Social media has become a critical tool for travelers researching travel destinations, accommodations, and unique experiences. From scrolling through TikTok and Instagram Reels, checking YouTube hotel reviews, and reading through resort-specific Facebook Groups, travelers are constantly engaging with visual and informative content before making travel decisions.
The challenge for travel brands is that organic reach on social media platforms is increasingly limited. Algorithm changes and high competition mean that even compelling content may not reach a large audience. On the other hand, paid social media campaigns can be expensive and feel too transactional if not balanced with authentic storytelling.
The opportunity lies in combining organic and paid social media strategies. Organic social content builds trust and inspires potential travelers, while paid advertising campaigns expand reach and drive conversions. Together, they form a marketing funnel that engages travelers at every stage of their decision-making journey.
Use Organic Social Media to Build Trust & Brand Personality
Organic social media is the space to show your brand’s personality, connect authentically with travelers, and nurture long-term loyalty. It’s where your destination or hospitality brand can create meaningful engagement without appearing too salesy.
Successful organic social media content often includes:
- Behind-the-scenes footage or images at resorts, tours, or destinations
- User-generated content from real travelers
- Destination highlights and local cultural stories
- Employee spotlights and sustainability initiatives
Travelers trust real experiences from real people. Organic social media provides a safe space for audiences to interact, comment, share, and save content. By tracking engagement, brands can identify what resonates and uses it to guide broader campaigns.
Testing and Optimization:
Test different post formats like photos, videos, reels, and stories to see which drives the most engagement with your audience.
- Focus on destination highlights, guest testimonials, and experience-driven content.
- Track post engagement metrics such as shares, saves, comments, and watch time, and website clicks to identify top-performing posts.
- Use top performing posts to create lookalike audiences for the people most likely to engage with your content.
Paid Social: Driving Bookings and Expanding Reach
Paid social campaigns are the engine to put your content in front of travelers who are ready to book or consider your destination. Unlike organic content, paid campaigns allow brands to target in-market customers precisely and measure revenue and marketing ROI.
Types of Paid Social Adverting Campaigns
- Retargeting people who visited your website or engaged with organic posts
- Targeting niche traveler profiles, including adventure seekers, luxury travelers, or family vacationers.
- Promoting seasonal offers, last-minute deals, or newly launched experiences.
Paid social campaigns allow brands to scale content beyond existing followers and track measurable outcomes such as website clicks, leads, and bookings. They are particularly effective when paired with top-performing organic content, ensuring that the paid ads feel authentic and engaging.
Amplifying Organic Winners with Paid Social Advertising:
Most paid social advertising performs best when paired with strong a strong profile in organic social. Brand profiles that have large audiences and good user engagement have a significant advantage in both cost and effectiveness of targeting when deploying social advertising.
- Promote posts that already resonate organically to your lower cost per click for advertising.
- Use engaged audiences from your organic social posts to offer specific promotions and offers through paid advertising.
- Test different calls-to-action with A/B testing when boosting organic posts that already have good engagement.
- Leverage insights from your organic posts to guide creative for your paid campaigns
- Utilize your organic followers to create better lookalike audiences for social advertising
How Organic Social & Advertising Work Together: The Funnel Concept
Paid and organic social work best when integrated into a strategy that mirrors the traveler’s buying journey.
- Awareness and trust (organic) – Inspires interest and builds credibility through authentic content.
- Conversion and reach (paid) – Targets the travelers most likely to book, accelerating the decision-making process.
The log-term value of this approach is clear: paid campaigns drive immediate bookings, while organic content strengthens brand loyalty and authority, ensuring sustainable growth for your travel business.
For travel and tourism brands, the key to social media success is not choosing between organic or advertising, but understanding how they complement each other. Organic social media content establishes trust and showcases your brand personality, while paid campaigns amplify proven content to the right audience at the right time.
By integrating these strategies, travel marketers can create a powerful funnel that drives bookings, fosters loyalty, and builds a lasting connection with travelers.
At Foundery we love to craft social media strategy that integrates your compelling social content with highly precise and effective advertising. If your social media team needs support integrating paid social advertising into a more cohesive social strategy, let’s talk!
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