Since you spend time scrolling through social media, you know that there are A LOT of social ads. With your social feed so saturated with ads, it may feel fruitless to add your own brand into the mix.
But now….
Fortunately, there are several strategies that will help you set your brand apart from the noise. These three tactics will help you connect with your audience through social ads without using a classic sales pitch.
#1 — Driving Traffic with Social Ads
Do you need more eyeballs on your upcoming event?
Are you needing to reach out to a wider audience?
Driving traffic to your website, consumer night, new hotel or latest addition to your attraction is easy when you offer some type of incentive.
Here’s the style of social ad that can help:
- Create a downloadable free resource; e-book, infographic, cheat sheet, travel guide, etc.
- Use this as part of a lead-generation ad. This ad type encourages people to give you’re their contact info in exchange for some type of freebie.
- A lead generation ad will help grow your email list as well as drive traffic to your event or attraction.
#2 — Grow Engagement
While we all would love to have fans take some action, letting people know exactly what you want them to do is key. Adding a call to action button as part of your ad does some of the heavy lifting for you. You can add 1 call to action button at a time and you have the choice of these when setting up a “video views” ad:
- Sign-up
- Book Now
- Download
- Get Quote
- Get Showtimes
- Learn More
Figure 1 – Call to Action buttons vary based on your ad objective
Asking questions and inviting people to join the conversation in each of your posts helps grow engagement. A simple to answer question that begs to be answered will inspire people to join your conversation.
Creating polls is another easy way to gain insights and inspire conversation. While setting up a poll is easy, the bigger challenge is what questions to ask that will help you build stronger relationships and understand your fans better. Here’s how to set up a poll on your business page.
Figure 2- click the 3-dots in the composition box. Choose “Poll”
Figure 3-Enter your main Poll question and 2 options for answers.
Pro Tip: Remember to add images to support each possible answer. Also, set the duration you’d like your poll to be open.
Figure 4- You can ‘share now’ or schedule your poll
Pro Tip: You can amplify your reach by choosing to ‘Boost’ your poll. Choose your ad spend & audience when you boost.
Social Ad Types that Inspire Engagement
Here’s the style of social ad that can take your engagement to the next level:
- Carousel ads show the reader multiple images and help your story gain traction.
- Animated ads take a still image and add vertical movement and a text-based slide to it. This quick video-like ad is easy to create in a boost post.
- Video ads are most popular with viewers and the Facebook secret algorithm. Inspire people to connect with you by adding captions and a call to action button when setting up your ad.
- Explore Canvas Ads as they’re interactive. By including text, images and video you’re able to capture the attention of different types of buyers.
3 Ways to Test & Analyze Your Social Ad
While we all may think each of our ads is a masterpiece that will set the world on fire. If you’ve had an ad that didn’t quite set the world on fire (or flopped with your audience) here’s a couple of way to test out an ad and analyze its effectiveness
- #1 — Split test your ads to better understand what resonates with your unique audience. A traditional A/B test gives you a chance to change out 1 variable and test it with your audience. You have the option to change the creative (image or video), delivery, or placement. Remember to test just 1 variable at a time. Facebook will do the split test for you and declare a winning option. You can set this up in the Business Manager/AdsManager
- Here’s where you’ll find the option to split test when creating a video ad:
Figure 5 – Split test ads to learn your audiences’ preferences
Figure 6- Variables change with different ad objectives
- #2 — Dynamic Ads are a super flexible way to test out a number of variables in an ad. The cool thing is that you can upload up to 10 images (or up to 10 videos or slideshows), 5 text blocks, 5 headlines, 5 link descriptions, and 5 calls to action and Facebook will mix and match them for you. Different people are shown different versions of your ad and Facebook analyzes their reaction then gives you a winning combination. This is great for determining what resonates with you unique audience.
Figure 7-preview your ads in advance in a variety of placements.
#3 — Relevance Scores are another way to test how well you ad performs with your unique audience. After you ad completes it’s run, Facebook will assign a relevance score suggesting how relevant your ad is for your audience. Tune in to learn how this works.
#3 – Amplify Your Ad Success
When we talk about amplification it’s not about using a bull horn and shouting in CAPITAL letters. Amplification is about standing out in a noisy world; being unique, being authentic. It’s also about tailoring our messages to the right people at the right time.
To boost your amplification, put these ad types into action:
- Create an ad campaign that uses multiple platforms. If your audiences hang out on Facebook and Twitter, build your campaign on both platforms making sure to incorporate the strong traits of each. Staying consistent in your messaging across platforms keeps you top of mind with fans.
- Track your success using the info you collect from your Facebook pixel. Then create audiences based on your pixel. Here’s some pixel tips & tools for travel pros. Plus pixel set-up and strategy tips.
- Video Ad Creation Kit takes your ads to a new level of amplification by giving you more tools to create interactive, video-like ads using templates. Here’s how it works.
Tuning in to your unique audience needs will help you uncover their travel aspirations. You’ll then seem like you’re reading their minds when you offer them the trip they’ve just started to think about.
What type of ad will you use for your next event or group?
Related Articles
How to Use Social Ads to Build Your Brand
Why Social Ads Work in Travel & Tourism
Pass or Fail? How to Test Your Social Ads
Social Marketing Strategies for Travel and Tourism
About Catherine Heeg
Catherine Heeg is a recognized social media trail blazer passionate about social media and marketing in the tourism and hospitality industry. She takes the mystery out of marketing!
She creates and delivers meaningful, dynamic workshops that meet your unique needs in the Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Industry.
Catherine and her team help travel, tourism and hospitality pros design and implement social media marketing strategies and tactics that drive traffic to their social and web sites. Learn more…
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