Facebook recently announced new features for DAT which include new ad types, creative options, and targeting capabilities. By introducing new Dynamic Ads for Travel features, Facebook is helping advertisers increase their ability to reach customers where they are and accomplish marketing objectives like gaining awareness, generating leads, and driving booking volume.

Not Just Retargeting

Facebook has expanded DAT’s targeting capabilities to include Broad Audiences. Broad Audiences allows advertisers to serve dynamic advertisements to users who have expressed destination-level intent but haven’t been to the brand’s website or app. This presents an opportunity to drive incremental bookings from new customers while driving site traffic down the funnel to increase retargeting audience size.

We expect Facebook will continue to create new targeting options to help advertisers reach people higher in the funnel. The chart below demonstrates how Broad Audiences fits into a full-funnel strategy.

Creating Great Ad Experiences

Three new creative options are enhancing the ability to provide great ad experiences to users. Creative variation is key as advertisers look to differentiate and stand out in the Facebook feed.

1) Collections Ads

Collections originally debuted within DPA, but quickly made its way over to DAT. A large hotel brand saw the opportunity to use this ad type to drive sales and a brand message.

After working with Koddi to match the product feed to fit this ad type, the advertiser saw an 11% click-through rate (CTR) increase along with a 3x return on ad spend (ROAS) increase versus other ad types. Travel brands should take advantage of this opportunity to display a brand message with relevant inventory.

2) Creative Overlays

In July, Facebook created the ability to apply an overlay to dynamic ads that can use values from a product feed like price, discount percent and strikethrough pricing. Previously, Facebook’s Marketing Partners created proprietary solutions to apply dynamics overlays. The custom overlays are often more aesthetically pleasing than Facebook Native Overlays, but this new solution really serves advertisers who were not able to make overlays a reality previously.

3) Social Context

Facebook has added social proof into Dynamic Ads for Travel so that users can see which of their friends have visited a city. This helps move travelers from the inspiration to consideration stage as they realize that people they know and trust have taken a similar trip.

A Full-Funnel Approach

Even though the largest players in the travel industry have DAT retargeting integrated into their “always on” media mix, Facebook is still iterating on the product frequently and driving new innovations. What this means for advertisers is that they can use DAT to address awareness and consideration through direct response and customer loyalty.

To learn more about DAT and how you can create a full-funnel strategy, contact our social team.