4 Facebook Ad Types to Grow Your Customer Base

Chris Torres, author of How To Turn Your Online Lookers Into Bookers, demystifies Facebook ads to help you build brand awareness (and an enviable marketing list).

Facebook
Reading Time: 6 mins

Chris Torres, author of How To Turn Your Online Lookers Into Bookers, demystifies Facebook ads to help you build brand awareness (and an enviable marketing list).

Facebook Ads won’t build sales and bookings. That will come. The problem most tour operators face is they dive into Facebook ads to promote a tour or activity without first telling their target customer why they should book with them. Raising brand awareness, showing your value and building trust with your audience before they book is paramount. 

If you haven’t paid for an advertisement on Facebook before, you may be a little intimidated by it. However, Facebook has made it incredibly easy to target specific types of people. In fact, I’m not aware of another advertisement platform (not even Google) that allows brands as much control over the audience their ads target.

The Facebook ad system allows you to precisely choose your audience’s location, language, age, gender, behavior, interests and so much more. It even allows you to select what time of day you’d like your Facebook ad to run. If your target demographic tends to spend more time browsing Facebook in the evening, for example, you can set your ad to only run in the evenings. 

Not all ads are alike, however. Different types of Facebooks ads have varying objectives, and it’s important to use them strategically for the biggest payoff. 

Find below a Facebook ad funnel structure I’ve created explaining how you can run ads to increase website visitors, build your email marketing lists, and lead a potential customer to make a purchase—even on a shoestring budget.

Brand Awareness Ad

The purpose of this ad type is to drive targeted traffic to your website to raise brand awareness. This is a single-image ad that promotes your business or can lead the target customer to a blog article that would be specific to their market.

For example, you may write a blog of the ‘5 Top Cycling Routes’ or ‘Top vegan Restaurants’ in your destination. Whatever the main interest is for your demographic, create a piece that is valuable for them.

Target your main demographic with this ad and start with a budget of around $10 per day.

Free Value Ad

The purpose of a Free Value Ad is to provide your potential customer with something of value in exchange for their email address. You are effectively buying their permission to market to them.

The item of value can be a PDF download, a fun video or a discount code. I prefer a PDF download, as you can create a guide around your destination’s top 10 places to eat or a map showing events happening in the area. This guide can also contain a discount code that would further entice them to sign up.

By building your email lists in this way, you can market to potential customers not only through email newsletters, but also you can upload these customers into Facebook to target specific ads, too. 

For this ad, target only those customers who visited your website from your first ad. This allows you to know that you are targeting people who are interested in what you offer. Because you’ll be targeting website visitors, you do not need to set any location or specific interests on the ads.

Start with a budget of around $10 per day.

Trust Ad

This ad is designed to build upon the trust you have started to gain from the information from the first two ads.

For this, consider using a two-minute video in which one of your guides takes the viewer on a quick tour of one of your experiences. This humanizes your brand and helps communicate their passion. Mix into this video shots of customers providing testimonials of their experiences and showing how much fun they’re having (I hope!).

Target visitors who have visited your website and who have downloaded your guide. Again, make sure you are doubling down on your targeting and start with a budget of around $10 per day.

Sale Ad

With a Sale Ad, the objective is to continue to build brand trust while also asking for the sale.

Try running a 30-second version of the first video from the Trust Ad, or use a completely different video. Use the same guide as before, as this makes it easier for your customers to relate to. Like the first ad, this tactic helps humanizes your brand.

Target your ad to visitors of your website and to those who downloaded the guide or watched the video in your last ad. You can even set this to target past customers by uploading their data into Facebook and aiming your ads to them. This may encourage repeat or referral business. Again, I would set the budget for this ad at around $10 per day, increasing if so desired.

Budget and Test

When running simultaneously, the daily budget can be as low as $40 per day—the cost of one low-cost day tour, so it’s more than worth the effort. If successful, ramp up your budget to get even more out of the partnership.

There are many other types of campaigns you can create and run on Facebook. Once you are comfortable using Facebook ads, experiment a little. Testing and measuring are always required as it allows you to see opportunities that may work wonders for your booking rates, and help you identify low performing ads which should never run again.

Chris Torres
About Chris
Chris Torres has 26 years’ experience working in brand development, design, and marketing, and he’s spent the last 13 years running the Tourism Marketing Agency. Chris is responsible for researching travel and tourism trends and has also written the first, and only, tours and activity marketing book, How to Turn your Online Lookers into Bookers (Tourism Marketing Agency, 2019). The advice in the article above has been adapted from Chris’s book. Feel free to contact Chris at: [email protected]

Oct. 27-30, 2019
Orlando, FL

Berlin
1-3 March, 2020

Registration Open Soon

Tags:

trending

already a member?

