FareHarbor Smart Ads

Clients must fulfill these criteria to be eligible for FareHarbor Smart Ads:

• Client must be on a FareHarbor Site.
• Client must be tier 2, 3, or 4. If you have a tier 5 client, ask our team and we may consider but are not guaranteed eligible.
• Client net TTV over a full year must be at least $120,000.

In addition, clients must be willing to invest these minimum requirements:

• Budget must be at least $1,500 per month for the first 6 months of the campaign running.
• Client is required to run the campaign for a minimum of 6 months.
  • Note: Clients may split this commitment depending on seasonality. For example, a client may run for 4 months in the summer, pause during the winter, and then go live for 2 again in the following spring. We are happy to accommodate their seasonality and won’t force clients to spend on ads to their detriment.
• Please note this $1,500 requirement is not inclusive of the 5% FH commission, which is charged separately from ad spend.

Clients must fulfill these criteria to be eligible for FareHarbor Smart Ads:

• Client must be tier 2, 3, or 4. If you have a tier 5 client, ask our team and we may consider but are not guaranteed eligible.
• Client net TTV over a full year must be at least €36K.
  • This €36K must be earned over at least 360 unique online bookings.

In addition, clients must be willing to invest these minimum requirements:

• Budget must be at least €1,500 per month for the first 6 months of the campaign running.
• Client is required to run the campaign for a minimum of 6 months.
  • Note: Clients may split this commitment depending on seasonality. For example, a client may run for 4 months in the summer, pause during the winter, and then go live for 2 again in the following spring. We are happy to accommodate their seasonality and won’t force clients to spend on ads to their detriment.
• Please note this €1,500 requirement is not inclusive of the 5% FH commission, which is charged separately from ad spend.

Clients must fulfill these criteria to be eligible for FareHarbor Smart Ads:

• Client must be tier 2, 3, or 4. If you have a tier 5 client, ask our team and we may consider but are not guaranteed eligible.
• Client net TTV over a full year must be at least $120,000.

In addition, clients must be willing to invest these minimum requirements:

• Budget must be at least $1,500 per month for the first 6 months of the campaign running.
• Client is required to run the campaign for a minimum of 6 months.
  • Note: Clients may split this commitment depending on seasonality. For example, a client may run for 4 months in the summer, pause during the winter, and then go live for 2 again in the following spring. We are happy to accommodate their seasonality and won’t force clients to spend on ads to their detriment.
• Please note this $1,500 requirement is not inclusive of the 5% FH commission, which is charged separately from ad spend.

Get More Direct Bookings: We help drive traffic to our clients’ websites with handpicked keyword strategy and tailored ad copy so they earn more direct bookings.

• We typically find that our clients’ top competitors are their own OTAs, and so we optimize our campaigns to outbid the competing OTAs and prioritize direct website bookings.

Simplicity and Transparency: Clients can enjoy a hands-off campaign if they’d like, but we provide plenty of data for more curious clients.

• Our monthly report, delivered 30 days after the launch of the campaign, updates in real time and is flexible for any reporting a client will need. Clients will be able to view their campaign performance at a high level, dive deeper into specifics such as keywords and locations, and see expected ad cost and estimated FareHarbor commission for the month.
• If your client isn’t data-oriented on their own, we offer a monthly performance review by request, where our team creates a presentation with insights on client performance to walk them through their campaign thus far.

Performance-based Pricing: While a typical advertising agency will take a percentage of ad spend, incentivizing their clients to spend as much as possible, FareHarbor only profits from actual bookings, making our goals align with our client’s.

• Clients will pay for their ad spend, or the actual cost per click charged by Google. Additionally, FareHarbor collects a 5% commission on bookings generated by our campaigns.
• While agencies try to get their clients to spend as much as they can, FareHarbor works to get their clients to earn as much as they can.

There are two aspects to the cost of advertising: Ad Cost & FH’s Management Fee

Ad Cost:

Ad cost is the budget set on the campaign that is paid to Google for the clicks received. This cost is paid directly by the clients to Google by having clients add their payment method to the Google Ads account. Ad cost is charged by Google after the account reaches a certain amount due.

This amount, called the payment threshold, begins quite low with frequent charges, but increases the amount (thus decreasing cadence of charges) as more successful payments go through.

