Given the aspirational nature of social media platforms, it makes sense that both Facebook and Instagram are regularly used in people’s holiday planning process. Back in 2016, Facebook conducted a study which showed that 53% of travelers found holiday inspiration on Facebook, while travelers were also spending 5X more time on Facebook than on travel-related apps and sites in the planning process.
That’s a significant opportunity for travel marketers – to help tap into this, Facebook has since introduced family targeting, which, while not travel-specific, can be used to help boost travel campaigns through household-based targeting, and Dynamic Ads for Travel, which help advertisers reach interested users based on related search behaviors.
Now, Facebook’s adding some new options to help travel marketers – Facebook’s latest travel-related ad tool is called ‘Trip Consideration’, and will enable businesses to reach people who’ve expressed intent to travel, but haven’t yet decided where to go.
As explained by Facebook:
“For example, let’s say a college student has demonstrated interest in spring break at the beach by browsing travel-related Pages, but hasn't yet settled on a specific location. Travel advertisers can now deliver ads promoting flight or hotel deals to inspire the student to book his or her trip.”
As noted, social media is increasingly being used by travelers to research potential holiday destinations. In addition to the above stats, Facebook says that some 68% of Millennials, specifically, found ideas for their most recent trip on Facebook, while 60% did the same on Instagram. This new option will help travel advertisers tap into that trend, providing a way to reach people where they're already finding inspiration for their next trip.
And travel marketers would already be aware, Millennials are a key market – as noted by Nielsen in their Millennial travel report:
“Millennials are focused on personal experiences, and for many, those experiences happen away from home. Notably, Millennials are very interested in travel - in fact, they travel more than any other generation, including Baby Boomers, and they’ll likely travel more as their incomes and financial standings grow.”
Given Millennials are now on the cusp of being the largest living adult generation, it’s worth paying attention to such trends, and as such, Facebook’s latest travel ad options make perfect sense, and should be in consideration for all travel marketers.
To use the new Trip Consideration ads, advertisers need to have the Facebook Pixel implemented. When set-up, you’ll see a new ad delivery option in the Conversion campaign type:
As per Marketing Land, advertisers can use all of the audience targeting options they normally would - though Facebook recommends that the total audience size be seven million or more for optimal performance.
Trip consideration is available from today through Facebook Ads Manager, while it’s also available through Facebook marketing partners including Adphorus, Koddi, MakeMeReach, Smartly.io and StitcherAds.
