Ten reasons why travel marketers should consider Facebook

NB: This is a guest article by Miyako Soeda, Facebook product manager at digital marketing agency Guava.

With over 600 million active users regularly sharing their preferences, likes and location, Facebook’s enormous amount of user data makes the social network an incredibly powerful performance based channel through which advertisers can run highly targeted, cost-effective campaigns.

Sitting somewhere between internet display advertising and paid search, Facebook advertising offers a highly targeted and altogether more social advertising experience.

With the amount of money spent on Facebook advertising set to surge in 2011, digital marketers can no longer ignore the impact of Facebook advertising.

So, here are ten reasons why travel marketers should embrace Facebook advertising:

1. Facebook – Real people share real information with their true identity

Every registered Facebook user can share their address when signing-up, but then Facebook users don’t just share data about where they live.  Many users join location specific ‘networks’ within Facebook which relate to where the live, where they were brought up, where they went to university, where they work, etc.

Whilst geographic targeting isn’t anything new, Facebook has a unique level of data offering enhanced targeting for advertisers.

2. Facebook Location

The majority of Facebook users freely offer up data that allows for demographic profiling such as the job you do, the university you attended and the school you went to, which is all valuable data.

If you for example, if you want to reach out to families for family holidays, you can target your ad campaign to reach 30+ married women.

3. Like is the answer

No other media owns as much personal information on its users than Facebook, which makes keyword targeting an incredibly granular and refined experience for advertisers.

Users freely share their loves and likes which might include for example, loves Spain, diving, hip-hop, thai food, kickboxing, red wine, country pubs, science fiction, romantic novels, etc.

This offers clear advantages for the travel industry as it enables holidays to be targeted based on a customers individual hobbies and interests.

4. Engagement with your brand – your place or mine?

Whilst you could use your Facebook ad campaign to drive people to your company website, the real advantage of Facebook is the ability to take users that click on your ad through to a specially created Facebook page.

Once there, a travel operator can choose to engage a customer in a much more social way, inviting them to participate in forums, browse photo’s of resorts uploaded by users, take part in competitions to win a holiday…it’s down to imagination of the travel operator to be creative!

5. Direct sales channel

With such sophisticated targeting methods, Facebook offers an incredibly direct sales channel through which advertisers can promote specific holidays, late deals, hotspots, etc.

As with internet advertising, all sales activity conducted through Facebook has a clear audit trail with a demonstrable return on investment; it’s a no brainer really.

6. Faster customer service ­= better customer service

With the right social media strategy in place, it is a straight forward process to build a significant following around a special interest user page. This might be a specific travel operator, airline, country or resort.

With half of all Facebook users accessing the social network on a daily basis, Facebook offers a fantastically responsive platform through to conduct customer service and keep customers informed.

For example, security information relating to the crisis in Egypt could be communicated quickly and effectively using your Facebook page, taking the user to place containing much more detailed information.

7. Once people ‘like’ you the re-targeting is free

Once you have built up your user base on your Facebook-page, you can communicate with them for free. i.e offering them something exclusive that does not cost you anything but helps create good relationships.

However, be aware that there’s a thin line between sending out useful information and spamming users, since you then risk them leaving your page.

8. Conversation is the key

Let’s remember Facebook is a social network, where people love to chat and share information with other users.

Therefore the travel industry needs to embrace this by engaging users and encouraging them to input information and even make suggestions on new destinations.

A Facebook advertising campaign can be a great way of getting these conversations started.  Again, be creative, use incentives like discounts and giveaways, reap the benefits.

9. Find new target groups

Based on the results you get from either advertising or the feedback from the active users on your page, you can see what demographics respond best to certain offers or content.

This information can then be used to inform other elements of your overall marketing strategy.

10. Increase Brand awareness

Withone in every 13 people on the planet using Facebook, the potential exposure that Facebook advertising offers can be massive, costing a fraction of what a TV advertising campaign might cost.

Add to that the fact that users love to share and recommend content and you can start to see the potential amplification that a good Facebook advertising campaign can deliver.

When friends recommend or share content on Facebook it has a lot more authenticity, which is obviously great for the brand.

NB: This is a guest article by Miyako Soeda, Facebook product manager at digital marketing agency Guava.