Top Paid Media Strategies for Destination Marketing in 2025
Destination marketing is all about inspiring people to imagine themselves exploring your community. In 2025, the paid media world offers new ways to do just that — with smarter platforms, creative tools, and strategies that connect more deeply with travelers.
We’re here to help you navigate these opportunities with campaigns that not only drive traffic but inspire action. Here’s how to make your paid media campaigns shine in 2025.
Build Campaigns on a Strong Foundation
Use Custom Landing Pages
Don’t send potential visitors to a generic homepage — it’s a dead end for engagement. Instead, create landing pages that speak directly to your campaign audience. Highlight attractions for a specific region, feature itineraries, or even tailor pages to niche interests. Running ads to drive visitation in a specific season? Create a custom landing page for the target season complete with seasonally-appropriate visuals and related content.
For example, Cedar Rapids Tourism curates compelling seasonal content into a single landing page to support their "City of Five Seasons" campaigns that run year-round.
And if your website is built by Tempest on Craft CMS, your options expand even further. Craft CMS gives you tools to build landing pages that are dynamic, visually stunning, and perfectly tailored to each campaign. Think custom layouts, interactive features, and calls-to-action designed to turn curiosity into action. VisitPITTSBURGH does an excellent job engineering their Plan Your Trip page to serve as a worthy lander for paid campaigns, complete with several distinct calls-to-action for travelers.
Focus on What Matters Most
Clicks and impressions are great, but what really matters is how well your ads drive actions like guide requests, email signups, and meeting RFPs. Measure campaign effectiveness in tools like Google Analytics 4 and track metrics such as Engaged Sessions, Engagement Rate and Key Event counts to gain a better understanding of how users are interacting with your content. Focusing on these key results ensures your campaigns support your larger goals.
Support Advocacy Efforts & Meetings Business
Paid media campaigns can do more than attract leisure travelers. They’re also a powerful tool to support local advocacy efforts and meetings business initiatives.
Advocacy Campaigns
Use paid media to build awareness and support for your destination’s contributions to the local economy and community. Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook are ideal for engaging local stakeholders, civic leaders, and residents. Promote content that highlights economic impact, success stories, and community benefits.
Meetings and Groups
Target meeting planners, event organizers and group travel planners with campaigns that showcase your destination’s unique venues, accessibility, and amenities. Consider:
- Google Search Ads: Capture planners actively searching for meeting destinations.
- Google Display & Video 360 (DV360): Utilize pre-built google and custom audiences to reach prospective meeting planners at all stages of the planning process via programmatic campaigns.
- LinkedIn Ads: Reach industry professionals and decision makers with tailored messaging.
- Video Content: Use platforms like YouTube to present an immersive look at meeting spaces and local experiences.
By aligning your paid media efforts with these organizational goals, you can amplify your destination’s value to both local and national audiences.
Embrace the Right Platforms with Smart Creative
In today’s crowded digital landscape, great creative is just as important as choosing the right platform. Though still preferred for traffic generation goals, don’t put all of your eggs into the Google or Meta baskets — expand your potential reach by exploring ad placements on emerging platforms like TikTok, Reddit and Perplexity. Tailor your approach to fit each channel to make a bigger impact and engage your audience more effectively.
TikTok & Instagram Reels: Engage with Short-Form Video
These platforms thrive on short, authentic, and entertaining videos. Use trending sounds, creative transitions, and behind-the-scenes moments to bring your destination to life. Test your video content organically first—if it sparks engagement, repurpose it as part of your ad campaign.
Reddit: Get Clever with Community-Driven Ads
Reddit users value wit and creativity. Ads that blend into the platform’s style—such as meme-inspired visuals or posts with humorous, clever copy—can resonate well. Use forum-specific language like “TL;DR” or “AMA” to make your ads feel like a natural part of the conversation.
YouTube and CTV: Tell Your Story with Video
High-quality, story-driven content is perfect for platforms like YouTube and Connected TV. Showcase the heart of your destination with cinematic visuals, such as a mini-documentary about your community or a montage of local experiences that inspire travel.
Make Your Campaigns Smarter
Track and Optimize with Pixels and Tags
Using platform-specific pixels and tags ensures you can track campaign performance and let platforms optimize your ads in real time. This helps stretch your budget further while targeting the right audience.
Test, Learn, and Improve
Continuously test your ads to find what resonates best. Run A/B testing for different headlines, images, and calls-to-action to refine your campaigns over time. Even small adjustments can lead to big improvements in engagement.
Get Creative with AI
AI tools like ChatGPT can provide fresh ideas for ad copy, headlines, and creative strategies. While AI won’t replace your creative team, it can save time and offer new perspectives to enhance your campaigns.
Guide Travelers at Every Stage
Craft Messages for Every Step
Your ads should always align with your target audience’s journey:
- Awareness (Top of Funnel): “Discover Your Next Adventure.”
- Interest (Mid-Funnel): “Explore Family-Friendly Attractions.”
- Action (Bottom of Funnel): Include RFP forms, newsletter signups, visitor guide requests or detailed itineraries to help drive conversions.
Limit Ad Frequency
Overexposing your audience to the same ad can backfire. Broaden your asset library or consider limiting impressions to 10 per user to avoid fatigue and reach new users.
Partner with Tempest to Supercharge Your Campaigns
Tempest simplifies performance marketing for destination organizations. From crafting compelling creative to managing ad placements and delivering transparent, detailed reports, we handle the entire campaign process for you. Whether you need PPC management, programmatic advertising, or complete campaign support, we’re here to help every step of the way.
Our team collaborates closely with you to ensure your campaigns achieve real results — helping you inspire travel, grow visitation, and support your community.
Let’s Build Something Amazing Together.
Contact Tempest today to learn how we can transform your paid media strategy and take your destination to the next level.
