Solved: Advice on Social Media Ads for Hotels Needed

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I saw your post and thought I'd share some of my thoughts based on my experience. It’s great that you’re seeing success with Google Ads, that’s a solid foundation to build on. Expanding into social media ads is a logical next step, but it works quite differently to search, so it's good you're doing your research first.

I’m happy to give you some initial guidance and a bit of a brain dump on how I'd approach it. My expertise is squarely in paid advertising, so I'll stick to that rather than branching into newsletters, as that's not really my area. I've run a lot of campaigns across different industries, and hopefully some of that experience will be useful for you here.

You'll need to think about where social fits in...

Okay, the first and most important thing to get your head around is the fundamental difference between someone on Google and someone on Facebook or Instagram. It's all about intent.

With your Google Ads, you're catching people with their hands up. They're actively searching for "hotel in [your city]" or "luxury hotel with a spa near me". They have a need, right now, and you're providing the solution. This is what we call bottom-of-the-funnel (BoFu) marketing. It's direct, it's effective, and it's why you're seeing good results. They are ready to book.

Social media is a different beast entirely. No one is logging onto Instagram to book a hotel room. They're there to see what their friends are up to, look at nice pictures, and be entertained. Your job with social ads isn't to capture existing demand, it's to *create* it. You're interrupting their scrolling with something beautiful, enticing, or interesting enough to make them stop and think, "Wow, I'd love to go there one day." This is top-of-funnel (ToFu) and middle-of-funnel (MoFu) marketing. You're planting a seed.

So, you shouldn't expect social media ads to perform in the same way as your Google Ads, with immediate bookings flooding in. The goal is different. You're building awareness, creating desire, and filling up your marketing funnel. You're making sure that when someone *does* decide to plan a trip to your area, your hotel is the first one they think of. They might see your ad, click through to the website, have a browse, and then leave. A week later, they might start their serious planning and go to Google to search for your hotel by name. Your social ads created the initial interest that your Google Ads can then capture later on. They work together.

Think of it like this: Google Ads is like having a shop on the high street where people who want to buy are already walking. Social media ads are like putting up a beautiful billboard on a busy motorway. People aren't looking to buy right then, but you're making a memorable impression that influences their future choices. This means your measurement of success has to be different too. You'll be looking at things like engagement, video views, website traffic, and, crucially, long-term retargeting performance, not just immediate ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) on every single campaign.

We'll need to look at the right platform and objective...

So, where should you spend your money? For hotels, the most obvious and usually most effective platforms are Meta (Facebook & Instagram). They are highly visual platforms, which is perfect for showing off a beautiful hotel. The targeting options are also incredibly powerful, which we'll get into in a moment. You could potentially look at Pinterest as well, as people use it for travel inspiration, but I'd say start with Meta. It's where the biggest audience is and the ad tools are more mature.

Once you've picked Meta, you need to decide on your campaign objective. This is a setting you choose when you create a campaign, and it tells Facebook what you want to achieve. It will then optimise the ad delivery to people most likely to perform that action. A lot of people new to this make the mistake of choosing "Traffic" because they want website visitors, or "Engagement" because they want likes and comments. Dont do that.

If your ultimate goal is bookings, you should optimise for conversions. However, there's a catch. For the algorithm to learn effectively, it needs data. It typically needs about 50 conversions per ad set per week to properly optimise. For a hotel, getting 50 online bookings from a single ad set in a week might be a tall order, especially when you're just starting out. The bookings might also be too expensive initially.

So you might need to start a step or two up the funnel. Instead of optimising for a 'Purchase' (a booking), you could optimise for an event that happens more frequently, like 'Initiate Checkout' (someone starts the booking process) or even a custom event like 'Viewed Room Page'. This gives the algorithm more data to work with. Another strategy, especially for higher-end hotels or complex packages, is to run Lead Generation campaigns. Instead of asking for a booking, the ad could offer a "Bespoke Holiday Quote" or a "Downloadable Guide to the Perfect Weekend in [Your City]". You'd use a Lead Gen Form right there on Facebook to capture their name and email. This gives you a list of highly interested potential guests you can follow up with personally or through email marketing. I remember one campaign where we achieved a $22 cost per lead for B2B decision makers using LinkedIn lead gen forms, so for a B2C hotel audience on Meta, you could potentially see even better costs for a lead.

