Travel & Tourism - PPC
Destination searches cost $2-$8 per click, and booking-intent keywords run $4-$12 per click. That's a real budget commitment, which means every dollar needs to work. We build travel PPC campaigns around your actual booking window, average trip value, and seasonal demand, not a generic template pulled from a different industry.
Destination and activity searches carry real commercial intent, and paid search puts you in front of a traveler at the exact moment they're ready to book. Destination-level searches run $2-$8 per click, while specific booking-intent terms run $4-$12 per click. Those numbers only make sense if the campaign structure, landing pages, and conversion tracking behind them are built correctly. We build all three around your booking platform and your real economics.
Approach
Five areas we build into every travel PPC account.
We structure campaigns around how travelers actually search: destination-level campaigns, activity or experience-specific campaigns, and remarketing campaigns aimed at travelers who researched but didn't book. Each gets its own budget logic and bidding strategy.
We target the specific combination of destination, activity type, and booking-intent modifiers that separate a researcher from a ready-to-book traveler, and we build negative keyword lists that keep spend away from unrelated searches.
Travel ad copy has to do more than list a price. It needs to communicate the experience, build urgency around limited availability or seasonal windows, and speak directly to the traveler's intent, whether that's adventure, relaxation, or a specific occasion.
Every campaign should route to a landing page built for that specific search, not your homepage. We build dedicated landing pages with live booking availability, clear pricing, and trust signals that match the intent of the ad that brought the traveler there.
We connect conversion tracking directly to your booking platform (FareHarbor, Bokun, Rezdy, Peek Pro) so you can see actual booking value by campaign, not just click-through rates. Without this, you're optimizing toward the wrong signal.
Travel demand is rarely flat across the year. We build budget pacing and bid strategies around your specific seasonal curve so you're not overspending in slow months or underspending right before peak season.
Travel campaigns often need to target both the destination itself and the origin markets travelers come from. We build geo-targeting layers for both, since the right radius and location settings differ significantly between a local day-trip operator and a destination resort.
Viator, Expedia, and GetYourGuide bid aggressively on branded and generic travel terms, which drives up costs. We build strategies that account for this competition instead of ignoring it, including bidding on your own brand terms to protect direct booking share.
The majority of travel research and a large share of bookings happen on mobile. We optimize landing pages and booking flows specifically for mobile conversion, since a campaign that performs well on desktop can still underperform badly on the device most travelers are actually using.
Budget
Real ranges based on the campaigns we run today, not industry averages pulled from a report.
Brand awareness
Starting at $500
Per month, ad spend
Single-destination lead generation
$2,000-$5,000
Per month, ad spend
Multi-destination
$5,000-$15,000
Per month, ad spend
National or international
$15,000+
Per month, ad spend
These figures are ad spend, separate from our management fee, which we quote based on account complexity and number of destinations managed. We'll help you find the right starting budget in a free consultation based on your booking economics and growth goals.
Send us your project and we'll scope it straight -- no pushy sales.
Deeper reads pulled from our blog, all written with travel and tourism operators in mind.
Good to know
It depends on your goal. Brand awareness campaigns start around $500/mo, single-destination lead generation typically runs $2,000-$5,000/mo, multi-destination campaigns run $5,000-$15,000/mo, and national or international programs run $15,000+/mo. Destination-level clicks cost $2-$8, and booking-intent clicks run $4-$12, so your budget needs to support enough clicks to generate a meaningful number of bookings.
Not always on the broadest terms, where OTA budgets are enormous. But independent operators can compete effectively on branded terms, specific activity and destination combinations, and remarketing to travelers who already visited your site. We focus your budget where it has the best chance of winning.
Usually yes. OTAs frequently bid on your brand name to intercept travelers who are already looking specifically for you, which can quietly shift bookings from your direct site to a commissioned channel. Bidding on your own brand protects that traffic and is typically one of the most cost-efficient parts of a travel PPC account.
We build a seasonal pacing plan at the start of the engagement based on your historical booking patterns. Budgets typically scale up ahead of your peak booking window and pull back during shoulder or off-season periods, so spend tracks demand instead of staying flat all year.
Yes. Meta and Instagram campaigns work well for travel, particularly for destination and experience discovery earlier in the research phase. We build cross-platform strategies where Google captures booking-intent searches and social platforms build awareness and remarket to past visitors.
Still have questions? We're happy to answer them, let's connect.
Tell us about your project and we'll take a look. No pushy sales, no wasted calls.