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How Much Do Instagram Ads Cost

Samuel Edwards
|
November 7, 2022

With nearly 1 billion Instagram users as of 2019, this app has taken the social media world by storm in the past few years. The photo-sharing app is a great way to interact with people, but businesses of all sizes also use it to reach out to their target audience, increase engagement, raise brand awareness, and alternative sales funnel.

Number of Instagram Users, instagram ad costs ANd how much instagram ad costs?

If you use Instagram properly, you can earn significant revenue through the social media platform without spending a lot. It is a great place to market your brand and products and generate website traffic.

Read ahead to see how much Instagram ads cost, the factors that influence these costs, and why it is necessary to use this platform to reach people.

How Instagram Ads Work?

How Instagram Ads Work

Instagram is a massively successful platform that businesses take advantage of to grow their awareness. They use visual content such as pictures and short videos to advertise their brand through different campaigns.

An Instagram ad campaign launch instagram ads works well with a Facebook ad account. You can use your already existing one for Facebook promotional purposes or create a new Instagram business. However, it is better to use an Instagram account to understand your target audiences’ wants to increase your organic marketing efforts.

Facebook Power Editor and Instagram Ads Manager manage all Instagram ads considering your budget, time frame, optimization goals, and audience.

Your brand’s campaign objective determines the number of call-to-action (CTA) button options you can have on your Instagram ads. However, this number cannot be more than eighteen. Furthermore, the ads can have a website link, application download options, and online shopping options.

Reasons To Invest In Instagram Advertising

Reasons To Invest In Instagram Advertising

Social media marketing is at the top of its game in this day and age because of the billions of social media platforms’ users. Since Instagram is a popular app, there are several reasons why investing in its ads will be advantageous for your business.

Vast Reach

Instagram has become a massively popular app, faring close to YouTube and Facebook. For your businesses’ purposes, you have to determine your audience’s percentage to respond to it. With so many Instagram influencers, you can reach out to them to influence their followers to consider your brand.

However, you can target the small-scale influencers instead of the big names to drive more engagement with the followers. This is because these influencers share a trusted bond with their intimate community of followers. When they recommend your brand to others, it sounds more trustworthy than selling it like an ad.

External Links

At present, your organic posts cannot have clickable links on Instagram. The app allows you to add a link in your message or caption, but you can either access it through their bios or copy-pasting the link in your browser.

You can add external links in Instagram advertising, allowing you to create designated destination URLs that lead to your website. Using your domain with an implemented Pixel enables you to monitor the website traffic your Instagram advertisements generate, which is not usually present on external website URLs.

Generates More Web Traffic

Once you’ve created your brand’s presence, interested customers will want to know details about your brand and the products or services you sell. This allows you to tell them your story in instagram stories or by any another way and impress them to drive more conversions.

As a result, Instagram Advertising drive more traffic towards your website because of its billions of users discovering new products every day, making it possible for you to engage with more of your target audience.

Acts As A Sales Funnel

As an Instagram user, you might have noticed that thousands of small and big brands use the platform for their business purposes. Some use it as an additional channel and their websites, while others rely solely on selling their products and services.

One of the most significant investments comes from brick-and-mortar businesses such as Nike. It focuses on Instagram to boost its sales, with the campaign focusing on customer relationships to build engagement and create trust in them towards the brand for better sales.

Instagram is an essential marketing tool today, even if you don’t want to use it for direct sales. It is relevant to many of the world’s population, and most businesses use this fact to advance their business. You have to reach out to your audience, and using Instagram in the right way can help you gain a competitive edge.

Instagram can act as a sales funnel and improve your revenue by working as an alternative market area to represent your brand and attract buyers.

Drives Responsiveness To Customers

Instagram is a great way to stay updated on what your competition is doing. You can follow your competitors, customer base, and approach to draw people in through the platform.

Keeping track of what others are doing and meeting the customers’ expectations is essential. You can learn from your rivals and their successful and unsuccessful campaigns to keep people interested.

Cost of Instagram Ads

Cost of Instagram Ads, ad manager tool

Instagram Ads with destination URLs have a link click CPC (cost-per-click) range of about $0.5 to $0.95. For all metrics, the range is between $0.4 to $0.7, which involves all the clicks that an ad gets, including link clicks, comments, likes, average instagram cpm and shares.

