The Travel industry is one of those sectors that attract maximum revenue for a country. And just like other firms, these companies also invest an incredible load of money into promotional efforts of their services.
If we consider the ad spend of 2020, the world travel industry saw a massive decline of 50% in the ad spend, out of which 62% of the spendings were digital. But, as the COVID-19 situation is improving and the travel industries are getting back to business, this number is expected to rise. The clear proof for this is the future market of the travel industry. The online travel market is speculated to rise up to USD1,091 billion by 2022.
Now, with travel services like hotel and flight bookings going online, the travel sector is harnessing social networks like Facebook to broaden its customer base. As Facebook has over 2.6 billion monthly active users, it has become the major platform for firms to run their ads.
Here are some case studies for your inspiration!
3 Brilliant FB Ad Campaigns by Travel Firms
1) Summer Bay Resort Lang Tengah Island
Run Time:
Two weeks on January and February
Target Region and Audience:
Malaysia, Mandarin speakers between 21-60 years of age
Performance:
The precisely planned ad campaign performed exceptionally well on Facebook. The two-week-long campaign reached two million people and saw a 6.1 point lift in the ad recall.
Goal:
The pillar objective of the ad campaign held by the resort was to drive awareness among the mandarin speakers. This was done during the Chinese New Year holiday period.
Approach and Buyer’s Journey:
The ingenious approach designed by the resort had the following aspects:
They used both video and photo ads in Facebook feeds that featured beautiful scenic images of the location and resort accommodation.
The 15-second video ads were targeted to users based on their language preference. For this, the resort harnessed dynamic language optimization and even included subtitles in Mandarin and English.
These ads were targeted to people who speak Mandarin in the age group of 21-60 years living in West Malaysia.
The resort leveraged reach and frequency buying along with automatic placements to deliver ads multiple times. A brand lift study was also conducted to calculate results.
To help the users make bookings, the resort included contact numbers in the Facebook feeds. This acted as a perfect Call To Action.
Results:
The ad campaign ran by the Malaysian resort witnessed:
6.1 point boost in ad recall
1.9 point lift in campaign awareness (among men aged 35-44)
3.3 point lift in campaign awareness (among women aged 45-54)
Reached 2 million people
Products Used:
Photo ads, Video ads, Automatic placements
2) Klook & Smartly.io
Run Time:
8-10 March 2018
Target Region and Audience:
APAC, People aged 18-65 years
Performance:
The captivating video ads produced by the agency outshined on Facebook. The ad campaign brought a 2.3X boost in return on ad spend.
Goal:
The primary goal of the travel agency was to raise brand awareness by sharing the experiences of solo women travelers. They did it to mark International Women’s Day 2018 and to get new customers.
Approach and Buyer’s Journey:
Klook worked with Facebook marketing partner Smartly.io to produce highly engaging video ads. These ads were made to mark International Women’s Day and featured young women who took solo tours of the world. This sole purpose of this was building the trust of the users, especially women between 18-65 years of age. These video ads were also crafted to motivate women to take solo trips.
The ads told motivating and positive stories of the women travelers. The targeting of these ads was done to people who have visited Klook’s Facebook page and their website. Moreover, to further enhance engagement, the video ads were also directed to people who followed the women featured in the ads.
The ads were run in the carousel format in Facebook feeds. And they also included the “Book Now” option that nudged the users to make their booking.
Results:
The three days long Facebook ad campaign focusing on women led to:
4X decline in cost per acquisition
2.3X boost in return on ad spend
Products Used:
Carousel, Link ads, Facebook Marketing Partners
3) TravelClick
Run Time:
5 weeks from March to April 2019
Target Region and Audience:
APAC
Performance:
The Travel Click ad campaign performed tremendously well in the five weeks time period. The firm saw a 49% lower cost per booking as compared to the manual retargeting campaign.
Goal:
Along with finding a new approach for their retargeting campaign, TravelClick focussed on elevating the number of bookings for the US-based hotel Welk Resorts.
Approach and Buyer’s Journey:
TravelClick used dynamic ads in the carousel format and custom audiences to reach out to users who showed interest in the resort or hotel group. These ads featured various engaging photos of different Welk Resorts across the United States.
The primary targeted audience of these ads was those who visited the resort’s website but did not make a booking in the last 30 days. Along with this, when the viewsers clicked on the ad, they were redirected to the website of Welk Resorts and specifically on the hotel page they visited earlier.
A “Book Now” button was also included in the ad to help users make the booking instantly.
Results:
The hotel specific campaign backed by a well-formulated approach yielded the following results as compared to the manual retargeting campaign:
49% lower cost per booking
1.7X more return on ad spend
11% lower cost per reach
Products Used:
Dynamic ads, Audience Network, Custom Audiences, Facebook Pixel, Carousel
Ready to build your ad campaign?
After going through these ad campaigns, you must be excited to build your own. But, before you do that, it is necessary to analyse the entire scenario of these firms and yours. You need to carefully analyse your audience and competitors before creating the campaign. Moreover, it is best if you study the tools of Facebook.
There are many Facebook products that you can use to power your campaign and reach out to the maximum audience. Lastly, do make sure that you run the campaign for the required time while also keeping your budget in mind. Do try different approaches to find the ones that yield the highest outputs.