Now that summer is in full swing, many of us have one thing on our minds: travel. Interest in travel-related search topics like “hotel” spikes during the hottest months of the year…
…prompting travel brands large and small to battle it out for our vacation bucks.
But how do the travel industry’s biggest advertisers leverage display ads to differentiate themselves? Where are they spending their money? And what types of creatives and landing pages do they use?
To answer all those questions (and more), we used Adbeat data to dive into the display ad strategies of three major property-booking platforms:
- Airbnb
- Booking.com
- VRBO
Here’s what we found…
Airbnb
Ad spend and networks
Our estimated data shows that Airbnb shelled out approximately $7.3 million on display advertising in the US in the last six months, with the vast majority spent in just a few days during February, March, and April.
Pretty much all of that budget went toward video ads, with the brand spending an estimated $7 million on YouTube during our study period.
Publishers
We already know YouTube is Airbnb’s top publisher. But let’s get more specific by looking drilling down into their top YouTube channels:
As you can see, their placement strategy is heavily tilted toward mainstream Spanish-language music artists. All of which suggests Airbnb is chasing a distinctly youthful audience, with a particular focus on vacationers from Latino backgrounds.
Creatives
Standard
Travel marketing is all about selling an experience — from exploring a historic city to embracing a new culture to kicking back on the beach with a cocktail. And that process gets a whole lot easier when you back up your words with attractive imagery.
For that reason, Airbnb’s standard ads are image-heavy. In fact, many of them don’t include any words at all, like this one…
…and this one:
Native
Airbnb takes a somewhat scattergun approach to native ad targeting, with creatives aimed at vacationers…
…prospective Airbnb hosts…
…and event planners:
(Incidentally, ads like the Scottsdale Airbnb example typically use location insertion, allowing brands to automatically tailor their ad text based on searchers’ locations, regular locations, or locations of interest.)
However, it’s important to note that native ads are a minor part of Airbnb’s display strategy, accounting for less than 1 percent of their total budget in the last six months.
Video
Unusually, Airbnb’s four biggest-spending ads throughout our review period were aimed at Spanish speakers. Now it makes sense why they spent all that money on Becky G’s YouTube channel, huh?
Their #1 ad, with an estimated spend of $800,000+, persuaded young parents to book an Airbnb rather than a hotel for their next trip:
Other creatives in the same campaign targeted groups of friends traveling together…
…and even solo travelers with pets:
As you can see, Airbnb has adopted a consistent style of animation, background music, and voiceover throughout these ads. So if you’ve seen one of them, there’s a good chance you’ll recognize the others.
Time will tell if Airbnb is actually prioritizing Spanish-speaking audiences as part of its display ad strategy, or if they’re planning to expand this campaign to English speakers as summer gets closer.
Landing Pages
Property portals like Airbnb have two main target audiences:
- People planning a trip
- Property owners looking to make some extra cash
Those two audience types have totally different reasons to use Airbnb — which requires two different types of landing pages to meet their needs.
When it comes to targeting vacationers, Airbnb prefers to send ad clickers straight to its homepage, or to specific property pages like this one:
But their property owner-themed landing pages are a little more sophisticated, featuring an eye-catching earnings estimator that updates based on your current location:
There’s also a comparison table designed to demonstrate how Airbnb is way ahead of the competition in terms of protecting property owners:
If you’re convinced, you can click the ever-present CTA button at the top of the screen to start your journey as an Airbnb host:
Booking.com
Ad spend and networks
Booking.com is already the most popular accommodation-booking platform in the US:
And they’re clearly in no rush to relinquish their lead, spending an estimated $21.1 million on display ads over the last six months — approximately three times more than Airbnb.
Like Airbnb, the vast majority of their budget went toward video ads, with the brand spending ~$21 million on YouTube.
Publishers
Booking.com’s top YouTube channels suggest they’re targeting a much broader audience than Airbnb:
Top spot goes to MrBeast, who’s big with younger viewers. But they’re also spending a bunch of money on channels with somewhat older fanbases, like Mariah Carey, The Police, and violinist Lindsey Stirling.
I guess if you’re already the market leader, it makes sense to cast your net as wide as possible.
Creatives
Standard
Booking.com doesn’t spend much on standard ads — but that doesn’t stop the brand experimenting with some clever strategies.
For instance, they demonstrate the power of smart copywriting, creating a bunch of ads featuring phrases like “find your overseas home”:
All of which makes you subconsciously imagine booking a trip yourself.
They’re also happy to experiment with different audiences. For instance, they ran a standard ad campaign targeting baseball fans (spot the subtle baseball diamond image in the background)…
…with every ad in the campaign published on the official Major League Baseball website.
