Following a string of recent moves that amp up its presence in the travel sphere, Facebook has recently launched Trip Consideration, a new advertising tool designed to help hotel and travel brands reach consumers at the early stages of the holiday planning process.
NB: This is an article from eTourism
How does the feature work and is it worth incorporating into your hotel’s social advertising arsenal? Read on to find out more about Trip Consideration and its potential to help you reach more of your guests online.
How Social Media Inspires And Influences Travellers
The travel planning process has been predominately digital for most consumers for years now, and for an increasing number it’s social media platforms that offer that initial spark of trip inspiration – particularly among younger travellers. In fact, just looking at Facebook’s platforms alone, 68% of millennials say that content on Facebook influenced their most recent holiday, while 60% found travel inspiration on Instagram.
In response to this trend in consumer behaviour, the social platform is now allowing travel brands to specifically target this pool of eager-to-be-inspired travel shoppers.
So How Does It Work?
Using a user’s recent search activity, Trip Consideration allows hotels to target guests with the right deals and promotions, right at the start of their travel journey before a specific destination has been decided on.
For instance, a traveller may have visited several different websites related to family holidays, indicating that they’re looking for a specific kind of break and have a strong intent to travel but haven’t got their heart set on a fixed destination. Based on this information, you might target these users with your hotel’s deals to spark early interest.
How Do I Use It?
In Facebook Ad Manager, simply select the new trip consideration feature. You can then use the ad filters to reach anyone that’s planning to travel soon, or refine your audience by demographic information, geographical location, behaviour and interests.
A typical signal that a user has strong intent to travel (but doesn’t have a fixed destination in mind) would be that they’ve visited a number of travel websites, but only the homepages of these sites. Tapping into this particular group presents a major opportunity to influence travel-hungry people at the crucial “daydreaming” stage, before any substantial focused research has taken place.
What’s The Best Way To Use Trip Consideration?
Although the new feature is a great way to advertise an irresistible deal, it’s real potential lies beyond simply promoting your best room prices and in sparking genuine excitement in your audience.
Making use of eye-catching and inspiring images is a powerful way to do this. Trip consideration lets you select the images you want to display in your ad, and includes options to display them as static images, carousel-style, video or as a collection. Choosing carefully is essential. Millennial travellers are particularly concerned with how social-media friendly their trips are, according to a study by Expedia, with those aged 18-34 considering how “Instagrammable” their destination is before making a booking. In fact, the study reveals that how good a destination will look on Instagram is the number one consideration for as much as two thirds of this demographic when deciding where to book.
As well as captivating images, you can capture travellers’ attention with Trip Consideration by providing helpful, city-specific information that’s relevant to your target audience’s needs, whether that’s sophisticated city dining experiences or kid-friendly attractions in the local area.
Better yet, create a brief, compelling video telling your brand story and bringing your hotel to life.
Trip Consideration provides a new and exciting way to target potential guests at the crucial early stages of the travel journey. At this stage, travellers are more likely to be swayed by emotions and excitement than price alone, offering a unique opportunity for hotels to captivate them with an initial spark of inspiration.
