Google's Smart Bidding vs ProfitMAX for Hotels.
Same auctions. +39% higher ROAS.
A six-week controlled A/B test on live Hotel Ads traffic for a leading OTA. Same hotels, same auctions, same conditions. One side bid by Google's ROAS-based Smart Bidding, the other by ProfitMAX for Hotels.
A six-week head-to-head A/B split.
We split live Hotel Ads traffic evenly between two bidders under identical conditions. One side used Google's ROAS-based Smart Bidding. The other used ProfitMAX for Hotels, bidding CPC% with ATLAS™ calculated bids.
CPC% with ATLAS™ calculated bids
- Models every bid signal Google exposes, plus its measured impact on conversion rate and transaction value, per hotel
- Uses that data to set one bid per auction context
- Every bid decision can be explained
ROAS-based automated bidding
- Google's standard revenue-optimising bid strategy for Hotel Ads
- No visibility into how bids are set or why
- Paid 37% more per click during the test
Hotel Ads expose more bid signals than most bidders use.
Each of these dimensions shifts conversion rate and average transaction value, and the effect is different for every hotel. ProfitMAX measures that impact per property and uses it to set each bid. Google's bidding runs on internal logic you can't see or audit.
More revenue and more profit, at 22% lower cost.
Google's bidder paid 37% more per click, chasing higher-value bookings. It got them: revenue per acquisition came in slightly higher. Not enough to cover the extra cost, though. ProfitMAX finished ahead on revenue, profit and ROAS.
Six-week A/B experiment on Google Hotel Ads.
$23 back for every $1 spent.
Google returned $16.50.
Google's Smart Bidding paid more per click for bookings it expected to be bigger. The bigger bookings arrived, but the extra revenue didn't cover the extra spend. ProfitMAX generated more revenue from less spend. That's the 39% ROAS gap.
The complete side-by-side.
Transparency is the point of ProfitMAX, so here is every number from the experiment.
| Bidder | Clicks | Conv. | Avg CPC | CVR | RPA | ROAS | Cost | Revenue | Profit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ProfitMAX for Hotels | 9,695 | 581 | $0.59 | 6.0% | $252 | 2296% | $5,753 | $132,067 | $126,314 |
| Google Smart Bidding | 9,090 | 522 | $0.81 | 5.7% | $261 | 1651% | $7,384 | $121,878 | $114,494 |
| ProfitMAX advantage | +6.7% | +11.3% | −27.0% | +4.4% | −3.7% | +39.1% | −22.1% | +8.4% | +10.3% |
Google overpaid for the chance of bigger bookings. ProfitMAX priced each auction on what the data said it was worth. The 27% lower CPC bought more clicks from the same budget, and those clicks converted slightly better. That's where the revenue and profit gaps came from.
Want to see the same comparison on your account?
We'll run the numbers on your Hotel Ads account and show you where bids look off. If we don't see a clear opportunity, we'll say so.
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