Variables Influencing Ad Pricing

Your instagram ad prices/ instagram ads cost depends on several variables. Your campaign objectives automatically increase or decrease, Your instagram ads cost depends on what you select (ad quality) and its link to the target instagram users engage/audience’s position in the funnel.

For instance, if your paid advertising/online advertising campaign objective is brand awareness, its cost will be less than something further down the funnel with a better value objective, like conversions. With a broad and cold audience, your chances of increasing your brand awareness may be less than those familiar with your business and what it offers. They are more likely to purchase from you or carry out some higher value action related to your campaign.

Your audience’s size also impacts your ad pricing. With a more significant audience target, the ad prices are lower due to lesser competition. However, as the audience becomes narrower with geotarget, the costs increase as their competition also rises.

Furthermore, your Click-Through-Rate (CTR) also impacts your ad pricing. With a lower CTR, the system might believe there is a disconnect between the target audience and the messages in your ad, resulting in higher costs. Your ads should be relevant to your target audience, and the CTR indicates the relevancy.

Factors That Influence Instagram Advertising Costs

Four factors influence the Instagram advertising campaign costs:

1. Ad Relevancy Score

The relevancy score is the relevancy Instagram attaches to your ad, considering your audience, determining its cost. Since Instagram wants to display relevant ads to people on their instagram feed, your score is decided by how people react to your ad.

The relevancy score will be higher with private responses to your ad such as commenting, clicking, liking, etc. But for ad hiding, you get a negative response, resulting in a lower score and decreasing your ad performance.

Naturally, ads that get a higher relevancy score get positioned over the lower ones. A more relevant ad results in you paying almost the minimum amount required to get higher clicks and more leads.

2. Bid Amount

The amount you decide to pay for your leads determines how much you spend on your campaigns. Similarly, your bid amount also decides the money you spend on your ads.

You’ll have to pay more for clicks and impressions because Instagram has greater bid amounts. As a result, if your budget is only $1,000 and the bid amount is $5 per click, your ad will only receive 200 clicks. But, with a $2,000 budget and $5 CPC, you’ll get 400 clicks. If your bid amount is $0.8, you’ll get even more clicks for both scenarios.

Your bid amount impacts your budget and vice versa. These decide how much it will cost for advertising on Instagram.

3. Competition

Your Instagram advertising costs are dependent on your competition. For any product you sell, you have to reach your target audience, which your competitors are also targeting. As a result, your competitors influence the amount you spend on your campaigns.

With more people bidding for the same audience, a bidding war can arise where companies bid to get leverage over one another, possibly resulting in your CPC increasing as you bid against your competitors.

4. Estimated Action Rates

These rates impact your Instagram ads campaign prices based on the probability that people will act on your ad. Instagram wants to know the likeliness of your audience engaging with your ad.

Engagement actions include clicks and conversions, so Instagram promotes ads that are more likely to engage people and make them interact with the content you provide. The estimated action rates impact the Instagram ad cost.

Instagram Ad Costs On A Tight Budget

Advertising can be expensive, yet it is essential to build brand awareness. As a result, you have to learn to manage the Instagram ads properly to get the most out of your social media marketing campaigns on a smaller budget.

To make your Instagram ads cost-effective, you have to be clear of your business goals and use careful targeting to avoid overspending. Use automatic bidding, so you don’t make costly mistakes throughout the learning process of using the platform.

If you create a preset daily budget, you won’t cross this limit, and the automatic bidding helps you stick with the fixed costs you’ve set for the Instagram ads for every month.

Furthermore, you can create particular landing pages with content related to your ad to maintain high-quality scores. Create a home page that has different types of information which is not particularly relevant to your ads.

You should test your ad copy and nail its relevance to decrease costs. The higher the relevance of your ad copy, the higher your ad’s position to reduce the CPC.

Conclusion

Instagram is a widely popular social media platform worldwide and is still rising as a casual interaction medium and an advertising and business channel. While thousands create ads, promote ads &  use it to conduct business, it is still an unsaturated market.

Whether you are a business that is starting or has been in the market for a long time, you should stay relevant to your audience and use Instagram as an effective medium to grow your brand. It might become a better source of revenue, engagement, and awareness than Facebook.

