Facebook Ads for Riads: Target Tourists

“I tried Facebook Ads, it didn’t work.” We hear this from riad owners every month. When we audit their campaigns, the problem is almost never the platform, average CPC for Recreation and Travel ads sits around $0.57 (SuperAds, Facebook Ads CPC Benchmarks for Recreation and Travel, 2025), which is cheap. It’s the targeting.

The Golden Rule: Intent, Not Interest

Boosting a post to “people interested in Morocco” wastes money on armchair dreamers. Profitable campaigns target people showing travel intent: frequent travellers, recent flight searchers, lookalikes of your past guests. Instagram destination campaigns are already outperforming Facebook by nearly 34% in Gen Z engagement (SuperAds, Facebook Ads CPM Benchmarks for Recreation and Travel, 2025), so younger audiences should usually see the Instagram placement first.

Layer 1: Awareness

Short video ads, ideally your best Reel from your TikTok or Instagram content, shown to travel-intent audiences in your key markets, typically France, Spain, UK, Germany and the US. Goal: cheap video views and profile visits, at CPMs averaging around $10.74 for the Recreation and Travel category.

Layer 2: Consideration

Carousel ads showing rooms, rooftop and breakfast, using the same lead-with-your-best-room photos from our photography guide, shown only to people who watched 50% or more of your video or visited your Instagram. Goal: website clicks.

Layer 3: Where Is the Conversion Actually Made?

Retargeting with a concrete offer (“Free airport transfer on direct bookings”) shown to website visitors who didn’t book. This is where the return is made, Meta’s own 2026 data shows retargeted vacation ads returning $7.20 for every $1 spent. None of it works if the click lands on a slow site with a buried booking calendar, the exact failure mode covered in our riad website mistakes guide.

Measure What Matters

Ignore likes. Track three numbers: cost per website visit, cost per booking enquiry, and return on ad spend. If you can’t see those numbers, your pixel isn’t set up correctly, the first thing we fix in every audit, and the same fix that turned a stalled campaign into the 280% booking increase in our Marrakech riad case study.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should a riad budget for Facebook and Instagram Ads?

Most of our clients start at 300–500€ a month split across the three layers. With Recreation and Travel CPCs averaging $0.57 and CPMs around $10.74, that budget is enough to run all three layers properly rather than one big undifferentiated campaign.

Why did my boosted posts get views but no bookings?

Boosted posts almost always target broad interest, not travel intent, and skip retargeting entirely. Views and likes are vanity metrics; the booking happens in the retargeting layer, which a simple boost never reaches.

Should I use Facebook or Instagram placement?

Run both, but weight budget toward Instagram for younger audiences, since Instagram destination campaigns already outperform Facebook by nearly 34% in Gen Z engagement. Facebook still performs well for slightly older, higher-spending travelers.