Native
Booking.com ran a grand total of two native ads in the last six months — one text ad and one text/image ad. Here they are:
There’s not much to tell you here, other than the fact that native advertising clearly isn’t a big part of Booking.com’s strategy.
Video
Video ads, on the other hand, definitely play a key role in the brand’s display ad strategy. During our review period, seven different Booking.com video ads racked up $1+ million in spending.
Their top ad by spend, with an estimated budget of $5.1 million, was this 15-second video starring Tina Fey:
And there were several other variants of the same campaign, like this one featuring Tina Fey as an influencer…
…and this one incorporating a cameo from Glenn Close:
All share the same irreverent tone of voice, which helps to remind audiences that planning a vacation should be fun.
Oh, and they also spent big bucks (an estimated $2.8 million) on a video campaign to tie in with the launch of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
These pop culture-infused campaigns say a lot about the brand’s positioning. Both Tina Fey and the Ghostbusters franchise are huge names — but they don’t take themselves too seriously. Just like Booking.com itself!
Landing Pages
Most Booking.com ads send clickers straight to the brand’s homepage. But they do occasionally use purpose-built landing pages, such as during the Ghostbusters campaign we mentioned above.
Their Ghostbusters landing page encourages visitors to book their “own haunted getaway”. It incorporates a bunch of imagery and animations from the movie…
…plus information about some of the famous Ghostbusters locations in New York:
There’s even a recommendation for a specific spooky hotel to stay in…
…which, naturally, ties in with Booking.com’s product offering.
VRBO
Ad spend and networks
In the last six months, VRBO spent an estimated $3.6 million on display ads in the US.
Unlike Airbnb and Booking.com, they didn’t rely solely on YouTube, instead splitting their budget 60:40 between video and programmatic.
Publishers
Surprisingly, YouTube is nowhere to be seen on the list of VRBO’s top publishers:
Honestly, we analyze a lot of display ad campaigns and strategies, and YouTube is almost always in the top five — most often at #1. So it’s nice to see a brand doing things differently.
Realtor.com and Tripadvisor both make total sense: if you’re searching for your dream home or browsing attractions, you might be in the market for booking accommodation through VRBO.
Meanwhile, they predominantly use USA Today to target sports fans…
…which is another smart move. Because supporting your team might involve a ton of travel, right?
Creatives
Standard
VRBO’s top standard ad by spend, with an estimated budget of $587,000 in the last six months, is this evergreen creative designed to replicate the brand’s on-site search bar:
This is simple but effective, with a CTA button that looks like a natural part of the creative while also encouraging viewers to click through.
Our platform data shows us that in the past month, VRBO has started experimenting with some new messaging in its standard ads, prompting people to “be the group trip MVP”:
The use of the phrase “MVP” feels very sports-oriented, which ties in with their placements on all those USA Today fan pages.
Native
Almost all of the brand’s native ads feature some combination of the phrases “quick getaway”, “sponsored by VRBO”, and “book now”, plus an image of an attractive vacation property:
But we also found a few examples that play around with this tried-and-trusted messaging formula, including this ad promising that VRBO homes are “easy to get to”:
It seems VRBO’s strategy here is to promise a friction-free experience, while using their well-known brand name to reassure bookers.
Video
VRBO clearly feels that privacy is a key differentiator versus other property-booking portals.
All the video ads we reviewed included the tagline: “Private vacation rentals.”
Not only that, but they have a campaign featuring different types of group travelers, from young families to sports fans to divorce parties…
…all of which end with the phrase: “With a VRBO, it’s always just you, your people, and no one else.”
Sure, these ads aren’t as flashy as Booking.com’s celebrity campaigns, but they do an excellent job of communicating VRBO’s brand proposition.
Landing Pages
Simplicity is a key element of VRBO’s landing pages, too.
Their landing pages all look pretty similar, but they’re tailored to individual campaigns. So when they’re promoting whole vacation homes, they send you to a dedicated landing page…
…or if you’re interested in road trip inspiration, that’s what you get:
Again, there’s nothing particularly exciting or innovative here. It’s all about delivering the smoothest-possible booking experience.
Conclusion
From business to pleasure, from family vacations to getaways with friends, and from beach stays to city breaks, there are lots of reasons why we travel.
Which, in turn, means there are lots of ways for travel brands to target potential customers. So it’s no surprise that Airbnb, Booking.com, and VRBO have very different approaches to display advertising:
- Airbnb is targeting a specific customer demographic
- Booking.com is big on building brand awareness through high-profile ad campaigns
- VRBO cuts out all the bells and whistles to focus on privacy and simplicity
Which strategy works best? That’s not for us to decide — but all three definitely made us want to book our next vacation.
Want to tap into data like this? You can with Adbeat! Request your live Adbeat demo here.