Facebook advertising – three ways to target more bookings

Last Updated on December 31, 2015 by admin

18^th May 2012 may have been just another day for most, but for Facebook it was another significant step in the astronomical rise of the world’s largest social network. Their Initial Public Offering (IPO) not only set the value of the company at a whopping $104 billion but also set the course of the company for the years to come.

An increase emphasis on Facebook advertising

With a public company comes pressure to provide a return for shareholders, meaning Facebook now has an increased emphasis on revenue and the best way to create it.  What does that mean for holiday homeowners using Facebook to reach potential guests? It means your page posts don’t travel quite as far as they once did (the average page post now only reaches between 10 – 20% of all page likes).

And where do you turn when your reach is restricted? You invariably turn to advertising.

We take a look at three Facebook advertising options you may not be familiar with and could help you fill nights at your holiday home.

Targeting the right connections to increase bookings

In order to advertise on Facebook you’ll need to visit their advert manager.  If you haven’t before then this needn’t be a daunting prospect; Facebook have made this as simple as possible. After all, it’s in their best interest for you to use it and to gain bookings from it.

We’re going to focus on the option toward the bottom of the screen, which is called “Connections”.

Advertising to your page likes

We’ve already said that your posts only reach 10 – 20% of your page likes.  What about the other 80% of people who have already shown an interest in your holiday home?  The first port of call for your advertising should always be with your Page likes.  You know they’re already engaged with your property, so you want to ensure they know of availability and promotions as and when you want to highlight them.

In order to do this, click on the ‘Connections’ option, and set it to ‘Facebook Pages’ and ‘People that like your Page’.  You’ll not need to alter any other settings or demographics; Facebook will ensure your post gets to all of your Page likes.

Advertising to their friends

Social groups are bound together by people with common characteristics or interests; whether it’s the local football team, people who grew up together (and are therefore of the same age) or parents on the school run, it’s what makes friends socialise with each other, and it’s what makes Facebook tick.  With that in mind, if advertising to your page likes hasn’t got the booking, then the next logical step should be advertising to the friends of your Facebook page likes.

They’re likely to be interested in your property (based on having similar interests to their friends) and Facebook will also highlight that their friend already like your page, giving your post even more credibility and chance of success.

In order to do this, click on the ‘Connections’ option, and set it to ‘Facebook Pages’ and ‘Friends of People that like your Page’.

Traditional Advertising

The success of any advertising, including trying to gain bookings for a holiday cottage, is linked to reaching the right people; the ones that are most likely to stay with you. Facebook advertising is extremely powerful in this respect, allowing you to target all aspects of a profile and reach those potential guests.

Build a picture in your mind of the average visitor to your cottage and fill out all of the demographic information you can in the Facebook advert manager; you want to make it as specific as possible, whilst also having enough people to advertise to! Think of where they may live, how old they may be and other factors, such as whether or not they’re parents.

Once completed you need to set the ‘Connections’ setting to ‘Exclude people who like your page’ as you will have already advertised to them in our first option.

You will then have taken three steps to maximise the chances of getting that booking!

Find it all a little too confusing? Why not appoint a holiday home letting agent to take care of the marketing for your your holiday letting business.

If you have found this blog post on Facebook Advertising of interest do check out our other holiday home marketing posts by following the link – Holiday Home Marketing.

When holiday letting your second home to paying guests it’s essential to take advice on suitable insurance. Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to holiday letting owners across the UK. For more information on how a specialist insurer can help and support your holiday home business, please give us a call on 01237 429444.