In This Tourism Marketing Quick Tip:
Microsoft has followed in the footsteps of Google and is now offering its version of Things To Do Ads called Tours and Activities Ads. This new ad format is becoming a powerful tool to get ahead of the competition.
Follow along to learn:
- How to take advantage of this new ad platform
- Why these ads are a power tool
Here’s how you can take advantage of this new ad platform
- Go to your booking engine and download a CSV file containing your products. It should contain things like links to the tour images, price, title, etc.
- Now, sign up for a Microsoft Ads account at www.ads.microsoft.com. When you log in to your ads account, go to Tools → Business Data → Dynamic Data Feeds. Here, you can get the template spreadsheet for Tours And Activities Ads and you can fill it in with the export from your booking engine.
- Build the campaign, following the instruction guide, and when it’s approved, your Tours And Activities Ads will begin to deliver.
- If you run some searches in Bing for activities+locations, for example, ziplines Las Vegas, you are likely to see them. They look similar to Google’s Things To Do Ads with an image, a tour title, price, business name, and sometimes other details such as ratings and tour duration.
Why this is a powerful tool
- Most tour operators are under-represented on Bing. If you even had a Microsoft Ads account when you started watching this video, you’re ahead of the curve.
- OTAs seem to dominate many of these tour and activity ad results, and you already know how we at Blend Marketing feel about direct bookings.
- This is a self-serve opportunity that you can set up quickly, so that means less red tape and more reach and revenue for your tour.
Make sure to follow along with our Tourism Marketing Video Quick Tip Series here.