Author
Recent Posts

Samuel Edwards

Chief Marketing Officer

Throughout his extensive 10+ year journey as a digital marketer, Sam has left an indelible mark on both small businesses and Fortune 500 enterprises alike. His portfolio boasts collaborations with esteemed entities such as NASDAQ OMX, eBay, Duncan Hines, Drew Barrymore, Price Benowitz LLP, a prominent law firm based in Washington, DC, and the esteemed human rights organization Amnesty International. In his role as a technical SEO and digital marketing strategist, Sam takes the helm of all paid and organic operations teams, steering client SEO services, link building initiatives, and white label digital marketing partnerships to unparalleled success. An esteemed thought leader in the industry, Sam is a recurring speaker at the esteemed Search Marketing Expo conference series and has graced the TEDx stage with his insights. Today, he channels his expertise into direct collaboration with high-end clients spanning diverse verticals, where he meticulously crafts strategies to optimize on and off-site SEO ROI through the seamless integration of content marketing and link building.

Latest posts by

Samuel Edwards

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Traditional PPC Agencies Are Dead: Stop Buying Clicks and Start Buying Outcomes
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November 7, 2025
Hospitality PPC Strategies That Actually Convert
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September 17, 2025
Web Hosting Providers: How to Craft High-Converting PPC Landing Pages
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September 3, 2025
PPC Ad Trends by Sector & The Impact of AI
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August 22, 2025

Author

Samuel Edwards

Chief Marketing Officer

Throughout his extensive 10+ year journey as a digital marketer, Sam has left an indelible mark on both small businesses and Fortune 500 enterprises alike. His portfolio boasts collaborations with esteemed entities such as NASDAQ OMX, eBay, Duncan Hines, Drew Barrymore, Price Benowitz LLP, a prominent law firm based in Washington, DC, and the esteemed human rights organization Amnesty International. In his role as a technical SEO and digital marketing strategist, Sam takes the helm of all paid and organic operations teams, steering client SEO services, link building initiatives, and white label digital marketing partnerships to unparalleled success. An esteemed thought leader in the industry, Sam is a recurring speaker at the esteemed Search Marketing Expo conference series and has graced the TEDx stage with his insights. Today, he channels his expertise into direct collaboration with high-end clients spanning diverse verticals, where he meticulously crafts strategies to optimize on and off-site SEO ROI through the seamless integration of content marketing and link building.

Related posts

Samuel Edwards
|
November 7, 2025
Traditional PPC Agencies Are Dead: Stop Buying Clicks and Start Buying Outcomes

The keyword jockey era is officially over. For years, PPC agencies were basically just click machines. You gave them a budget, they bid on keywords, and you got traffic. But that model is fading out. Platforms like Google Ads now handle bidding automatically, and anyone can buy clicks. What separates winners from losers today isn’t the company that spends more – it’s the ones who turn clicks into paying customers.

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PPC ads are still a legitimate way to generate cheap traffic but the end goal is ultimately conversions. Until recently, many PPC agencies have only focused on generating traffic without focusing on customizing strategies to produce profitable outcomes. This requires more than just selecting keywords. It requires testing ad creatives, fine-tuning landing pages, and ruthlessly optimizing funnels. 

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If you’re working with a PPC agency that only talks about CPC while ignoring conversion rates and lifetime customer value (LTV), it’s time to upgrade to an agency that focuses on results measurable in dollars. 

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Automation killed the “bid manager” role

Ad platforms like Google Ads and Meta have made manual bidding almost obsolete. Their algorithms now choose how to get you the best conversion value, not just the cheapest click. That means the old “bid manager” agency model is toast. 

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Smart Bidding and bundled campaign types (like Performance Max) push optimization toward conversion value rather than just clicks. And that’s not a bad thing. It’s an invitation to apply your marketing budget to the things humans do best: messaging, creative strategy, and conversion rate optimization).

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The algorithms do the heavy lifting now. Google’s Performance Max and Smart Bidding automatically find high-converting audiences. The system handles keyword strategy better than humans ever could. And it makes sense that these companies would invest the time and money into perfecting their systems because the better results you get, the more likely you are to keep running ads. 

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With the backend tech handling bidding, your agency’s edge comes from improving elements outside of the algorithm, like your ads and landing pages. The best PPC agencies no longer promise a lower CPC – they promise results.

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That’s the key shift here. Automation didn’t eliminate the need for human marketers, no matter what the fear headlines say. It just readjusted the roles between humans and machines.

