TORONTO — When clients are deciding on their next trip, there is no doubt that Facebook and its sister app Instagram play a massive role.
“From the moment someone is inspired to take a trip to the moment they book, they’re going to 56 travel-related touch points over a span of 43 days,” said Christine Warner, U.S. Head of Travel, Facebook on a recent call to Travelweek. “Over that time, they are spending five times more time on Facebook and Instagram than they are with any other travel-related website or app.”
To help reach that audience, Facebook launched ‘dynamic ads for travel’ in 2016, giving travel agents a way to reach travellers during the buying process.
Now the social media giant is giving partners a way to reach clients before clients have even decided where they will be travelling to with the launch of ‘trip consideration’.
“It will help the travel partner talk to the traveller or engage with the traveller at the beginning of their travel journey, when they have intent to travel but haven’t yet specified where they want to go,” added Warner.
So how can they tell who is considering travelling? Data is the key.
“A recent study found that 68% of millennials turn to Facebook inspiration for their next trip. Trip consideration leverages insights like this, plus behaviours across Facebook, Instagram, our apps, etc., as well as demographic profiles and apps and websites off Facebook in order to personalize the ad experience for a traveller and to maximize results for the advertiser,” said Warner.
Warner said it’s a great tool for everyone including travel agents: “Trip Consideration is launching globally and is available to partners throughout the travel industry. This is a great way for any advertiser in the travel industry to connect with a traveller at the very beginning of their booking [process].”
Warner referenced a recent study that found that 67% of travellers want brands to communicate with them in a more personalized way. “We believe there is no better place to enable this type of personalization and communication than on mobile and Facebook and Instagram.”
She added that the two main goals for Facebook’s travel division is to enable that personalization, while the second is “to help our travel advertisers be where travellers spend more and more of their time – on Facebook and Instagram and Mobile”.
Trip consideration works in conjunction with existing targeting options to help advertisers deliver ads to the right people at the right time. It can be used to drive action across Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network. Brands are already seeing the value of Trip Consideration to inspire travellers to take action.
The new product is also available through Facebook marketing partners including Adphorus, Koddi, MakeMeReach, Smartly.io and StitcherAds. And later this year, Facebook will be extending trip consideration to help further brand building objectives as well.
