Travel brands lag in paid social as ad variety stalls

Travel brands are lagging in paid social advertising, according to research by Nest Commerce and NewtonX. The study found that most surveyed travel marketers plan to increase spending despite having little confidence in how prepared they are for changes on major platforms.

The survey covered 54 senior travel marketers across the UK, Europe and the US, including executives at airlines, hotel groups and online booking sites. It found that 74% expect to spend more on paid social over the next 12 months, but only 15% feel well set up for the direction platforms such as Meta and TikTok are taking.

One of the central findings was the low volume of creative used by many travel brands. Half of those surveyed run 20 or fewer unique ads, compared with 443 for the average eCommerce client cited by Nest.

The report says this gap matters because large social platforms increasingly use AI systems to assess and place ads in front of different audiences. In practice, advertisers with a wider range of distinct ads may have more opportunities to match messages to specific travellers.

Creative shortfall

The survey suggests the travel sector understands customer segmentation better than its advertising output reflects. While 94% of respondents said they build creative around distinct traveller types, only 39% create separate ads for each one.

One hotel group interviewed for the research said it classifies guests into 37 personas, but the study found that this kind of internal segmentation often does not translate into tailored advertising.

The issue is not only the number of ads, but how different they are from one another. Some 65% of travel marketers said a new ad usually changes only surface elements such as destination, price or imagery, while fewer than one in 10 said a new ad introduces a new concept.

Just 30% said they regularly change the reason to book, which the study described as the least frequently altered part of an ad. That suggests a narrow range of messages is being shown even when brands recognise that travellers have different motivations.

Approval delays

The findings also highlight operational constraints inside travel marketing teams. More than three-quarters of respondents said they hit a ceiling when they try to produce more creative.

Brand sign-off was the biggest obstacle to getting creative to market, cited by 31% of those surveyed. By comparison, only 15% pointed to a lack of usable imagery or footage.

One airline loyalty marketer described the pace of internal change in blunt terms: "We are evolving our approach, but it is like trying to handbrake turn a cruise ship."

The study also examined how AI is used within paid social teams. It found that 94% of respondents use AI somewhere in their paid social work, but only 22% use it systematically.

The main barrier was not the technology itself. Instead, 48% cited people and expertise as the biggest challenge, compared with 26% who pointed to the technology.

January pressure

The timing is significant for travel brands because the sector's key booking period is the January peak. The research suggests many marketers are preparing to raise investment in paid social while still relying on a relatively small pool of ads.

That matters as social platforms take on a bigger role in customer acquisition while marketers also monitor the effect of AI-generated search results on traditional search traffic. The report argues that travel brands may need a wider range of tailored ads if they want to compete effectively for attention and conversions.

Luke Jonas, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Nest, said: "The algorithms ask the same of every advertiser: give them plenty of distinct ads and let them find the right person for each one. With so many reasons to book, travel should be better placed than anyone. Yet most travel accounts reach the auction with a handful of hero ads, and the variety in the business never makes it into the feed.

"The brands that build a bank of distinct ads now, one for each traveller and each reason to book, will reach January with the most for the algorithm to work with."