The key takeaway is to align your campaign objective with a realistic and valuable user action. Start with the goal of getting bookings, but be prepared to move up the funnel to a more frequent conversion event if needed to feed the algorithm the data it needs to learn.

I'd say you'll need a solid targeting strategy...

This is where you win or lose on social media. Your Google Ads target keywords, which is quite straightforward. Social ads target people, which is more complex but also more powerful when you get it right. Your success will almost entirely depend on showing your beautiful hotel ads to the right individuals. I usually structure this in a funnel, from broad audiences at the top to your most valuable audiences at the bottom.

Here’s how I’d prioritise your audiences for a hotel:

1. Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Prospecting for New Guests

This is your cold audience. These people have never heard of your hotel before. Your goal here is to make a great first impression.

-> Detailed Targeting (Interests, Behaviours, Demographics): This is your starting point. You need to build a picture of your ideal guest and find them on Meta. Don't just target "Travel". That's way too broad. Think deeper.

• What are their interests? If you're a luxury hotel, target interests like 'Condé Nast Traveler', 'First Class travel', 'Luxury Goods', 'Fine Dining'. If you're a family-friendly hotel, target interests like 'Family holidays', pages for kids' attractions, etc.
• What are their behaviours? Meta has data on 'Frequent International Travelers' or people who have returned from a trip recently. These are pure gold for hotel marketing.
• Who are they? You can target by age, location (e.g., people in cities within driving distance for a weekend break), income level (in the US), and more.
• Location-based targeting is also key. You can target people who are *currently* in your city but live elsewhere (i.e., tourists who might need a last-minute room or are planning their next activity) or people *planning* a trip to your area.

-> Lookalike Audiences: This is where it gets really powerful, but you need data first. A Lookalike Audience is where Meta takes a list of your existing customers (your "source audience") and finds millions of other users with similar characteristics. You need at least 100 people in your source audience to get started, but more is much better. You can create Lookalikes of:

• Your past guests (upload a customer email list). This is the best audience. Meta will find people who look just like your best customers.
• People who have made a booking on your website.
• People who initiated the booking process.
• All website visitors.

2. Middle of Funnel (MoFu) - Warming Up Prospects

These people have shown some interest. They've visited your website or engaged with your social media. They know who you are, but they're not ready to book yet. Your job is to stay top of mind and convince them.

-> Website Visitor Retargeting: This is your most important MoFu audience. Anyone who has visited your website (perhaps from your Google Ads) but hasn't booked should be put into a retargeting audience. You can then show them ads reminding them of your hotel. You can get very specific here, for example showing people who viewed your 'Deluxe Sea View Suite' an ad featuring a video of that exact room. You could show them an ad with a special offer like "Complete your booking and get a complimentary breakfast".

-> Social Engager Retargeting: You can also create audiences of people who have watched your videos, liked your posts, or engaged with your Instagram profile. They've shown interest, so they are a good group to follow up with more ads.

3. Bottom of Funnel (BoFu) - Closing the Deal

These people are on the verge of booking. They've put a room in their basket, so to speak.

-> Booking Initiator Retargeting: This is an absolutely critical audience. You need to create an audience of people who started the booking process on your website but abandoned it. These are your hottest leads. You should hit them with ads showing urgency ("Your selected dates are popular! Book now") or a small incentive to get them over the line. This is where you can expect to see a very high ROAS.

-> Past Guests: Don't forget your existing customers! It's much cheaper to get a past guest to return than to acquire a new one. You can run campaigns targeted specifically at your past guest list, offering them a special "welcome back" discount or showing them what's new at the hotel since their last stay.

You probably should think about your creative...

For a hotel, your creative (the images and videos in your ads) is absolutely everything. People book with their eyes. You could have the most sophisticated targeting in the world, but if your ads feature blurry, uninspiring photos, nobody will click. A low Click-Through Rate (CTR) tells the algorithm your ad is no good, and it will charge you more to show it. So investing in great creative is not just about looking good; it directly impacts your costs.

You need to test different formats to see what resonates with your audience:

-> High-Quality Image Ads: These are your bread and butter. You need stunning, professional photography of your rooms, your pool, your restaurant, your views, and the general ambiance. No excuses here. This is non-negotiable. Use carousel ads to show off multiple aspects in a single ad – for example, one card for the room, one for the spa, one for the food, one for a local attraction.

