Want to Master Short-Term Rental Advertising?

I recently had a chat with the CEO of a short term rental marketing agency that has generated over $40 million in bookings for clients just in the last year.

Most of this conversation was directed towards advertising. I have been advertising online for almost three years and just last month got one client a 3x return on investment with Facebook Ads. 

While I understood advertising going into this conversation. I was super curious if the approach in the vacation rental space is different from other industries.

Once the call was done I walked away as if I just discovered gold.

Want to know the secret to mastering STR advertising?

Tactic #1: Advertise on Facebook for Engagement

Here’s how it works:

• Start an Instagram account

• Post the experience your guests will have

• Advertise the top three posts each month

Breakdown:

Since bullet point #1 is pretty straight forward, we’ll skip it.

Post The Experience Your Guests will have

Once a month or more, go to your properties and create content that allows your guests to visualize what a stay at your place looks like. Here are some ideas:

• Visit a local coffee shop

• Watch the sunrise

• Have a bonfire

• Read a book

• Pictures of the rooms

Once you make the content, post it. I recommend 12 posts per month.

Advertise the top three posts each month

Once you start posting, take the top three best posts and advertise them. You will do this for two reasons.

This technique allows you to build up your customer base and figure out who your audience is from the very beginning.

Tactic #2: Advertise for Bookings on Google

Here’s how it works:

• Get a website with a booking system.

• Do keyword research.

• Run a Google Ads Campaign

Breakdown

Again, since bullet point #1 is pretty straight forward, we’ll skip it.

Do Keyword Research

Google shows your ad to people that are searching for what you sell. You want to figure out how people are searching for you through keyword research.

Once you find 10-20 keywords, put them into a Google Search Campaign and follow the steps from my advertising video. 

Your conversion action should be completed bookings or people contacting you.

If you need any help with this, contact me and I’ll get you set up on Google Ads.

Quick note: Don’t do Facebook Ads for bookings (for now). That’s a mistake. These steps work better.

Tactic #3: Nail Your Design

We no longer live in an age where you can just throw your grandma’s cabin on Airbnb and call it good.

Sometimes if your offer is special and unique enough, you may not need to get creative with advertising. It’ll just advertise itself through referrals. 

Having a unique competitive advantage doesn’t mean remodeling your entire property. It could be:

• Turning your backyard into an experience.

• Building out a movie or game room.

• Creating a train themed bathroom (not really, I just thought it was funny).

This obviously isn’t cheap regardless if you’re starting from scratch or looking to remodel your listing but if you’re really wanting to maximize revenue from your STR business, these are the things that owners must do to stay alive.

How to Master STR Advertising

Before advertising, you should organize your finances, figure out a budget and create a goal. 

Which is no different in the STR industry compared to other markets. 

So take your time with these tactics, it’ll be worth it.

I truly believe that if you:

• Build a pool of customers (Tactic #1)

• Direct people to buy (Tactic #2)

• Have a product so good people tell their friends about it (Tactic #3)

You’ll never have to do any other marketing again. 

That’s all for today. I’ll see you in the next article.