Performance-based Management Fee:

FareHarbor will charge a 5% management fee on the bookings generated by our PPC campaigns. The 5% fee includes:

• Pre-launch website analysis
• Audit of existing Ads campaigns, if applicable
• New campaign launch and management
• Ongoing performance optimizations
• On-site CRO (FHS clients only)
• Performance reviews by request (Max. 1 monthly)

Management Fee Invoicing:

Invoicing will take place monthly and for activities that occurred in the month prior. For example, if a user clicks on an ad in April, and books a tour for May, the client will be billed for this booking in June. Clients will receive a PDF invoice monthly with the charges, as well as be able to run a report in their Dashboard at any time to see bookings generated. We do not charge commission on any bookings where the activity did not occur, such as in cases of cancellations or bad weather.

1. AM/AE scouts eligibility and interest

• Check client eligibility before pitching
  • See above what the requirements are for your region
  • Utilize the Close Smartview to see which of your clients are already marked eligible
  • Under the FHS Object, you will see a field “Smart Ads – Eligible”
  • If your client is not marked eligible but you’d like to make a case for an exception, use the workflow Ads Interest Form – New Client in the #smart_ads slack channel and the PPC team will review the case
• Ensure the client is able to meet investment minimums
  • At least $1,500 ad spend (to Google) monthly + 5% FH commission + 6 month campaign minimum
  • See the Client Requirement sections per region for more details.
• Review value propositions with clients to understand motivation and interest
  • Client should be firmly in the “I’d like to learn more” phase to move on. Not all questions need to be answered, but should have a clear understanding of client’s interest and motivations
  • Change Smart Ads Status field in the FHS Object to “AM Pitched” for tracking purposes (NORAM)

• Follow the Smart Ads Pipeline Steps here to create a Smart Ads Opportunity
  • Move the opportunity through the Smart Ads Pipeline and ensure the client signs their insertion order.

2. Smart Ads Program Onboarding

• Intake Form & Introductory Email

  • Our Performance Marketing team will send our intake form and an introductory email to the client with a request for a 30-minute onboarding meeting
  • AMs are invited to this meeting and welcome to join, but not required. We’ll fill you in on any takeaways after the meeting if you aren’t able to attend.

• Onboarding Meeting

  • In the 30-minute onboarding meeting, our team will review high-level strategy ideas for the client’s campaign
  • If the client has an existing Google Ads account, we will also provide an audit of the account as it stands to inform clients where we see opportunities to improve performance
  • After this meeting, we’ll send a follow-up email asking for their confirmation of intent to run ads with us and let them know next steps

• Ad Copy Creation & Client Feedback

  • Once confirmed, our team creates & sends ad copy and keyword recommendations to the client for review
  • The client will always have final approval on any ads we run for them. We make up to 3 rounds of ad copy revisions for clients if they request changes.

• Go Live!

  • Once approved, our team sets up the client’s campaign in Google Ads, performs a QA of all campaign details, and then sets the campaign live on the client’s go-live date
  • Our team will send an email to clients and AMs letting them know when the campaign has gone live!

3. After the Campaign Launches

• The first 30 days of a campaign are known as the learning period, where Google’s algorithm tests various combinations of ad copy against different types of users.
• Performance can fluctuate during this initial period, but it is important as Google uses these tests to optimize the campaign in the future.
• After about 30 days of running, our team will prepare and send a Looker Studio report where clients can check in on their performance at any time.

• AirTable Interface
• #smart_ads
• Close Eligible Client Smartview
• Internal AM FAQs (Coming soon!)
• Smart Ads Process Flowchart (Miro)
• Client Intake Form sent by Performance Marketing team after AM qualifies client
• Internal intro slides and Internal kickoff recording
• Full Stakeholder Value Prop

How do cancellations/refunds work?

• Cancellations & refunds function like a typical online booking. If a booking is canceled/fully refunded, we will not charge the management fee.

How much does my client pay if they want to cancel Smart Ads before 6 months?

• Depending on your client’s local currency, the flat cancellation fee may vary. Please see this pricing sheet for cancellation fees in all supported currencies. If your client’s local currency is not listed, please reach out to our team.

Can clients see what bookings came from Smart Ads in their Dashboard?

• Yes! Clients can pull a detailed bookings report and filter “Online booking reference” for “fhdirectads” which will give them a report that only includes Smart Ads bookings.

My client is not on an FHS, can they sign up for Smart Ads?

• If they are in APAC or EMEA, yes! Currently in NORAM we are only taking clients who are on FareHarbor sites.

What countries do we support with Smart Ads?

• Any country that can be onboarded to the FareHarbor dashboard and who is not on this Google Ads country restriction list can sign up for Smart Ads!