How to do research for a Travel Hobby Niche before starting your FB Ads

Mohammed EL Khiyati

In this short post, i will outline the steps that i usually take when i want to start a FB Ad campaign not only for the Travel niche but sometimes for Amazon products niches.

I chose this niche : surfing randomly and it took me about 90mins to come up with my research from Google while i was in Starbucks Today.

Here are the steps :
1-Destinations of that Hobby
2-My Targeting Audience(s)
3-Ad Copy/Imagery
4-Winner Ad
5-Scaling up the Campaign

before i start, i just want to mention that the purpose of my first Ad(s) is to find my winner Ad using a small audience from my research. i can use any budget from $5-$40.....

When i find my winner Ad, i can easily duplicate that Ad with similar audiences using :
1- Magazines/Celebrities (Athletes)
2-similar locations
3-LookaLike audiences

Step1:
++++++
For the Surfing niche, After doing some research, i found this authority site :surfertoday.com . It has almost everything that we need about our niche (Locations, equipment, guides.....)

I found it via a search query in Google : "best surf spots in ...."

It has many destinations for surfing around the world and since my first campaign is only for testing, i don't want to burn my Money and my energy with a huge audience size without testing...

After some thinking, i decided to focus only about the west coast (California) as a starting point but i will decide later when i see my audience size in Step 3.
if the audience size is small, i can focus on all the US or only specific regions.

Again, i am not talking here about my Audience locations (where they live) and i am talking about where they will go to book their hotels to enjoy their hobbies.

For the California surf spots, i found those locations :
1-Santa cruz, CA
2-Malibu california
3-huntington beach ca
4-newport beach ca
5-Ventura ca
6-San Diego ca

I chose only 6 locations to put them nicely in my landing page boxes. But you can add many destinations if you want.

Now, when i am done with the step 1, i will go and spy on my Audiences.
What they like, what they read, what they talk, what problems are they facing when they are surfing and how old are they ?......

2-My Targeting Audience(s)
======================
For this step, i like to use Google to find 1-2 authority sites to find their problems and what they talk about.
For the Ages and the interests, i like to use Facebook Insight Tool to see the ages and what fan pages they like.

After doing some research again , i found that below are the common problems that they face when choosing the right spot:
1-warm/cold water
2-waves (lighter, mellow)
3-Budget hotels....
4-many more but i will build my Ad copy based on the 3 points above.

To Begin my Test, i will always choose Magazines to see the effectiveness of my Ad copy and imagery since i already have a targeted audience who loves their hobby and pays a subscription fee for it (not all but a portion of them).

After some digging, i found this mag: Surfermag.com .
You can find anything about your niche there. Problems/Solutions/Gears/Destinations/Tips.........to make you look like a pro in front of their eyes.

using the FB spying tool:
1-I decided to target men only as a starting point (Again i am only testing my ads here, i can target later women who are pro-athletes)..
2-Ages : 25-34 35-44

3-To scale my campaign up with different audiences after finding the winner Ad, i can target those targets :

1-CARVE Surfing Magazine ,Surfing World Magazine, Wavelength Magazine
2-Athles: Kelly Slater , Rob Machado, John John Florence, Jordy Smith, Taj burrow

3-Ad Copy/Imagery
--------------------------
For the Ad Copy, i use formulas to make it easy for me to write Ads fast. problem/solution/benefits

I use the same formula that our friend Jitendra Jain mentioned last time in one of his great posts but mixed with some tweaks to fit my niche and market.

I use sometimes Google to see what other big companies like expedia/Booking.com in this case (since we are talking about travel niche) are using in their Ad copy in Adwords.

In this example, i will use something like :

Headline: Get Your Dream Surf Spots Vacation for Cheap.

Text Above Image : Love Surfing ? Start planning your trip today! Discover those Great Destinations for Surfing that Give
Surfers of all levels a good Ride.

Text below Image: Enjoy Mellow Waves and Warm Water. Don't spend hours looking for the best hotel deal near Your Surf
spot…

Call to Action : Book Now

You can use 1-2 to test your ad copy....

Imagery:
+++++++
In this niche, the images are everything. You need to search and find images that have high pins/likes/comments...
you can use pinterest or visit the fan pages of the authority sites and see what they postt and what kind of images they use.

4-Winner Ad
-----------------

When creating my Ad, i always target 1 interest unless my audience size is small then i add 2-3 interests similar to my starting point audience.
For the Adset, i can choose 1-3 groups based on the age
For the Ads, i can choose 1-3 images.

I like to start with CPM for a small audience below 50K to have a fast results if my Ad is OK or no. If i have a big budget, i can test CPM/CPC both of them.

5-Scaling up the Campaign :
-----------------------------------

When i have a winner Ad (in terms of clicks and CTR and leads), i can choose the same images and the Ad copy and duplicate the process with the other audiences in the step 2 (Magazines, Athletes, other group ages.......)

With my FB Ad, i can create an audience of similar people who landed on my landing page using an option called : LookaLike Audience.

There, you have it.

Again, the first Ad is always for testing. you can hit the home run from the first try but it is always about Testing .

Water Rafting Niche:how to turn $135 to $412 in 5days with a small targeted Audience

‎Mohammed EL Khiyati

In This post, i will try to explain the travel niche affiliate model and how to use it with FB Ads without use the classic methods of travel targeting:

In this example, we used a Hobby + Destinations Method. 

Why : to target only the fans of that Hobby and offer them Travel deals to enjoy their hobby far away from their routines....

With the Travel niche package that i am offering, the user does not need to book in order to get credit but he has to do the steps below :
1- Search for a destination
2- Click on an hotel in that destination
3- the system will display the lists of providers that have that hotel (sometimes there are up to 10 and sometimes only 1....)
4-if he clicks on any one of those links, you will get a credit up to $1-$2....it depends of your traffic...

But with Fb Ads, after doing your homework of course, you can send them to that destination based on their hobbies so they can go to the step 2 or 3 directly using your landing page....so it can be easy for you to reach Step 3-4...

With this case study, we chose a niche for those who like White water rafting and they want to enjoy a break in Colorado river with Family.....

The Campaign had 3 adsset and 3 images for each Adsets

1-Ad set 1: Water rafting for Family with kids
2-Ad set 2: Water rafting for couples
3-Ad set 3: water rafting for Pro

I will not show you all the images but only the 1 Ad set.

We ran the campaign for 5 days and we targeted people who like :
- Water rafting , kayak, River rafting magazines.....

for the Ad copy, we played with the Budget factor to save Money and Enjoy the nature at the same time.....

The result was : $412.50 for a $135 Ad budget.......

Now, i want you to open your mind and target not only USA but you can target as well people from your country with a specific hobbies and locations...

I will put a list of hobbies that matches with the travel niche but i will not put all of them here in public of course.

Balloon Ride (Yes Balloon Ride to see the nature from the top...)
Boating
Campground
Campsite
Eco Adventure
Fishing Charter
Four Wheeling
Hiking Trail
Horseback Riding (big niche in the mountains...)

.........Many More Ideas...

Good Luck...

P.S : I don't want to risk my Fb account, so i will not reply back to everybody via pms please.....last time, FB team thought that i am sending pms to the people and it was the other way around...