Solved: Need PPC Agency for High Volume Travel Agency

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. I saw your post and it sounded like a situation I've come across a fair few times before. Running a successful business and trying to master the murky world of PPC at the same time is a massive headache, so hats off to you for getting this far on your own.

You've hit on the absolute biggest issue with your current setup, and it's good you've realised it. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on how you might want to approach this, and what you should be looking for in an agency. It's a bit of a long one, but hopefully it gives you a proper steer in the right direction.

The first thing we need to fix: Your tracking "black hole"

Okay, so let's get straight to it. The core of you're problem is exactly what you said: you're sending traffic to affiliate sites. From an advertising perspective, this is like driving blindfolded. You're spending money, you know it's having some effect because the business is doing well, but you have no idea which ads are working, who they're working for, or how much it's really costing you to get a customer. You can't optimise what you can't measure, and right now, you can't measure anything meaningful.

You're essentially paying to build someone else's marketing asset. Every click you send to a travel brand's site is a potential customer you lose direct contact with. They might get retargeted by that brand, sign up to their newsletter, and book with them directly next time. You've paid for the introduction and then been cut out of the loop. It's a massive missed opportunity.

Without your own landing pages and tracking, you can't answer the most basic questions you need to scale your ad spend profitably:

• -> Which keyword or ad is generating the most enquiries?
• -> What's my true cost per lead (CPL) or cost per booking (CPA)?
• -> What's my return on ad spend (ROAS)? Am I putting in £1 and getting £5, £10, or £20 back?
• -> Which audiences on social media are most interested in my packages?
• -> Who are my most valuable customers so I can find more people like them?

Answering these isn't just a 'nice to have', its the foundation of any successful paid advertising campaign. Getting this sorted is absolutely your number one priority, and any decent agency will tell you the same. It's not about just "organising" things, it's about fundamentally changing your strategy from traffic generation for others to lead generation for yourself.

I'd say you need to build your own lead generation machine

So, the solution is to stop sending traffic away and start directing it to your own, purpose-built landing pages. A landing page isn't just any page on your website. It's a highly focused page with one single goal: to get a visitor to take a specific action. In your case, that action is likely to be "Request a Quote", "Schedule a Free Consultation", or "Download a Brochure".

A good landing page strips away all the distractions. No navigation bar, no links to other parts of your site, no social media feeds. Just a compelling headline, persuasive copy that speaks directly to the visitor's travel dreams, stunning imagery, and a very clear call-to-action (CTA) button. This focus is what drives up conversion rates.

Think about the customer journey. Someone searches on Google for "luxury holiday to the Maldives". Your ad appears. They click it. Instead of landing on a generic affiliate page with a hundred different options, they land on your page, dedicated to Maldives holidays. It has your branding, your contact details, and testimonials from your happy clients. The copy reassures them that you're an expert who can craft the perfect trip for them. There's a simple form to fill out to get a personalised quote. Suddenly, you're not just a middleman; you're the expert guide.

When you control the landing page, you control the tracking. You can install a Google Tag and a Meta Pixel. These little bits of code are what lets you track every single action. You can see who lands on the page, who fills out the form, and then you can connect that back to the exact ad and keyword that brought them there. This data is gold. It's what allows an agency to go in and systematically improve your results, cutting spend on what doesn't work and doubling down on what does.

Some professional copy could really go a long way here. It’s not just about listing destinations; it's about selling the experience. Here’s a quick example of the kind of thinking that goes into a landing page structure:

This approach builds trust and captures the lead for you to nurture and convert. It's the difference between being a simple affiliate and being a proper travel brand.

You probably should look beyond just Google Ads

You're using Google Ads, which is absolutely the right place to start for a travel agency. You're capturing 'intent' – people who are actively searching for what you sell. This is the lowest hanging fruit.

For Google Ads, you'll need to get granular.

A good agency wont just run a few broad ads. They'll structure your account to reflect your different offerings. You might have separate campaigns for:

• -> Family Holidays
• -> Luxury Escapes
• -> Cruises
• -> Specific Destinations (e.g., 'Holidays in Greece', 'Trips to Thailand')

Within each campaign, they'll have ad groups targeting specific keywords. For "Holidays in Greece", you might have ad groups for "all-inclusive crete holidays", "santorini honeymoon packages", "family villas in corfu". This structure allows you to write hyper-relevant ads that match the search term, which Google rewards with higher Quality Scores and lower costs per click (CPCs). They'll also be relentless with 'negative keywords' – terms you don't want to show up for, like "cheap", "jobs", "reviews", to avoid wasted spend.

You'll also want to use ad extensions to their full potential. Call extensions so people can ring you straight from the ad, sitelinks to highlight different types of holidays you offer, and callouts to shout about your unique selling points like "ATOL Protected" or "Bespoke Itineraries".

But you should also consider Meta (Facebook & Instagram).

Travel is incredibly visual and aspirational. People might not be actively searching for a holiday today, but a stunning video of a pristine beach in their Instagram feed can plant the seed. This is 'discovery' marketing, and it's massively powerful for travel.