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The agencies that survive this shift will be the ones who stop fighting automation and start building it into their workflows. Rather than wasting time micromanaging bids, cutting-edge agencies are using those hours to test headlines, improve page experience, and analyze conversion data to find out what’s really working. 

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Automation can never tell you why people click, bounce, or buy. That’s where humans are and always will be needed. When you understand your customer’s motivation better than the competition, you can write better ad copy and design better landing pages.

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At the end of the day, automation leveled the playing field for media buying. What was once a technical advantage is now table stakes. Anyone can run their own ads. The agencies leading this new PPC era are competing on conversions, not the simple ability to run ads.

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Creative is the new keyword

In the old days, you could buy the right keyword and call it a day. That isn’t how it works anymore. Two ads that target the same keyword can perform completely differently based on how they look, sound, and feel. Your ad creatives drive results when they’re optimized and waste your ad spend when they’re not. 

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Although all elements are important, the majority of an ad’s performance comes from creative quality, not targeting or bids. The best bidding strategy and perfect keyword targeting won’t get people to click on an ad that isn’t enticing.

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The best PPC agencies continually test images, headlines, and even video styles to find out what converts best. That’s where the most notable performance gains come from. At the end of the day, keywords get you visibility but good creatives get you customers.

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This shift continues to be confirmed over and over. Reports have confirmed that creative quality accounts for 49%-70% of an ad’s success, which outweighs media placement or targeting. In other words, creative isn’t just part of the equation. It’s the final factor. 

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The top performing brands run hundreds of ad variants every month. They’re not guessing. They’re structuring creative experiments and the winning ads are often the ones that break traditional marketing rules. These are the ads that use raw, authentic imagery, short unpolished videos, or headlines that sound like something a real customer would say. Regardless of what you think should work, constant testing uncovers what actually triggers action.

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Conversion rate optimization is an ad spend multiplier

When your landing page converts better, every click becomes more valuable. Improving your conversion rate by even a few percentage points can provide better results than just a few months of ad optimization. And where landing page optimization is concerned, it’s not always about optimizing the offer (although that’s crucial). Sometimes small things make a massive, measurable difference. 

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For example, page load time is critical. Walmart found that for every 1-second improvement in load time, conversions increased by around 2%. And that’s not an anomaly. Plenty of businesses achieve similar increases (and even higher) just by optimizing the time it takes their landing pages to load.

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Other small adjustments can have a profound impact, like adding social proof near your CTA, reducing the number of form fields, and clarifying your headlines.

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When optimizing a landing page, design and clarity matter just as much as speed. Visitors make up their minds within seconds. If your pages are currently cluttered, switching to clean visuals, a clear CTA, and a simple layout can generate more conversions from existing traffic without spending another dollar on ads.

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That’s the secret to all of this. Conversion rate optimization multiplies every dollar you already spend. If your ad campaign is driving 1,000 clicks and your conversion rate doubles from 2% to 4%, you’ve just cut your cost per acquisition in half without spending more money. This improvement comes from the one thing an algorithm can’t fix for you: the user experience after the click.

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Good conversion rate optimization requires understanding the psychology behind what makes your audience hesitate and then eliminating that hesitation one element at a time. Landing page testing is similar to ad creative testing where it’s an ongoing process, not a one-time project. When you can create a seamless path from ad to action, that’s when your ad spend will perform better and it gets easier to scale.

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Stop measuring success in clicks – start measuring in profits

Clicks and your CPC stats won’t tell you if you’re actually making money unless you’re also measuring profits from conversions. The best PPC agencies focus on metrics that get results measurable in dollars, like profit per visitor and customer lifetime value. Today, you won’t win the PPC game by getting cheaper clicks. You need to turn customers into repeat buyers.

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This is the truth many marketers don’t get. Traffic isn’t a KPI if it doesn’t pay off in measurable dollars somewhere down the line. A campaign can drive thousands of clicks with a great CTR and still lose money if those visitors don’t convert or come back. That’s why the best PPC agencies today don’t brag about being able to get cheap traffic. They’re advertising meaningful results.

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But sometimes results can’t be measured by what clicks led to a purchase. For example, a $10 click that becomes a loyal customer who spends $1,000 over time is far better than a $1 click that buys a $25 product. That’s why it’s crucial to account for profit-based metrics like customer lifetime value (LTV), return on ad spend (ROAS), and profit per visitor. 

