistakes become visible. Negatives have match types too: they set how a blocked word must appear before the block applies, which decides whether you block a phrase or a whole topic.

How do negative keywords stop wasted spend?#

A negative keyword tells the platform not to show your ad for searches containing that word, so budget goes to people the hotel can actually serve.

Build the list from the search terms report, not from imagination. Every query that spent money and had no plausible path to a booking is a candidate. Typical hotel negatives are jobs and careers, staff names, "photos", "telephone number", other cities, and amenities you do not have. Add "cheap" only if it contradicts your position, because it is also a real segment.

Negatives cost something. Blocking "transfer" removes "airport transfer" and also removes "transfer included", so block at the narrowest level that solves the problem. Negative lists can be shared across campaigns, so one list can serve brand, generic and seasonal work; keep separate lists per language and per source market. Review the list on a schedule, because a word that was waste last winter can be a real segment this summer, and a list nobody revisits slowly strangles the account. Record each entry with its date and reason, so the account still makes sense after a change of agency or of staff.

Why does the landing page decide whether a paid click becomes a booking?#

The ad buys the click and the page has to finish the job; a page that cannot complete a booking in a few steps turns paid clicks into paid exits.

Send the click to the page that answers the query. A search for a family room should land on that room type with dates and price, not on the homepage. Keep the path short and visible: dates, room, rate, guest details, payment. Every extra step loses people, and every redirect loses more.

Measure the fall between the ad click, the first step of the booking engine and each step after it; the biggest fall is where to work next, and where booking-engine visitors leave between search and payment can be read from your own funnel. Test on a phone, on mobile data, not on the office connection, because that is where the visitor will be and the office network hides the slow parts. Show the rate early, because if the price appears only after several clicks, the visitor compares you against a page that showed it immediately. Keep the ad's promise: if the ad mentions free cancellation, the landing page must show it without scrolling. This is one half of how to increase direct bookings on your hotel website.

How can I check whether booking sites bid on my hotel's name?#

Search your own hotel name yourself, in a private window, in each source market and language, and look at what appears above and below your own result.

Use a private window with no cookies and no login, so your history does not shape the result, then repeat the same search on a phone. Look for the ad label on the result: an ad is marked as an ad or sponsored result, and the display address tells you who is paying for it. Results differ by country, language, device and time of day, so one check is a snapshot. Ask the agency to run the same brand check every month and to put it in the report, so the picture is repeated rather than remembered.

What you can do about it depends on your contracts with those sites and on trademark rules, and that is a question for your own contracts and your adviser. Check the reverse too: whether your own brand ad and your free result compete for the same click, and whether the ad adds anything when you already rank first. A booking site's listing can also work in your favour, which is the billboard effect and whether an OTA listing brings direct bookings.

What do impression, click and cost per booking actually measure?#

Each metric answers a different question, and none of them alone tells you whether the campaign earned more than it cost.

An impression means the ad was eligible and shown; it measures presence, not interest, and it rises whenever you widen a match type. A click means someone chose your ad over the results around it, and a high click-through rate on a brand term is normal and says little about the campaign. Cost per click moves with competition and with how specific the query is, so compare it within a term type, never across the whole account.

A conversion is whatever the account defines it to be. A confirmed booking, a booking-engine start and a phone call are three different events, and a report that mixes them cannot be read. Cost per booking is total spend divided by confirmed bookings: ask for the same period, the same currency and the same definition of a booking that the hotel uses at the front desk. Ask whether cancellations are removed, because a booking that cancels is not revenue, and a report that counts it flatters the campaign. Attribution follows the click and the confirmation: a booking completed on a booking site is that site's booking, even when the guest first learned about the hotel from you. Compare the result against distribution cost per booking and what the hotel keeps by channel.

What should I ask an agency about a paid search account?#

Ask for the account structure, the definitions and the search terms in writing, before you discuss results.

Ask for the split by brand and generic, with spend and bookings on each side, for the last three months. Ask which match types are in use and for the search terms report for the last month, unfiltered. Ask what counts as a conversion in this account, and whether cancellations are taken out. Ask which pages the ads point to and who controls those pages, because the landing path is half the result.

Ask who owns the ad account, the domain and the historical data if the relationship ends; access is a business asset, not a detail. Ask for a change log: what was changed last month and what it was expected to do. A written change log is the cheapest proof of work an agency can give you. If you are starting from zero, a starter plan for Google and Instagram ads covers the first campaign.

What to do next#

Ask for last month's search terms report and the brand and generic split, and read them with the metric definitions beside you. Then fix the landing path before anyone raises the budget: the keywords decide who sees the ad, the negatives decide who does not, the page decides what the click becomes, and the report only means something once brand and generic are counted apart.