Paid search and paid social are often treated as separate budget lines — separate strategies, separate teams, separate reporting. In our experience working with travel companies, that separation costs performance. The two channels are at their most effective when they’re actively feeding each other, and for tour operators and activity providers navigating both OTA competition on search and a crowded social feed, an integrated approach can make a meaningful difference. Here’s how to make paid search and paid social work together.
Gathering insights
Both channels generate data that the other can use. Paid search tells you which destinations, trip types and queries are generating high-intent traffic — that intelligence is directly applicable to your social creative and audience targeting. If “self-guided cycling tours Portugal” is converting well on Google Ads, that’s a strong signal to build a Facebook campaign around the same destination. Conversely, social engagement data — which content stops the scroll, which destinations generate shares, which traveller types engage most — helps you refine your search ad copy and landing page messaging. We tend to see the best results when both channel teams are sharing data regularly rather than reporting in silos.
Check out the competition
Understanding what your competitors are doing across both channels helps you identify gaps. On search, tools like SEMrush and Auction Insights show you where you’re losing impression share and to whom. On social, Meta’s Ad Library lets you review competitor creative and messaging. For travel brands competing against OTAs, this research is especially valuable — it often reveals opportunities to differentiate on things OTAs can’t easily compete on, such as specialist expertise, guaranteed departures, or direct relationships with local guides. What we’ve found is that travel brands who lean into those differentiators in both their search copy and social creative tend to attract higher-quality enquiries.
Where do you get most of your results?
Not all travel businesses perform equally across both channels, and that’s fine. Some tour operators find that paid search drives the majority of direct bookings because their audience is high-intent and destination-specific. Others, particularly those selling aspirational or experience-led trips, find that social generates better top-of-funnel engagement that eventually converts via search or direct. Understanding your own channel attribution — even roughly — allows you to allocate budget more intelligently. We’d always recommend looking at assisted conversions, not just last-click, before making budget decisions about either channel.
Keep testing
Both paid search and paid social require ongoing testing to stay effective. On search, that means testing ad copy, match types, bid strategies and landing page variations. On social, it means testing creative formats, audiences and messaging angles. What works in January peak planning season won’t necessarily work the same way in autumn, and seasonal creative and copy testing is something we build into the cadence of every travel campaign we manage.
Be more consistent
One of the more common issues we see with travel companies running both channels is inconsistency in messaging. A traveller might click a Google ad promising “expert-led small group tours” and land on a page that doesn’t mention group size or expertise anywhere. Or see a social ad featuring a specific destination and then land on a generic holidays page. Consistency between what your ads promise and what your landing pages deliver is fundamental — and it applies equally to the relationship between your social creative and your search landing pages when a user sees both.
Use PPC to grow a following
Paid search can directly support your social strategy. Running branded search campaigns that drive traffic to your site gives you more qualified visitors to build retargeting audiences from, which you can then reach on social with relevant content. For tour operators with longer booking windows, this kind of cross-channel nurturing — capturing interest on search, staying present on social during the consideration period — is an effective way to compete for bookings that take months to convert.
Use PPC to drive more social shares
High-performing blog content and destination guides that rank well organically can also be promoted through paid search to amplify reach during peak planning periods. Content that gets paid visibility in January, when travel searches spike, has the best chance of earning organic shares and links that benefit you for the rest of the year. The best travel marketing strategies we see treat paid and organic as complementary, not competing — and that applies equally to search and social.