Facebook Advertising Brings Demand for Travel Packages
How this Case Study may be relevant to you: This campaign deals in advertising campaigns that speak to several distinct target audiences and changing creative to keep ads fresh for those audiences. Genesee County is on the leading edge of digital marketing trends, and Tourism Marketing Director Kelly Rapone is focused on making the best use of every ad dollar.
In 2018 the Genesee County Golf Program saw an estimated total economic impact of $256,548 in 2018, representing an ROI of $53 for every $1 spent.
Situational Analysis
Genesee County is a small destination located in Upstate NY between Rochester, and Buffalo. The community was looking for an innovative way to increase visitation and identified a niche by packaging their high-end golf courses. In 2016, the golf getaway packages program launched, with the Tourism office providing booking services for golf trips including tee times and hotel stays.
The Challenge
The DMO wanted to increase the reach of the Golf Getaway Packages with a limited budget.
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Objective
Direct golfers in a 6-hour drive radius to inquire about golf getaways in Genesee County
Strategic Insight
Focus on targeting
Together with Tourism Marketing Director Kelly Rapone, we determined that a key to success was understanding each drive-to market: how interested they are in the message, what the ROI is for each market and speaking directly to those markets.
Photo Credit: Jim Ver Hague
Strategic Approach
Break the Ice Media created Facebook advertising campaigns with separate ads for every geographic audience.
- Each ad either mentioned the target geography or the drive time to the destination.
- Ads were analyzed and adapted from week to week; campaign to campaign; year to year.
Tactics
- Facebook Advertising: audience creation, campaign building, monitoring, adjustments
- Facebook Management: monitoring & responding to comments on the ads
- Reporting: Bi-weekly and campaign-end reports
Results
Results
Through the golf program, the Genesee County Office of Tourism estimates that in 2018 the community saw a total economic impact of $256, 548 representing an ROI of $53 for every $1 spent.
In 2019, the campaigns for the Golf Getaway program received a Tourism Excellence Award from the New York State Tourism Industry Association.
Photo Credit: Genesee County Chamber of Commerce
Result Recap
- In 2016, the 3-month campaign booked 143 packages (286 golfers) 80% of the golfers were from Canada and most were repeat guests and referrals.
- In 2017, the Facebook ad campaign was added to the marketing mix and customer bookings increased by 45%.
- By 2018, the campaign became stronger and bookings grew by another 60%.