Remarketing campaigns for tourism are a form of paid advertising that re-targets users who've already visited your website but didn't make a booking, showing them tailored ads while they browse other sites, watch YouTube, or use Gmail.
Why does that matter? Because the average traveler visits between 20 and 30 websites before booking accommodation. Every one of those sites, including yours, stays in the running. The question is simply who will be there with the right ad at the right moment.
For hotels, apartments, and rent-a-car companies, remarketing isn't an add-on for when budget allows. It's a structural part of the system that brings back visitors who've already shown intent.
Key Takeaways:
- Remarketing targets visitors who've already been on your website but didn't book
- The tourist decision cycle averages 7 to 21 days, which gives you time to reach them again
- Remarketing campaigns convert at an average of 2 to 3 times higher than cold-audience campaigns
- Key audience lists: accommodation page visitors, abandoned bookings, previous guests
- Remarketing budget: recommended at 20 to 30% of total ad spend
- Most effective campaign types for tourism: Display remarketing, RLSA (search remarketing), and Dynamic remarketing
Why is remarketing especially important for tourism?
The tourism industry has one of the longest decision cycles of any sector where digital advertising is used. When someone is looking for a hotel in Budva for August, that process plays out over weeks. They compare prices, read reviews, ask friends, check availability on Booking.com, and then come back to your site. Or they don't, if you let them go in the meantime.
The cycle from first search to booking in tourism averages 7 to 21 days for short breaks and 30 to 90 days for longer trips and group travel. That's enough time for a potential guest to forget your site, find an alternative, or get intercepted by a competitor with an aggressive retargeting setup.
On top of that, the booking page abandonment rate in the hotel industry sits around 85%. That means 85 out of every 100 visitors who reach the booking page leave without doing anything. Remarketing is the system that partially recovers that loss.
The third factor is heavy OTA competition. Booking.com and Airbnb have retargeting budgets that dwarf those of individual hotels and apartments. If you don't build your own remarketing system, you're effectively handing those visitors back to portals that will bring them back, but at their own commission.
For a deeper look at why direct bookings are worth more than OTA revenue, see our post on direct bookings vs OTA channels.
How does remarketing work technically?
The foundation of any remarketing system is a pixel or tag installed on your website. For Google Ads, this is the Google Tag (formerly the Google Ads Conversion Tag and Remarketing Tag), and you can also use Google Analytics 4 audiences as a data source.
When a visitor comes to your site, the pixel records that visit and adds the user to a remarketing list. A list is an audience segment defined by rules you set: who visited the accommodation page, who reached the payment step but didn't complete the booking, who spent more than 3 minutes on the site, and so on.
That list is then used in Google Ads campaigns. When the same user visits any other site in the Google Display Network (which covers 2 million sites and apps), YouTube, or Gmail, your ad is shown to them specifically.
Key terms to know:
- Remarketing list: a visitor segment defined by on-site behavior
- RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads): remarketing for search, you adjust bids and ads for users who've been on your site and are now searching again
- Dynamic remarketing: automatically builds an ad based on the exact accommodation or offer the user viewed on your site
- Audience segment: a broader audience (e.g., "in-market for hotels") that Google builds from the behavior of billions of users
Setting up the system requires a minimum of 100 users on a list for Display and Video campaigns, and 1,000 for RLSA. Smaller sites need time to fill these lists, which is another reason to set up remarketing from day one rather than wait for a "better moment."
Types of remarketing campaigns for tourism
Display remarketing
The most common form. It shows banner ads on Google Display Network sites to visitors who've been on your website. For tourism it's effective because it visually reminds users of the accommodation they looked at, especially when you use high-quality photography.
Recommended budget allocation for Display remarketing: 30 to 50% of total remarketing budget.
RLSA (Search remarketing)
A user who's already been on your site types a similar query into Google Search again. With RLSA, you can increase your bid for that person or show them a specific ad with a direct offer. Conversion rates for RLSA are significantly higher than for standard search campaigns because you're targeting someone who already knows you.
Example: a user visited your apartments page in July, and now they're typing "apartments Budva" again. Instead of a generic ad, you show them an ad with an early discount offer.
Dynamic remarketing
For accommodation properties with a larger number of units (hotels, apartment complexes, rent-a-car fleets), dynamic remarketing automatically builds an ad based on the exact product the user looked at. If someone was viewing a 4-person apartment for August, the ad will show them that specific apartment with the current price.
It requires setting up a data feed, but the results are significantly better than static banners.
Video remarketing (YouTube)
Shows short video ads (6-15 seconds) on YouTube to people who've visited your site. A strong format for hotels with visually compelling content. Cost per view on YouTube is considerably lower than a Display click, making it a cost-effective option for brand recall campaigns.
Remarketing strategies by sector
Hotels
For hotels, the key remarketing segmentation looks like this:
- Visitors to the rates/pricing page who were on the site in the last 30 days. This is the warmest audience.
- Users who reached the booking step but didn't complete it. These users are worth reaching with an extra incentive, like free breakfast or flexible cancellation.
- Previous guests (a list uploaded from your PMS system). These users already know you and the repeat booking rate is significantly higher.
For more on digital strategies for hotels, see our hotels industry page.
Apartments
For private accommodation and apartments, seasonality is critical. Remarketing lists should be segmented by search period. Someone who searched for accommodation in July has different needs from someone looking at October dates.
Useful lists to create:
- Users who browsed dates in peak season (July-August)
- Users who viewed off-season offers
- Users who looked at longer stays (7+ nights)
Rent-a-car
For rent-a-car, remarketing is especially effective because intent is very clear. A user who searched for vehicles for specific dates and a location is a serious prospect. Remarketing lists by vehicle category (minivans for families, SUVs for adventure travelers) deliver better ad relevance than generic campaigns.
