Case Study: UK Hotel Group Grows Revenue 37% While Cutting Ad Spend by 18%
How property-specific targeting and systematic ROAS optimisation transformed a good hospitality account into a great one
The Client
Industry: Hospitality / Hotel Group
Location: United Kingdom
Portfolio: Multiple properties including country hotels, inns, and self-catering cottages
Account Type: Search + Performance Max (lead generation — hotel bookings)
Result Period: October 2025 – March 2026
Client name withheld at client's request.
The Challenge
The temptation in hospitality Google Ads is to spend your way to bookings. More budget, more impressions, more clicks, more reservations. It's an intuitive model — and it's usually wrong.
This UK hotel group had a well-established Google Ads account covering a portfolio of properties: country hotels, inns, and self-catering cottages across two distinct locations. The account was generating bookings, but the strategy had drifted into a pattern familiar to many hospitality accounts: broad targeting, generic messaging, and budget spread thinly across too many campaigns without a clear sense of which activity was actually driving high-value guests.
The account had real strengths — strong brand recognition and properties with genuine appeal. But the Google Ads account wasn't reflecting that quality. Revenue was inconsistent month-to-month, spend was climbing, and there was no systematic way to understand which properties, search terms, or campaigns were delivering the best returns.
The Approach
1. Restructuring Around Property Tiers
A hotel group is not a single business — it's multiple properties, each with different audiences, different booking values, and different competitive dynamics. The account was restructured into three distinct tiers:
- Core Properties (country hotels and inns) — high average booking value, brand-driven demand
- Self-Catering (cottage escapes) — different search intent, longer consideration cycle
- Ancillary (weddings, venues) — tracked separately, managed with distinct objectives
This separation meant each tier could be optimised with appropriate ROAS targets and budgets — rather than all competing for the same pot.
2. Property-Specific Targeting
One of the most impactful changes was shifting from generic location-based messaging to property-specific campaigns. The data revealed a clear pattern: when people search for a specific property by name, they're not browsing — they've already made a decision.
Generic campaigns were capturing some of this high-intent demand accidentally. Dedicated ad groups captured it systematically. Once the model was validated on a single property and demonstrably outperformed the generic approach, it was rolled out across the highest-demand properties in the portfolio.
3. Budget Driven by ROAS, Not Arbitrary Caps
Across all search campaigns, ROAS targets were progressively refined as data accumulated. The key principle: the budget constraint should be self-imposed by efficiency, not an arbitrary monthly cap.
If a campaign returns £8 for every £1 spent, the question should be "why aren't we spending more?" — not "have we hit the budget?" Campaigns generating clicks without bookings were investigated for root causes, often revealing mismatches between ad messaging and the landing page experience.
4. Systematic Negative Keyword Management
As the account matured, a structured negative keyword sweep removed traffic that was costing money without converting. Generic curiosity-driven searches — people researching the area rather than intending to book — were identified and excluded from high-value campaigns. This improved efficiency significantly without reducing booking volume.
The Results
Revenue grew 37% while ad spend fell 18%. That combination — growing revenue while reducing cost — is the result of systematic optimisation rather than budget scaling. The account now generates over £10 in bookings for every £1 spent on advertising.
Core Properties + Self-Catering: Period Comparison
| Metric | Prior Period | Recent Period | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (bookings) | £189,546 | £259,998 | +37% |
| Ad Spend | £28,229 | £23,114 | −18% |
| ROAS | 671% | 1,125% | +453pp |
Monthly Revenue Trend
| Month | Revenue | Ad Spend | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2025 | £32,821 | £9,296 | 353% |
| Jun 2025 | £63,973 | £13,871 | 461% |
| Jul 2025 | £83,312 | £15,300 | 545% |
| Aug 2025 | £84,176 | £15,451 | 545% |
| Sep 2025 | £83,444 | £11,833 | 705% |
| Oct 2025 | £82,521 | £14,466 | 570% |
| Nov 2025 | £77,927 | £13,592 | 573% |
| Dec 2025 | £48,329 | £11,220 | 431% |
| Jan 2026 | £94,616 | £11,513 | 822% |
| Feb 2026 | £94,005 | £10,334 | 910% |
| Mar 2026* | £70,006 | £8,867 | 790% |
*March 2026 is a partial month. January and February 2026 beat the summer peak (Jul/Aug 2025) by over £10,000 per month — achieved with £4,000 less spend per month.
Campaign-Level Highlights (Last 90 Days)
| Campaign Type | Revenue | Spend | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flagship hotel (Search) | £80,002 | £5,477 | 1,461% |
| Country house hotel (Search) | £45,861 | £3,801 | 1,207% |
| Core properties (Performance Max) | £45,779 | £4,517 | 1,014% |
| Inn A (Search) | £21,373 | £1,588 | 1,346% |
| Inn B (Search) | £19,257 | £1,801 | 1,070% |
| Self-catering portfolio A | £14,735 | £1,341 | 1,099% |
| Self-catering portfolio B | £12,471 | £1,159 | 1,076% |
Every campaign is operating above 1,000% ROAS.
Client Quote
"Thank you for being so proactive on monitoring the success of this — it's good to test these things so we know what the limits are."
— Marketing Manager, UK Hotel Group
Key Takeaways
1. Spending less can generate more
Systematic optimisation — better targeting, tighter negative keywords, sharper messaging — frequently outperforms simply increasing budget. Revenue grew 37% while spend fell 18%.
2. Hospitality accounts need property-level granularity
A guest searching for a specific property by name is ready to book. Treating them identically to a generic "Yorkshire hotels" searcher wastes budget on low-intent traffic and misses high-intent bookings.
3. ROAS targets should drive budget decisions
When campaigns return 1,000%+, the question should be whether to scale them. When campaigns can't justify their spend, tighten them before adding budget elsewhere.
4. Ads and landing pages must tell the same story
Several conversion issues in this account traced back to messaging mismatches — an offer promoted in the ad that wasn't reflected on the landing page. Strong ad performance requires the full guest journey to be consistent.
Is Your Hotel's Google Ads Account Performing at Its Best?
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