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PPC success is ultimately measured by how efficiently you can turn paid traffic into long-term profits. That means understanding the customer journey past the initial click. You need to know what they’ll buy next, how often they’ll come back, and what will keep them loyal. Building strategies that account for this increase the value of every customer acquired.

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Each ad is only as good as the page it leads to when clicked

The most amazing ad in the world that generates a 100% click through rate (CTR) can’t save a weak landing page. This applies to sales pages, squeeze pages, blog posts, home pages, and product pages. Wherever visitors are taken after they click on your ad needs to be just as good as your ad to convert.

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On platforms like Amazon and Shopify, your product page is everything. It’s not enough to list your product at a good price. You need high-quality, detailed photos to increase buyer confidence. And it helps to use photos of real products, not mockups. Customers can tell the difference and computer-generated mockups (including AI models) reduce confidence and are a red flag for drop shipping. If you are drop shipping, it’s worth getting professional photos taken of everything you sell.

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Rising ad costs make conversion strategy essential

It costs more today to acquire a new customer than ever before. Even if your CPC drops one month, your overall ad costs will continue to rise long-term. The only way to win here is to make every click more profitable, and that boils down to conversion rate optimization. You can’t outspend your competitors forever. You need to out-convert them.

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Digital advertising costs have been rising for years. The average customer acquisition cost (CAC) for online retailers is now between $68-$78, which is double what it was in 2013. Every year, it gets more expensive to get your ads in front of your customers. Algorithms are saturated, CPMs fluctuate unpredictably, and privacy updates (thanks, Apple) make it harder to target audiences efficiently. You can no longer buy your way to visibility.

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A strong conversion strategy converts more existing traffic without needing to increase ad spend. This is exactly why the most effective PPC agencies focus on the entire funnel, not just the top. 

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Siloed metrics kill performance

Agencies that optimize per channel (like one for search, social, display, etc.) miss how those channels work together. Most conversions come from multiple touchpoints, but many teams only credit the final click. That can cause misguided budgets and stifle growth. Brands that use cross-channel attribution or marketing mix models see much better optimization. You need a PPC agency that will optimize for whatever will grow your business, not just what looks good on any given platform.

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What the “new” PPC agency model looks like

The agencies that win today are replacing the model that sells traffic with one that sells results. They don’t focus on vanity metrics, but rather, contribution margin, customer lifetime value, etc. They’ll help you with more than just ads. They’ll fix your sales page content, pricing issues, and even your page layouts because they know ads perform best with great landing pages. The new PPC agencies are full funnel growth partners, not just media buyers.

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The New PPC Agency Model

The “New” PPC Agency Model

How modern PPC agencies differ from traditional “click-buyers” — focusing on conversions, customer value, and full-funnel growth.

Aspect Old Model (Traditional PPC) New Model (Modern PPC)
Core Focus
  • Buys and manages clicks.
  • Measures success by CPC or CTR.
  • Optimizes primarily for traffic volume.
  • Focuses on conversions, revenue, and ROI.
  • Optimizes campaigns for business outcomes.
  • Builds long-term profit, not vanity metrics.
Human Role
  • Manual bid management.
  • Relies on keyword adjustments.
  • Little involvement in strategy or creative.
  • Uses automation for bidding and targeting.
  • Humans focus on strategy, creative, and CRO.
  • Analyzes data to understand user behavior.
Performance Measurement
  • Reports clicks, impressions, and cost per click.
  • Short-term reporting cycles.
  • Tracks LTV, ROAS, and profit per visitor.
  • Measures full-funnel performance and growth.
Creative & Strategy
  • Limited testing or optimization of ad creatives.
  • Focuses mostly on keywords and bids.
  • Runs structured creative testing across formats.
  • Refines messaging, visuals, and video ads for results.
Landing Page & Funnel Work
  • Stops optimization at the ad click.
  • Does not assist with landing pages or funnels.
  • Optimizes post-click experience for conversion lift.
  • Improves page design, CTAs, and UX to increase ROI.
Agency Role
  • Acts as a media buyer.
  • Reports on ad metrics only.
  • Acts as a full-funnel growth partner.
  • Advises on pricing, content, and user journey.
  • Aligns marketing with profit-based KPIs.
Outcome
  • High ad spend, low conversion insight.
  • Focus on quantity over quality.
  • Profitable ad spend through conversion optimization.
  • Scalable growth grounded in customer value.