Lost your password?

NEED TO REGISTER?

Become an Arival Insider
THE ARIVAL INSIDER PRO ACCESS MEMBERSHIP; YOU GET ALL THIS TO HELP YOU ADVANCE YOUR BUSINESS.

Included in Free Membership

Included in Arival Pro Membership

The Arival on-demand video library archive
Access to the entire library of over 150 video sessions and webinars

Arival.guides
Short, digestible research & trends reports delivering insights into our industry, such as The Tour Operator Outlook for 2021.

Arival.travel articles
Topical articles about marketing, tech, operator business and operator stories in all areas of tours, activities & attractions & experiences

Job board access
Find a job from our regular listings, post a resume to the talent network and learn strategies from the job resources articles

New webinars
Helpful, instructional sessions covering subjects such as Mastering Facebook Ads, Grow Your Business and How To Work With OTAs — topics to help advance your business.

Discounts on all Arival in-person events
20% Discount on all Arival in-person events (save up to $300)* based on business type

Arival ProShield – Insurance program
Access to tailored insurance solutions by Granite Insurance is available exclusively for Arival Insider Pro Access Members. Insider Pro Access Members also have access to a suite of resources from Granite Insurance including templates, forms and other informative documents.

Insiders Pro Access member exclusive webinars
Paid membership-only webinars to deepen your understanding of important industry topics.

Job postings & talent directory
Post jobs & connect with candidates most applicable to your business.

Private roundtables to connect, learn and engage
Small, focused and intimate discussions exclusive to Arival Insider Pro Access members.

Full access to Arival’s library of in-depth reports
Up to date, deep analysis of tourism topics ranging from Self-guided Tours to Sales & Distribution Trends and Outlooks, based on the data that defines the industry.

The latest on-demand videos
Over 350+ on-demand videos featuring hot topics in tours, activities & attractions

Insider discounts in digital marketing, tech, e-learning, and more
Save money on additional tools, services and learnings you need to run your business. Exclusive to paid members.

Membership Overview
ARIVAL CODE OF CONDUCT​
CONFERENCES AND COMMUNITY SPACES​

At Arival, we believe travel can make the world a better place. Our mission is to establish and inspire a diverse community of individuals and companies in the In-destination Industry by providing opportunities to gain insight, share knowledge and build connections. To make it possible for true collaboration, creativity, innovation, and idea exchange to thrive, we are committed to facilitating a welcoming and respectful community for all. This Conference Code of Conduct shares our community expectations and applies to all attendees, employees, exhibitors, speakers, sponsors, volunteers, and other participants at Arival- produced and sponsored events. We empower all participants in our community to actively engage in creating a friendly, inclusive and safe environment for all.

Arival’s core values include the following, and create an expectation for conduct at our events and in online community spaces:

We demonstrate a deep respect for human beings inside and outside our company and for the communities in which they live.
We value integrity and strive to consistently interact with others in ways that are authentic, ethical, and fair.
We are dedicated to transparency, committing to clear, open and honest communication.
We actively pursue and advocate for inclusion, diversity and representation of varying cultural backgrounds, perspectives and ideas

Arival welcomes people from all cultural backgrounds, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, gender (including pregnancy, perceived pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), gender identity, religion (including religious dress and grooming), marital status, domestic partner status, genetic information, age, national origin or ancestry, military or veteran status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Accordingly, participants must refrain from displaying any demeaning, harassing, aggressive, or intimidating behavior or materials that would interfere with others’ experience and participation in our community.

If you witness or are subjected to inappropriate or disruptive behavior or have any other concerns, notify an Arival staff member as soon as possible.

Inappropriate or disruptive behavior will not be tolerated. Arival reserves the right to refuse entry to or remove any party from any event or community space at any time when participation or behavior create a disruption or hinder the event or enjoyment of the event by other participants. All determinations are at the sole discretion of Arival, and the decision of the Arival team will be final. Severe breaches of this Conference Code of Conduct may result in disqualification from participating in future events. Individuals expelled due to violating this Conference Code of Conduct will not be eligible for a refund or other consolation.

If you have questions regarding this Conference Code of Conduct or its implementation, please contact us at [email protected].