Want to boost your travel and tourism marketing plan? Here’s how, using a combo of audio and social ads
In tourism marketing, social media is a fundamental go-to channel. It’s very visual, has a huge reach and ROAS can be easily monitored. But what about the weaknesses of social media? Distrust of images, huge competition, and rapid mindless scrolling. How can you minimise these weaknesses to make your tourism marketing efforts stronger? Programmatic podcast advertising could be the solution.
Why?
In a nutshell, a social media + programmatic audio advertising plan increases the number of memorable, trusted occurrences in your customer’s day. Thereby fostering more opportunities for a sale. Not to mention it’s budget-friendly, with both channels having a low cost-per-acquisition.
What is programmatic podcast advertising?
Before I dive into the meaty topic of a social and audio media plan – let’s first understand “what is programmatic podcast advertising?“! Programmatic podcast advertising is the automated insertion of your pre-recorded audio ad (ideally 20-30 secs) into ad markers placed within podcast shows. Based on your targeting parameters, it will broadcast across shows within numerous podcast networks and platforms, such as pre-rolls (before the content), mid-rolls (in the middle of the content), or post-rolls (at the end of the content). Some of the features and benefits of programmatic podcast advertising are:
- You gain from the lean-in podcast environment that brings huge trust, connection, and recall to your brand.
- It aggregates all the platforms, networks, producers etc. into one place, so you aren’t dealing with multiple companies, salespeople and processes. This makes it fast and simple.
- It’s trackable in terms of performance and conversions.
- Precision contextual, dynamic and demographic targeting, means your ad is heard by the right people at the right time.
Podcasts are huge and gaining in popularity. Yet, for its size, considerably under-utilised by advertisers. Programmatic podcast advertising gives you access to this huge audience in the simplest and cheapest way.
How podcast advertising can enhance social media campaigns
A good tourism social media campaign will have scrollers pausing when they see your ad. You’ll catch them and make them think. “oooo I want to go there! “.
Using beautiful, emotion-triggering images is a typical way to do this. But people are skeptical of what they see on social. Photoshopping is so commonplace, consumers will feel your image is exaggerated or totally fake! To increase the chances of a meaningful pause occurring, familiarity is key. Which is where podcast ads come in.
Where social media fails but audio rules are deep immersion and recall. Listeners pay attention to podcasts because they are self-selected and a topic of interest. This is why audio ads have an average listen through-rate of 85-94%. Audio ad recall is also the highest of any channel. Edison’s Super Listeners 2021 study found 86% of those surveyed recalled ads they heard on a podcast. By being exposed to your destination in audio format, people are more likely to recall it. Therefore building familiarity. When they see your social post it’s significantly more likely to grab their attention because they know you.
Not only have you been able to trigger a pause with familiarity, but another byproduct is trust. Why? Because listeners trust what they hear. In 2021, 41% of surveyed Spotify listeners said they trust ads more when they hear them on a podcast. Compared to just 22% that trust social media ads. When they trust you, they will believe what they see.
To instill familiarity is to also instill trust, increasing the likelihood that your destination will be chosen over your competitors.
Important considerations
If you’ve decided to see how audio can amplify your social tourism marketing efforts, here are our top tips for succeeding:
- Targeting – you want the same people to hear your ad and see your ad. You must use the same targeting parameters. Programmatic podcast tech has contextual and demographic filters to narrow in on your key audience.
- Ad content – all of your tourism ads should revolve around the same selling point, whether it’s audio or visual. Create a catchphrase, tagline, etc. and use it across all media channels. We’ve transformed the text of Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and even Twitter posts into audio scripts for many clients. This is a fast and simple way to ensure commonalities.
- Create a sound – the majority of us have all heard the sound of waves on a beach, the hum of an plane, or the lively chatter of a city. Align the image you’re using on social media to the same sound. When you do this the emotional connection is deeper, recall is higher and your campaign is more effective.
The Bottom Line
In travel and tourism, competition is huge and conversion can be a long and hard process. Using the powerful programmatic podcast and social media duo you’ll amplify your marketing while keeping costs low. Together they make each other stronger, giving you more reach and opportunity for conversion.