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Conversions, not clicks, build businesses

The future of PPC marketing is no longer about who can spend the most or manually tweak their bids the fastest. It’s about whoever can understand the customer journey and turn traffic into profit. The next generation of PPC agencies don’t sell clicks. That’s the old model. Instead, they sell you outcomes. And that’s exactly what every brand needs to thrive.

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Ready for a full funnel PPC ad strategy? We’d love to help

The age of “set it and forget it” PPC is over. Automation has leveled the playing field and brands chasing cheap clicks will be left behind. Winners understand that profit comes from performance beyond the ad and requires a landing page that builds trust and converts. 

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If your agency or in-house team is still talking about CPCs rather than profit, it’s time to upgrade your strategy. At PPC.co, we build campaigns engineered for outcomes over clicks. We optimize for conversions, revenue, and long-term customer value, and turn your ad spend into measurable business growth. Reach out today to learn how our team can transform your PPC performance into real profit.

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Samuel Edwards
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September 17, 2025
Hospitality PPC Strategies That Actually Convert

Pay-per-click (PPC) ads can generate a steady stream of guests for anyone in the hospitality industry, whether you run a hotel, motel, hostel, vacation rental, or an Airbnb. In terms of marketing strategies, PPC ads convert 50% better than SEO and it’s easier to measure than results from organic search.

But a successful ad campaign isn’t just a matter of getting ads in front of people who are looking to book right now. You can also use PPC ads to find people who are just starting to think about their getaway and those who are comparing options. An effective strategy will reach a variety of people to get bookings now, fill future pipelines, and get repeat guests.

If you’re in the hospitality industry, here’s how paid advertising can help you drive more revenue.

Funnel Stage Keyword Focus Ad Copy & Creatives Key Metrics
Awareness Broad discovery keywords (e.g., “best beaches in Florida”, “top weekend getaways”) Emotional/inspirational messaging: “Unwind by the sea”
Use scenic images and dream-like visuals
Impressions, Click-Through Rate (CTR), Engagement
Consideration Comparative keywords (e.g., “boutique hotel vs Airbnb”, “hotel amenities comparison”) Highlight features, testimonials, reviews: “Free Wi-Fi & Breakfast”
Use photos of amenities and location
CTR, Time on Site, Email Signups
Conversion High-intent branded keywords (e.g., “[hotel name] rooms [dates]”, “book hotel near airport”) Urgent call-to-action: “Book now & save”
Limited-time offers and scarcity language
Bookings, Cost per Acquisition (CPA), ROAS
Loyalty Retargeting & email remarketing keywords (e.g., “return guest discount”, “VIP upgrade”) Personalized offers: “Welcome back!”
Show exclusive perks and upgrades
Repeat Bookings, Lifetime Value (LTV), Referrals
Remarketing Dynamic remarketing keywords
(auto-populated by product/ad platforms)
Show previously viewed rooms/properties
Offer gentle discount nudges or visual reminders
Return Visits, Ad Engagement, Conversion Lift

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First things first – map the guest journey

To run a successful PPC campaign you need to understand the guest journey. Different people are doing different things at different times. For example, some people are researching destinations and others are comparing lodging, all while another group of people are ready to book. If you serve all these people the same ads, you won’t get the best results. 

1. Define your funnel stages

There are four main stages to a hospitality funnel: awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty. Reaching leads at each stage requires different messaging and targeting. That’s where audience segmentation comes in.

2. Segment your audience by intent

Since each lead needs to be given a different message, it’s crucial to segment them by intent first. For example, the dreamers are people who search for “things to do in X city,” “best beach getaway,” and “romantic weekend destinations.” 

The comparers search for “hotel vs. motel in X city,” “4-star stays in X city,” and “Airbnb vs. boutique hotel.”

The bookers search for a specific brand + location + dates. 

Each audience segment should be served different ad copy, different offers, and of course – different landing pages.

3. Measure results according to stage

Finally, you need to measure results in several ways, like impressions, click-throughs, content engagement, and email signups. This will give you the bigger picture regarding how your ads are working (or not). For example, to measure the conversion stage, look at bookings, CPA, and revenue per booking. For the loyalty stage, look for repeat stays or referral leads.

Once you know how you’ll segment your audience and track the results, you can allocate your budget smartly. Otherwise, you risk overspending on high-intent leads and ignoring the long-term value of leads in earlier stages of the journey.

