In this blog post, we outline the importance of paid advertising for hostels and the questions needing to be answered before using paid advertising to boost their brand and reach more potential guests online.
Changes to traditional social media advertising on Facebook (and Instagram, they’re owned by the same company) means it’s no longer possible to rely solely on free posts to reach more potential guests and increase direct bookings on a consistent basis.
News of the updated Facebook algorithms earlier in the year stated that posts from business accounts would no longer show up on their follower’s timelines on a frequent basis. This encouraged business’ to use paid advertising on both Facebook and Instagram to ensure their posts would reach both their followers and new potential users. However, it’s not just a matter of hostels paying for a post and watching the new followers, enquiries and direct bookings roll in.
You must think carefully about what you are using paid advertising for and come up with a clear strategy before even thinking about pressing that ‘Boost’ button. The five questions you must answer are:
1. WHAT DO I WANT TO GET OUT OF THIS POST?
Think about the purpose of your content and what you want to achieve with it. There are a variety of reasons to boost a post for your hostel including:
– Increasing bookings and therefore website traffic
– Increasing brand awareness and social media engagement
– Promoting special offers, news and events
Each one of these may have a slightly different target audience and different content.
2. WHO IS MY TARGET AUDIENCE?
The most important factor in boosting posts is targeting the specific audience you want the post to reach. As we just mentioned, sometimes these audiences will be different so it would not make sense to always target the same people when you boost.
Facebook allows you to narrow your target audience based on factors such as age, location, gender, behaviour and interests. So, for example, if you want to target millennial backpackers from the Germany, you can change these preferences to reflect this.
Basically, the more specific you can be at this stage, the more likely your ad will reach the right people.
3. DOES THIS POST SHOWCASE MY HOSTEL EFFECTIVELY?
When scrolling on Facebook, people see hundreds of posts from family & friends as well as adverts. Users who see boosted posts might not be familiar with your brand – the photo or video that accompanies the post will be the first thing they see, so it needs to be eye catching and high quality.
Remember, social media users lose interest in a post within just 7 seconds if they aren’t inspired by the post so make sure your content is showcasing your hostel in the best possible way.
4. WHAT DO I WANT PEOPLE WHO SEE MY POST TO DO AFTER THEY HAVE READ IT?
When your target audience see this post, what do you want them to do? Perhaps it’s to visit your website or like your Facebook page. If so, tell them what to do – add a clear call to action like ‘Visit our website to find out more’.
5. WHAT WORKED BEST WITH MY PREVIOUS POSTS?
To determine which sort of posts to boost, it makes sense to look at posts which are already doing well via the ‘Insights’ tab. This allows you to see which posts are already performing well and you can choose to boost them. Chances are that content performing well on your page will also perform well when seen by a new audience.
Once your boost has finished, make sure you are looking at the data on the insights tab to view how many people engaged and more importantly, who those people are. Identifying the number of people who engaged with your call to action allows you to see what works and what doesn’t and is imperative in having a successful boost strategy.
Answering these questions prior to boosting your post or using paid advertising to launch a campaign post will ensure you are targeting the right people, in the right place with high quality content. This will enable your hostel to reach more potential guests, inspire travellers to book a stay and increase your direct bookings.
Using paid advertising to promote your hostel and seeing no results? Never used paid advertising but are looking for someone to support your hostel with effective online promotions? Get in touch and we’d love to have a chat about how we can work together. Or, stay in touch by following us on Instagram.