With Meta Ads, the game is different. It's less about keywords and more about audiences. An agency would help you build and test audiences like:

• -> Interest Targeting: People interested in "Luxury travel", "First Class travel", "Conde Nast Traveller", specific airlines or hotel chains.
• -> Behavioural Targeting: "Frequent international travellers". This is a powerful one.
• -> Lookalike Audiences: This is where it gets clever. Once you have a list of your past best customers, you can upload it to Facebook and tell it to "find me more people who look just like these". This is often the most profitable audience you can build.
• -> Retargeting: This is crucial. Someone visits your new landing page for "Italian Honeymoons" but doesn't fill out the form. For the next 30-60 days, you can show them beautiful ads on Facebook and Instagram featuring testimonials, different Italian destinations, and gentle reminders to get their personalised quote. This is how you convert the people who weren't quite ready to commit on the first visit.

The creative is everything on Meta. High-quality video is king. Think drone shots of resorts, walkthroughs of villas, montages of experiences. Carousel ads work brilliantly for showing a multi-stop itinerary. You're not just selling a holiday; you're selling the dream. A mix of Google for 'intent' and Meta for 'inspiration' is a very powerful combination for a travel business.

You'll need a realistic view on costs and returns

This is the big question: what should it cost? The honest answer is, it depends. It's affected by your destinations, the level of competition, the value of a booking, and how well your campaigns are optimised.

For B2C services, which is what you are, we've seen a massive range. I remember a campaign for a home cleaning company where we got leads for around £5 each. On the other end of the spectrum, we're currently running ads for an HVAC company in a really competitive city, and their leads are costing around $60. Your travel agency will likely fall somewhere in that broad £10 - £50 per lead range. A "cheap flights to benidorm" lead will be at the lower end; a "bespoke 3-week tour of Japan" lead will be at the much higher end.

The key isn't just the cost per lead (CPL), but the value of that lead. If you make £1,000 profit from a booking that cost you £50 to acquire, that's a 20x return on ad spend. You'd do that all day long. This is why tracking is so important - it allows you to work out your true ROI and make smart decisions about your budget.

I'd usually recommend a starting ad spend budget of at least £1,000-£2,000 a month to get enough data to start optimising properly. If an agency suggests you can get amazing results with £10 a day, I'd be very sceptical. You need to spend enough to let the platforms' algorithms learn and to run meaningful tests.

Let's do some rough maths to show how this works in practice. This is purely illustrative, but it helps frame the investment.

Now, if your average profit per booking is £500, you've spent £2,000 to make £13,000 (£500 * 26). That's a 6.5x return. This is the kind of maths a good agency will live and breathe.

We'll need to look at how you find the right agency

This was your original question, and it's the most important one. You're right, there are a lot of agencies that are all smoke and mirrors. Here’s what you should look for to find a good one.

1. Case Studies and Relevant Experience
Take a good look at their case studies. Do they have them? Are they detailed? Crucially, do they have experience in a similar niche? It doesn't have to be another travel agency, but experience with high-ticket B2C services, lead generation, or even certain types of eCommerce is very relevant. For example, we generated an 8x return on ad spend for an eCommerce business selling maps and navigation, using Meta Ads. While not identical, it shares that core element of travel and destination-based marketing. If an agency only has case studies for £10 t-shirts or local plumbers, they might not be the right fit for your high-volume travel business. Look for evidence they understand your kind of customer.

2. The Initial Consultation
Get on a call with them. Most good agencies will offer a free initial consultation or strategy session. This is your chance to interview them. Don't just let them give you a sales pitch. Ask them specific questions about your situation. "How would you solve my tracking problem?", "What platforms would you start with and why?", "What kind of audiences would you test on Facebook for my business?".

You're looking for expertise. Do they sound like they know what they're talking about? Do they give you actual ideas, or just vague promises? A big red flag is any agency that guarantees results. Tbh in paid advertising, you can't promise anything. No one knows exactly how an ad will perform until it's live. An honest agency will talk about a methodical process of testing and optimisation, not about guaranteed rankings or a specific number of leads.

3. Reviews and Reputation
Look at their reviews on platforms like Clutch, Google, or Trustpilot. What are other clients saying? Are the reviews detailed? This gives you a good sense of what they're like to work with day-to-day. Strong, genuine reviews are a very good sign.

And a final thought on this. If you go through their case studies, have a great consultation call where they give you tons of value, and check their reviews... trust your gut. Tbh, if a potential client gets to that stage with us and then asks for references to call one of our other clients, it's often an instant red flag. It signals a deep lack of trust that probably won't get better. A good agency puts their proof out in the open through case studies and reviews; they shouldn't need to bother existing clients to prove their worth again.

If after all you're research it just doesn't feel like they have the deep expertise you need, then it's probably not a good fit. Don't be pressured into signing anything.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Look, I know this is a tonne of information. The fact is, what you're trying to do is complex. It's not just about turning on ads; it's about building a proper, scalable customer acquisition system. This involves technical setup (tracking), strategy (platforms,