Facebook Ads for Ski Companies: Who’s The Best?

Back in 2016 I was focussed on ski SEO and I optimized the search presence of many UK ski companies such as Basecamp.

But SEO is a longterm game where you are building an asset over time that brings in ‘free’ traffic from Google organic search results.

To get customers today however, the current game in town is paid advertising on Meta with Facebook and Instagram ads.

Some ad types that work well for ski companies include lead generation ads, video ads and carousel ads. In this post I’ll be focussing on static image ads which are the easiest to create, but also deliver the highest click through rates to your landing pages.

Top Companies Running Meta Ads

You can see what ads ski companies are running (in Europe at least) using the Facebook Ads Library.

Heidi

Heidi, formally Ski Zoom, is now the third largest-ski holiday operator in the UK. Based in Bristol, (near my UK base in Wells, Somserset) by Marcus and Alexander Blunt, the company secured £5.6M in June of this year in a round of funding, led by Mercia Ventures with Active Partners. They are aiming to become “one of the top two ski travel operators” mentioned on PlanetSki, by allowing people to book a ski trip on any day of the week, unlocking short breaks.

And looking at their Facebook ad campaigns, I can believe it, running more ads than all the other biggest operators mentioned below, with 22 ads in total.

But it’s actually way more than this as they are running multiple versions of ad copy and images where Facebook’s dynamic feature automatically creates the right combination for the audience. So in effect it’s likely hundreds of total ads they are running:

10 out of the 22 are video ads, with this one being the longest running since June.

Out of the 12 static ads, they use just two different body copy texts (the copy above the image) which they will have found work best from testing:

• Are you booking the Heidi way? ⛷
• Book early for stress-free ski trips ⛷️

The two below are my favourites, running on Facebook, Instagram and Meta Audience Network (advertising in other company’s mobile apps) and Messenger:

Both ads are going to their homepage where the above the fold booking element is clearly optimized to convert:

Skiworld

Below are the only two static image ads which Skiworld, the largest independent ski tour operator in the UK, are currently running:

They are both using the same one line body copy text Book More, Save More – Ski Holiday Savings up to £220pp and the same headline (at the bottom of the ad) Save up to £220pp when you book as a group. Both ads go to their ski chalet search page.

I imagine the second image We’re gonna need a bigger chalet is performing better, getting more clicks, but you never can tell which is why you really need to test at least three different image creatives. (This is what I offer in the Ski.Marketing package, more on that below…)

Ski Solutions

Ski Solutions are currently running four ads (but again with multiple versions), two videos and two static ads, each have their own unique body copy text and image. Below are the image ads:

I think the body copy text could be improved to be made snappier and more conversion focussed like Skiworld does above, and the images look old fashioned to me in comparison (but they may be targeting an older demographic). The first ad goes to their homepage, and the second one goes to their blog post on the 10 best ski resorts in France.

Inghams

Similarly, Inghams are only running four ads, three video and one static image, featured below, but you can see 6 different images uploaded for multiple versions:

I like picking one property to promote and including a price, with the landing page being the chalet page in St Anton.

Crystal

Last but obviously not least is Crystal, the largest ski holiday company in the UK. They are currently running 11 ads, with two video ads with The Wrights running on Instagram since December 2023 such as this one:

They personally make me cringe, but clearly they are working for them having run for almost two years now.

They are running 5 different static image ads across all the targeting options on Meta, with the below being my two favourite:

The first ad goes to a ski deals for this current season page, and the second ad goes to a dedicated £175 off per booking landing page:

Ski Marketing Done For You

Creating Facebook ads that convert is not easy which is why I’m offering them in a low cost, one-off new package that’s over at Ski.Marketing.

I will create three different ad variations, as well as offer 30 minutes consulting on landing pages and anything else you want to discuss in your ski business.

But that’s not all. I bring my SEO and content creation prowess where you will also get 10 blog posts, newsletters and social media posts.

Get your entire ski marketing done for the season for just £949!