Impact of the new Google Ads surcharges

Effective July 1, 2024, Google Ads will apply new surcharges for ads served in Spain, Italy and Turkey due to regulatory costs associated with local digital services laws. 

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This change has direct implications for hoteliers who promote their establishments in these markets through Google Ads. Here's how these changes will affect your advertising campaigns and what strategies you can adopt to minimize the impact.

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What Changes?

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-Additional country surcharge. 

Ads served in Spain, Italy and Turkey will be subject to an additional surcharge on Google Ads invoices. This means that the August 2024 invoice will already include the updated surcharges. 

- Advertisements served in Spain will have a 3% surcharge for regulatory operating costs (up from 2%). 

- Ads served in Italy will have a 2.5% surcharge for regulatory operating costs (up from 2%) added to your bill.

- Advertisements served in Turkey will be surcharged 7% for regulatory operating costs (up from 5% previously). 

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- Budget Impact:
Hoteliers will need to adjust their advertising budgets to include this additional surcharge. For example, if a hotel has a monthly budget of €1000 for ads served in Spain on Google Ads, they will now have to consider an additional expense of €30 due to the surcharge, totaling €1030 before other applicable taxes such as VAT.

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- At the billing level:
These surcharges will appear as a separate line item on invoices and in the "Transactions" section of the Google Ads account. This provides transparency from Google on the specific additional costs for ads served in the countries mentioned. 

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Strategies to mitigate the impact

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Campaign Optimization: 

As you know, one of the obsessions of our Digital Marketing team at Roiback is the profitability of the campaigns. If in your case you are the one managing them, we recommend even more to review and optimize ad campaigns to make sure they are getting the maximum possible performance. This includes adjusting keywords, improving audience targeting and increasing ad relevance to maximize ROI.

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Budget evaluation: 

Re-evaluate and adjust advertising budgets to absorb the impact of the new surcharge without compromising campaign visibility and reach. Consider a redistribution of the budget based on the performance metrics of the current campaigns. Here you can see how to create and edit the budget. 

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Platform Diversification: 

Explore other advertising platforms and digital marketing strategies to diversify customer acquisition channels. This may include social media advertising, search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing, which can offer complementary alternatives to Google Ads.

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Continuous measurement and analysis: 

Implements a measurement and analysis system to track the performance of advertising campaigns. Uses analytical tools to identify areas for improvement and adjusts strategy in real time. 

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These new Google Ads surcharges in Spain, Italy and Turkey represent an additional challenge for hoteliers who rely on digital advertising to attract customers. However, with careful planning and the implementation of effective strategies, it is possible to mitigate the financial impact and continue to generate a high return on advertising investment. As mentioned, the key is to continually optimize campaigns and explore various marketing platforms and methods to maintain a strong and effective presence in the marketplace. 

If you have any questions, please contact us.