Use a varied keyword strategy to cover all funnel levels

If you only bid on keyword phrases like “hotel room booking tonight,” you’ll miss all the people researching and thinking about their vacation. These people can convert, too, even if it doesn’t happen in the moment. They’re worth pursuing. You can capture their email, get them to like your social media pages, and you can also use remarketing to serve them additional ads.

The following are the general types of keywords you want to focus on:

·      Broad/discovery keywords. These keywords will reach people in the awareness stage. Phrases like, “Best beaches in [location],” “Top things to do in [location],” and “Travel inspiration [country].” When you use broad modifiers (like “top,” “best,” “where to stay”) you’ll attract people in the research stage.

·      Middle-funnel comparative keywords. These are phrases like, “Boutique hotel vs. Airbnb in [location],” “Hotel deals vs. motel,” and “Hotel amenities comparison.” With phrases like these, people are narrowing down their choices. The right PPC campaign can help them pick your business.

·      Branded and high-intent booking keywords. These keywords reach people further down the funnel. Phrases like, “[Your hotel name] rooms,” “Hotel in [location] near [landmark],” and “cheap hotel [location][dates].” These phrases typically provide the highest conversion rates but can be competitive, so they may cost more.

·      Negative keywords. To prevent wasted ad spend on irrelevant clicks, you can add certain keywords to your negative keyword list. This ensures your ads won’t show up when people search for these terms. Common negative keywords used in the hospitality industry include, “Free stay” and “Jobs at [hotel].” 

 

Since most hotels and motels stick with keywords that target people ready to book, you can expand your reach by running ads for people in other stages. Just make sure you have a system in place to nurture your leads so they don’t go cold. 

Tailor ad copy and creatives to each funnel stage

What you say matters just as much as when you say it. Copy that works for someone researching won’t work for someone ready to book with you. Every part of your ad needs to match intent, including the imagery, tone, copy, and offers. Here’s how to reach each stage:

·      Awareness stage ads. At this stage, people will respond to emotional and inspirational copy. Phrases like, “Discover tranquil stays in the mountains,” or “Unwind by the sea.” Use imagery to provoke desire. Beautiful views and relaxing room setups work like a charm.

·      Consideration stage ads. These people need more information, so hit ‘em with your amenities (Wi-Fi, breakfast), comparisons, reviews, ratings, and testimonials. Show them visuals of your accommodations and the local area.

·      Booking/conversion stage ads. Urgency works best here. Phrases that get people to click to book now, like “Limited rooms available,” and “Book now and save.” 

·      Loyalty stage ads. Guests who have stayed with you before, even just once, are more cost-effective to convert again compared to chasing down new customers. Create some ads for these people by highlighting perks, upgrades, and exclusive deals they can’t get through other places. For example, you can use lines like:

“Book direct for free late checkout,” “Exclusive returning guest discount,” or “VIP upgrade on your next stay.” It also helps to use personalized copy like, “Welcome back to [your hotel name].” along with imagery of your best amenities.

Loyalty ads drive repeat bookings and increase lifetime value by bringing people back. 

·      Remarketing and nurturing prospects who got away. In addition to targeting people in all funnel stages, you want to bring people back who clicked but never booked or signed up for your email list. Run retargeting ads to show them what they looked at and offer them incentives or discounts. This is a great time to leverage social proof.

By matching your ad content to meet potential leads where they are in their journey, your ads will be more relevant and you’ll get more conversions.

Optimize your landing pages

Having a great ad doesn’t necessarily mean it will drive conversions. If your landing page is confusing or the booking process is clunky, you’ll lose people. That’s why landing page optimization is often where people see the biggest gains.

As a foundation, create a specific landing page for each target audience. You need a dedicated landing page for ads that target each funnel stage. Landing pages should be simple and clear and should be free from all distractions (like links and menus) that invite a user to click away. You want one offer and one call to action.

Social proof is critical in the hospitality industry. Show guest reviews from Tripadvisor, Google, Trustpilot, etc. It also helps to show photos of real guests enjoying their stay (with their permission). Showcasing reviews will reduce anxiety and hesitation, especially for people comparing you with other options. 

If your landing pages show pricing, make sure you’re up front about all fees. Be clear about what’s included, like tax, breakfast, and service fees. People hate hidden fees. If a guest’s experience doesn’t match the impression they get from the page where they booked, they’ll probably leave a bad review.

