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The Client partnered with Ruby Digital to expand their reach among high-intent travellers and increase qualified leads across their core offerings, including accommodation bookings, safaris, and curated travel experiences.
Through a targeted Google Ads strategy, the primary objectives were to drive high-quality website traffic, improve visibility among users actively searching for relevant travel experiences, and generate enquiries from prospective travellers with strong purchase intent.
The Social Ads strategy aimed to increase the Client’s visibility among relevant travel audiences, build brand awareness, and drive high-quality website traffic that could support future conversions. The primary objectives were to introduce their safari experiences, destinations, and travel offerings to new audiences through engaging visual content, while attracting users with a strong interest in wildlife, safari, luxury travel, and unique African experiences to relevant website pages.
Competitive Industry Landscape
The African travel and experience market is highly competitive, with well-established players competing for visibility across high-value search terms. This is reflected in the elevated average cost-per-click (CPC) for queries that consistently drive qualified leads, making efficient budget utilisation critical.
To address this, a combination of strategic budget allocation and ongoing keyword optimisation was implemented to ensure sustained visibility while maximising return on investment.
Website Usability & Landing Page Performance
Initial analysis identified several on-site factors that were limiting campaign effectiveness, particularly around landing page speed and relevance. These issues impacted both user experience and ad performance, including quality score and conversion rates.
To resolve this, targeted landing page optimisations were implemented, focusing on improving load times and aligning page content more closely with ad messaging. This ensured a more seamless user journey from ad click through to conversion.
Meta Ads Tracking Limitations & Audience Optimisation
A key challenge with Meta Ads was the limited ability to accurately track the full customer journey from initial engagement through to final booking completion. As users moved from the website to a third-party booking platform, conversion activity beyond the website could not be fully attributed to Meta Ads. As a result, campaign success was measured primarily through landing page views, website engagement, and audience growth rather than direct conversions.
To address this limitation, the strategy focused on refining targeting based on top-performing locations and audience behaviour while developing qualified remarketing audiences from website visitors. This enabled Meta Ads to support the broader IPM strategy by increasing brand awareness, driving high-quality traffic to the website, and providing Google Ads with warmer audiences that were more likely to convert.
There were several strategic approaches available; however, the most effective route identified was an Integrated Paid Marketing (IPM) strategy. This approach allowed us to align channel roles more deliberately, leveraging social media to engage top-of-funnel audiences, while Google Ads focused on bottom-of-funnel users with higher purchase intent.
Below are the key strategic elements implemented:
Campaign Creation by Location
Given the client’s multi-country offering, campaigns were structured by geographic location. Each country was siloed into its own campaign, with relevant travel experiences grouped within it.
This approach enabled:
Ad Group Segmentation by Experience
Within each location-based campaign, ad groups were further segmented according to individual travel experiences.
This structure allowed for:
Multi-Campaign Type Execution
Recognising the importance of visual storytelling in the travel industry, a mix of campaign types were deployed, including Search, Performance Max, and Demand Generation.
This multi-channel approach ensures full-funnel coverage, from initial discovery through to conversion.
Following the launch of the new ads for this Travel Specialist in November 2024, we conducted a nine-month performance comparison to evaluate their effectiveness. When comparing the pre-launch period (December 2023 – August 2024) to the post-launch period (September 2025 – May 2026), the campaign delivered the following results:
Google Ads:
Leads Focus:
Website Traffic Focus:
Meta Ads:
Website Traffic Focus:
