VIDEO: How to acquire customers through paid social media campaigns

Unlike many online travel agencies that invest millions annually in paid search marketing, Hopper’s strategy is to invest in campaigns on social channels.

The company believes this is more cost efficient with the cost per app install often being lower than that paid by OTAs for clickthroughs.

There are other benefits according to Hopper including the stickiness or retention of the users it acquires.

But there are challenges too not least devising consistent, regular and creative content that strikes a chord with the particular audience of platforms from Facebook to Snap and TikTok.

How the company, which prides itself on being data driven, measures success using paid social is also key with Hopper not only looking to the ultimate metric of bookings but also the reach of campaigns and the retention of app users.

Hopper also has to factor in that social media audiences are not necessarily ready to buy when they’re scrolling and target its messaging accordingly.

The company has learned much about social media marketing along the way including that there is little correlation between the production budget and the success of a campaign.

Makoto Rheault-Kihara, Hopper’s head of user acquisition, joined the recent PhocusWire Pulse: A New Age for Social Media, to discuss the advantages and challenges of paid social with PhocusWire’s Linda Fox.

The full interview is available below:

* Other replays from the event are available here.