How To: Create a Scalable Hotel Social Media Ad Plan

December 17, 2019

Just like creating a monthly content calendar can get overwhelming, creating a scalable hotel social media ad plan can also be stressful and time-consuming. How much budget goes into content amplification vs. booking ads? How much do we spend on meetings vs. F&B? Did we spend enough on booking ads this month? 

Don’t restart this process from scratch every month! Start with an overarching ad plan, and scale the process to make the ads game work for you. Check out our tips below to create a scalable hotel social media ad plan.

How To: Create a Scalable Hotel Social Media Ad Plan
Photo by Will Francis on Unsplash

Creating an Ad Budget Breakdown

 

Start by thinking about your overall goals.

Are you trying to increase general awareness of your business? Do you have departmental goals?

 

List these goals out in order of importance.

Consider seasonal goals as well. Make note of those so you can allocate budget by month.

Goal
Book rooms
Increase awareness of the hotel in northeast target markets.
Drive foot traffic to F&B outlet for happy hour

 

Take a look at your overall budget.

Allocate a portion of your budget to each goal. Since you listed your goals in order of importance, the proportion of budget should decrease as you move down your list. Keep in mind that this is just a general plan, and that you can make changes month-to-month as needed. However, this is crucial to having a scalable hotel social media ad plan. It keeps you from having to restart every month, and ensures your budget is going to spaces where it can be the most impactful. The example above then becomes:

Goal Budget
Book rooms $400
Increase awareness of the hotel in northeast target markets. $200
Drive foot traffic to F&B outlet for happy hour $100
TOTAL $700

 

Create a central location where this budget can easily be referenced.

This should be accessible to any team member who works on budget execution. This should also be updated throughout the year if goals or strategies change.

 

Where possible, decide on KPIs.

Then document it. This gives you leeway to pivot and reallocate budget to new initiatives if you’ve hit your goals.

Goal Budget KPI
Book rooms  $400 Return on Ad Spend
Increase awareness of the hotel in northeast target markets. $200 People Reached
Drive foot traffic to F&B outlet for happy hour $100 # of people who use social media-only promo code
TOTAL $700

 

Tips for Ad Execution
  • Find a central space to keep track of planned ads. Has the ad been strategized? Executed on? Completed?
  • Don’t forget to keep track of performance on a weekly basis. If an ad is not performing to the best of its abilities, make adjustments to make sure it’s not costing more than necessary. If an ad is performing well, it may warrant an increased ad budget to help achieve your goals at a lower cost/result.