Flywheel news | June 2025 hotel digital marketing news | GCommerce

1. Instagram to open its content to search engine crawlers

Big news for Instagram users and content creators–as of July 10th the platform will be opening up its content to be crawled by search engines with explicit user permission. Users will be prompted with a pop-up in the platform to either allow crawling or to decline. This means that pictures and stories could potentially show up in AI Mode and ChatGPT as well, expanding the reach of your organic social media accounts. Previous to this update Instagram required search engines to not index its content via robots.txt and noindex tags, which functioned more as a request vs absolute technical block. This update now puts control back in the user’s hands. Learn more.

2. YouTube makes influencer marketing available with Google Ads

Recently at a session during Cannes Lions 2025, YouTube announced their latest tool, aptly named Open Call, within the Creator Partnerships Hub. This feature will allow advertisers to post campaign briefs and receive pitches from YouTube creators which would run as selected content within Google Ads. This latest tool aims to make influencer marketing even more attainable and could be a scalable way for hotels to broaden their reach across YouTube and partners without having to seek out specific content creators. Read more here.

3. [Webinar recording] Understanding the hotel metasearch funnel

If you missed our webinar earlier in June about the complexities of the hotel metasearch funnel, take a peek at our recorded webinar for a deep dive into three pivotal metrics that are instrumental in optimizing your hotel metasearch funnel: impression share, click-through-rate, and conversion rate. Watch now.

4. Google rolls out June 2025 core update

Google has officially confirmed they are rolling out their June 2025 core update and that it could take up to three weeks for completion. Core updates usually involve broad changes to Google’s ranking system and are designed to improve their ability to surface high-quality content in search. Core updates can affect rankings across all industries and topics. The search marketing specialists at GCommerce will be closely monitoring campaign performance throughout July and logging any major changes observed during rollout. Read more here.

5. YouTube tests AI features to improve search and discovery

YouTube has announced they are rolling out two AI-driven features designed to enhance content discovery and deepen user engagement. The first tool is the AI search results carousel (for premium users only) which surfaces curated video suggestions with descriptions based on searches in the platform. The second feature is YouTube’s conversational AI tool which is now being tested with non-premium users. This tool allows users to ask questions about the content they are viewing, receive recommendations, and quiz themselves on education videos. Videos related to shopping, travel, and local activities are said to have the biggest impact which could be big news for hotels utilizing YouTube channels for content. Learn more.

6. [Webinar recording] Beyond the boom: smart marketing strategies for slowing travel demand

Last week GCommerce joined forces with our partners at The Hotels Network in a webinar to showcase how hotels can grow direct bookings in today’s competitive marketing landscape. In this webinar we reveal how one of our mutual clients, the Boston Harbor Hotel, successfully adapted their digital strategy to accommodate the decreased demand for travel after the post-pandemic boom. Watch now.