How to build effective remarketing lists
Your audience list is the foundation of the entire system. Poorly defined lists mean spending budget on people who won't convert.
List 1: All site visitors (30 days) is the starting point, but it's the broadest and coldest list. Good for brand recall campaigns with a smaller budget.
List 2: Visitors to key pages (accommodation, rooms, vehicle fleet) in the last 14 days. This audience is warmer because they showed a specific interest.
List 3: Users who reached the booking page but didn't complete the process. This is the most valuable list. You want to reach them quickly, ideally within 24 to 72 hours.
List 4: Previous converters (people who booked). This list is for cross-selling (service upsell) and encouraging repeat visits. You can build it as a custom audience by uploading email lists from your CRM or Lodgify system.
List 5: Similar audiences isn't classic remarketing, but Google can automatically create an audience that behaves like your converters. Useful for expanding reach.
How much budget should you allocate to remarketing?
The recommended remarketing share of total Google Ads budget for tourism is 20 to 30%. The logic is straightforward: remarketing targets a warm audience that already knows you, so cost per click is modest and cost per conversion is far lower than cold campaigns.
Average CPC for remarketing in tourism in the region runs between €0.15 and €0.60 for Display, and €0.80 to €2.50 for RLSA campaigns. That's considerably lower than standard search campaigns where CPC for competitive tourism keywords can reach €3 to €8.
Remarketing campaigns convert at an average of 2 to 4 times higher than cold-audience campaigns. For a hotel with a standard search campaign converting at 2%, a remarketing list of booking-page visitors can deliver a conversion rate of 5 to 8%.
A practical example for an apartment with a daily budget of €20:
| Campaign | Daily budget | Avg. CPC | Visits | Conversion | Bookings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search (cold audience) | €14 | €2.50 | ~56 | 1.5% | ~0.8 |
| Display remarketing | €4 | €0.30 | ~133 | 3.5% | ~4.7 |
| RLSA | €2 | €1.20 | ~17 | 5% | ~0.8 |
This is an illustrative example. Actual results depend on season, website quality, and landing page. The principle, however, is consistent in practice: remarketing delivers a better return per euro spent.
What makes a good remarketing ad for tourism?
The ad a returning visitor sees needs to be different from what a new visitor sees. A common mistake is showing the same generic ad to everyone.
For visitors who were on the booking page, the ad should include:
- A direct reminder of the accommodation they viewed (photo, name)
- A reason to come back: availability is filling up, spots still open, flexible cancellation
- A clear CTA: "Book direct and save 10%" is stronger than "Learn more"
For previous guests, the tone is different. You have a relationship with them, so you can say: "Good to have you back. Here's what's new this season."
Frequency is important. Too many impressions irritate users and raise costs without a proportional return. The recommended cap for Display remarketing is 5 to 10 impressions per user per week.
Remarketing within the Google Ads system
Remarketing works better when it's integrated into a broader Google Ads system rather than running in isolation. If your search campaign brings in 300 visitors a month, remarketing builds a list of 100 to 200 users from that traffic who deserve special attention.
For a full walkthrough of setting up a Google Ads system for tourism, from campaign structure to Quality Score optimization, see our complete Google Ads guide. An overview of our paid advertising services is on the Google Ads service page.
Frequently asked questions about remarketing campaigns for tourism
How quickly do remarketing campaigns show results?
First conversions can come in the first week, but realistically plan for 4 to 6 weeks to stabilize. The reason is that remarketing lists need time to fill with enough users. Google requires a minimum of 100 users on a list for Display campaigns and 1,000 for RLSA.
Remarketing vs retargeting, what's the difference?
There's no meaningful difference. "Retargeting" is the broader industry term for any form of re-targeting users, while "remarketing" is what Google calls this feature within the Google Ads platform. In practice, both terms mean the same thing.
How long should I keep users on a remarketing list?
For tourism, 30 days is the standard window for campaigns tied to an upcoming season. For visitors who were on the booking page, 7 to 14 days is optimal because the decision is still fresh. For off-season or early-booking campaigns, a 60 to 90 day window makes sense.
Can I use remarketing if my site gets little traffic?
Yes, but you'll need to be patient. If your site receives 200 visitors a month, it takes about 2 weeks to fill the minimum Display list. During that time, we recommend focusing budget on search campaigns that build traffic and fill the lists faster.
What is the average conversion rate for remarketing campaigns in tourism?
Conversion rates vary by sector and audience quality. For Display remarketing to all site visitors, a typical range is 1 to 3%. For RLSA targeting users who were on the booking page, 4 to 8%. For email lists of previous guests, the rate can reach 10 to 15%, because that's the warmest possible audience.
Does remarketing violate user privacy?
Remarketing operates within Google's privacy policies and GDPR regulations. Users must be informed via a cookie banner, and in EU countries your site must obtain consent for marketing cookies. Since 2024, Google has phased out support for third-party cookies in Chrome, so we recommend implementing Google Tag Manager with proper consent management integration. This is a technical detail we handle as part of the campaign setup.
Do I need a special website or landing page for remarketing?
You don't need a separate page, but conversion is significantly better when the ad leads to a tailored page rather than the homepage. For visitors who looked at a 4-person apartment, the ad should take them directly to that page, not to a general listing.
Next step
Remarketing is one of the few channels where every euro spent on audience optimization delivers a direct and measurable return. If your site attracts visitors who don't book, that audience is already lost without remarketing.
If you're not sure where to start, or you already have campaigns that aren't delivering expected results, contact us for a free consultation. We'll review your Google Ads account structure, your existing remarketing lists, and show you where the opportunities are, no commitment, no jargon.