Talk to your website developer and have them trigger a follow-up email that goes out to people who start filling out a booking form but stop. The email should show them what they left behind and you can sweeten the deal by offering a small discount or other incentive.

Having a smooth flow after a person clicks on your ad can help you convert far more prospects. Everything you can do to reduce friction and increase trust compounds.

Get your bid and budget strategies down

To get conversions, your bidding strategy and budget need to align with a variety of factors, including funnel stage and seasonality.

·      Increase bids for high-intent keywords, use moderate bids for middle-funnel ads, and go lower for awareness and discovery. 

·      Watch for online travel agents (OTAs) and large hotel chains that bid on your property’s name or similar keywords. If they undercut you in rate or bid too aggressively, you could end up with arbitrarily inflated costs per click. Research data shows this can cost around 47% more per click.

·      Adjust your bids and budget during travel seasons, events, and holidays. During off-peak seasons you may want to stick with pushing awareness. 

·      Allocate your budget proportionately across all funnel stages. 

·      Use Google’s automated bidding tool for the conversion stage, but use manual methods for the consideration and awareness stage. 

The right bidding strategy will ensure you don’t overspend for low-intent clicks or underinvest in more profitable funnel stages.

Use multiple channels and ad formats

PPC is more than search. When you use different channels and ad formats you’ll reach people in a variety of places. 

·      Search ads (Google, Bing). Search ads capture high-intent demand users. They’re great for the conversion and compare phases and can make use of extensions like call, location, and reviews.

·      Display and discovery/native ads. Display ads are excellent for the awareness stage. They reach people browsing travel blogs and using apps. With these ads, visuals are everything.

·      Social media ads. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are great for the awareness and consideration stages. They’re especially powerful for remarketing.

·      Video ads. Short-form videos can stir emotion, show off ambiance, and be used to create a mini virtual tour. These ads are great for top and middle funnel prospects.

·      Email ads. If you’re using email marketing, offer loyalty deals and off-peak discounts.

Paid search on social media converts better in hospitality than it does in other industries.

Leverage local targeting

Location matters in hospitality. Geotargeting can significantly improve your conversions and reduce wasted ad spend. You can use radius bids and location extensions to target people looking for accommodations within a certain radius. 

It pays to bid higher for people in feeder markets and origin cities during the holidays. You can also target departure cities for Arbnbs if that’s relevant to you. 

In your ad copy, include local cues like “Only 30 mins from downtown,” and “15 minutes from airport. If you know your audience well, include the origin city (“Fly in from Seattle & Stay with us just outside Olympia”).

When offered by the ad platform, use local extensions to note your address, phone number, and any other elements offered. This will generate more bookings from mobile users.

Go deep with retargeting

Most people who click your ads or visit your website won’t book right away. Retargeting will help convert these “warm but not ready” leads into guests eventually. 

When you target people who visited your site without converting, show them ads with refreshed offers like a free breakfast or an upgraded view. Visual reminders will help bring them back. 

Show the specific rooms and properties to the prospect so the ad feels personalized. Use tools like Google dynamic remarketing and Facebook Product Ads. 

For guests who did convert, show them additional special offers and upgrades. Keeping them in your funnel will make future conversions easier. 

Monitor ROI, adjust, and scale

It’s crucial to know when to pull back, push forward, test more, or scale. 

·      Define clear ROI goals. Know your target Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA), Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), and guest Lifetime Value (LTV). If your ad spend yields bookings but loses money, it’s not working. 

·      Perform weekly and monthly audits. Refine keywords, ad creatives, and keep testing.

·      Scale what works. Once you have a campaign producing consistent returns, increase the budget there while watching for diminishing returns.

·      Adjust your offers and pricing. If conversion rates drop or your CPCs rise, start offering special packages like early-bird deals and loyalty perks.

The average travel and hospitality conversion rate for search is 3.55% so if you’re under that, there’s room for improvement. If you’re over that, scale carefully.

Ready to unlock powerful PPC performance?

If you’re ready to transform your PPC campaign into a reliable machine that fills your rooms and builds a solid pipeline for the future, we can help. At PPC.co, we specialize in creating full funnel PPC strategies for hotels, motels, and Airbnbs that convert into bookings, repeat guests, and long-term loyalty. Contact us today and let’s craft a PPC strategy that drives bookings and turns first-time guests into lifelong customers. 

 

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