-> Video Ads: Video is king on social media. It's more engaging and allows you to tell more of a story. A well-made 15-30 second video can be incredibly effective. Ideas for video ads:

• A cinematic tour of the hotel, showing off the best features.
• A "day in the life" at your hotel, from sunrise coffee on the balcony to cocktails at the bar.
• User-Generated Content (UGC) style videos. These are huge at the moment. You could ask a guest or hire an influencer to create a video that feels more authentic and less like a corporate ad. We've seen UGC work wonders for SaaS clients, and the principle is the same for hospitality – it builds trust.
• Drone footage of your property and its surroundings.

-> Ad Copy: Your text matters too. It should be evocative and sell the experience, not just the room. Instead of "Hotel room with double bed", try "Wake up to stunning city views from your plush king-sized bed." Focus on the benefits and the feeling. Create urgency and a clear call to action like "Book Your Escape" or "Check Availability".

You must constantly be split testing. Test different images, different videos, different headlines, and different ad copy. Have one campaign running to your 'cold' prospecting audiences, and then within that campaign have multiple ad sets for different interests/lookalikes. Inside each ad set, have 3-5 different ads (a mix of video and images). After a few days, you can see which ads are performing best, turn off the losers, and put more budget behind the winners. This structured testing is how you optimise and bring your costs down over time.

You'll need a realistic view of costs...

This is the "how long is a piece of string" question, but I can give you some ballpark figures based on my experience. The cost of getting a booking or a lead will vary massively based on your hotel's location, price point, the competition, and the time of year. A booking for a £100/night hotel in a quiet town will cost far less to acquire than a booking for a £1,000/night suite in central London during peak season.

For eCommerce, we often see a cost per purchase in developed countries anywhere from £10 to £75. Hotel bookings would likely fall within a similar, or possibly slightly higher, range depending on the total value of the stay. A lead (e.g., someone filling out a form for a quote) would be much cheaper, perhaps in the £5-£20 range.

Here’s a rough way to think about it. Let's say your average Cost Per Click (CPC) is £1.00. If your website converts visitors into bookers at a rate of 2%, your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) for a booking would be £50 (£1.00 / 0.02). If you can improve your website's conversion rate to 3%, your CPA drops to £33. This shows why optimising your website is just as important as optimising your ads.

Rather than just focusing on CPA, the metric you should really care about is Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). If your CPA is £50 but the average booking value is £500, that's a 10x ROAS. That's a fantastic result you'd take all day long. I remember one campaign for a subscription box where we achieved a 1000% ROAS. While subscription boxes aren't hotels, it shows the kind of returns that are possible on Meta when you get the targeting, creative, and offer right.

Your initial budget should be enough to gather data. I'd recommend starting with at least £1,000-£2,000 per month in ad spend to give you enough room to test different audiences and creatives properly. Anything less and it will take a very long time to learn what works.

A few thoughts on finding the right help...

I saw you mentioned considering hiring a freelancer, and your concern about them not maximizing potential is very valid. There are a lot of people out there who can "run Facebook ads", but very few who can do it strategically and get real business results. Your success with Google Ads shows you value quality, and you should apply the same standard here.

If you're looking to hire an agency or a freelancer, here's what I'd look for:

-> Case Studies and Reviews: Do they have a proven track record? Ask to see case studies. Ideally, they should have experience in hospitality, travel, or at least a similar B2C service/eCommerce niche. If all their experience is in B2B SaaS, they might not be the right fit. See what past clients are saying in their reviews.

-> Expertise on the Call: Book an intro call with them. Don't just listen to their sales pitch; ask them specific questions. Ask them how they would approach your hotel. If they give you vague, generic answers, that's a red flag. A true expert will ask you probing questions about your ideal guest, your booking value, your seasonality, and your current marketing before they even start suggesting solutions. They should sound like they know what they are talking about, not just promising you the world. To be honest, in paid ads, you can't promise specific results because there are too many variables.

-> Trust: This is a big one. After you've reviewed their case studies and had an initial chat where they've given you some free advice (like we often do in an initial review call), you should have a good sense of whether you can trust them. If you still feel the need to ask for references to call their other clients, it's often a sign that the trust isn't there, and it might not be a good fit for either party. It signals a lack of trust that can make the working relationship difficult down the line.

The right partner won't just be a button-pusher. They'll be a strategic thinker who understands your business goals and can build a full-funnel advertising system that generates real, profitable growth for your hotel client.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I know this is a lot to take in. To make it a bit more digestible, I've put the key recommendations into a table for you.