Running today for San Bernardino International Airport and McKinney National Airport, and behind Long Beach Airport’s 2025 awareness campaign.
Start with the goal
Why advertise? To introduce a new route, fill the parking garage, send more people to your website, or convince travelers to choose your airport over a bigger one an hour away. A campaign can do several of those at once, but its main goal decides how it’s built, set up and judged.
When there are competing priorities, the budget should follow the biggest opportunity, not get split evenly out of habit. We agree with your team on what success looks like, and how it will be measured, before a dollar is spent.
Know who you’re talking to
Travelers have options and habits. McKinney National Airport is bringing commercial service to a region already served by two large airports, so telling people it exists isn’t enough. Nearby business travelers respond to convenience, and families respond to price. Those differences shape both the creative and where it runs.
Most airports have three audiences: people who live nearby, people within driving distance who fly from a bigger airport, and visitors flying in. We plan for each one on its own terms.
Location data shows where your travelers live and which airports people in your area actually use. We can find the communities driving past you to a bigger airport, reach them with a reason to stay close to home, and measure whether they come back.
The right mix, not every channel
A plan might use a few of these or most of them, depending on your goal, your market and your budget. A small budget spread across too many channels leaves each one too thin to work.
- Paid search on Google and Bing, for people already searching flights, parking and your destinations.
- Paid social on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, aimed by place, interests and life stage.
- Programmatic display and native across thousands of websites and apps, aimed at travel shoppers in your market.
- Streaming TV and video, including connected TV and YouTube, for households across your catchment area.
- Streaming audio, podcasts and radio, for the commute and the weekend.
- Billboards and digital outdoor on the roads your travelers drive, including the one to the competing airport.
- In-terminal, for the travelers already in your building.
- Print, in the consumer and trade publications your audience still reads.
- Influencers, from local creators to creators in your new destinations.
- Co-op campaigns with airlines and visitors bureaus, including campaigns that are part of an air service incentive package.
Promoting a new route? See how we support air service development from the first airline meeting.
Watched daily, tuned weekly
Launching a campaign is the start of the work, not the end. We check campaigns every day, adjust them every week and make bigger changes every month. We work directly in the ad platforms and with the media outlets, so when one channel pulls ahead, the budget can follow it that week instead of next quarter.
Creative gets the same attention. We test static banners against animated ones, and a new-terminal message against a family vacation or a business trip, then put more behind whatever travelers respond to.
- A live dashboard with every digital campaign and how it’s doing.
- Monthly results against the benchmarks and goals we agreed on.
- A quarterly review with recommendations, creative refreshes and where to move budget.
- An annual planning session ahead of your fiscal year, to set the plan and the year’s goals.
Results against the travel benchmark
On a new account, our first goal is to beat published travel-industry benchmarks. After that, the target becomes our own results from the year before.
San Bernardino International Airport
Google search ads reached a 22.41% click-through rate in the second quarter of 2026, against a 4.68% travel benchmark. Meta ads reached 4.15%, about twice the 2.06% benchmark.
McKinney National Airport
Meta ads drew a 14.95% engagement rate in the second quarter of 2026, against a 2% goal, building awareness ahead of the airport’s first commercial flights.
Long Beach Airport
An eight-week programmatic and Meta campaign for two audiences, locals and inbound visitors, delivered more than 2 million impressions with a click-through rate 37% above the industry benchmark.
One team from plan to final report
The same small team builds your plan, negotiates and places the buy, watches it every day and walks you through the results. Creative comes from our own designers, or from the work you already have. See brand development and content creation.
- An annual media plan, updated through the year as routes and priorities change
- A recommendation for every placement: who it reaches, when it runs, what it costs and why it’s there
- Negotiation with media outlets, including added value
- Insertion orders, trafficking and ad specs for every outlet
- Daily monitoring and weekly optimization
- Post-buy analysis for broadcast and outdoor
What it looks like day to day
A route goes on sale Monday
We start with the questions that shape everything: is the airline new to your market, is the destination leisure or business, is it daily or seasonal, and is there co-op money from the airline or the visitors bureau. The plan is ready before the schedule is.
Search pulls ahead in week three
The daily numbers show paid search sending more travelers to the airline’s booking page than display. That week, budget moves from display to search, and the monthly report shows what changed and why.
The garage fills up
A garage that’s full on weekdays doesn’t need more parking ads. We pause them, move the money to the route that needs help, and bring them back when there’s space to sell.
Plan your next campaign
Tell us what you’re promoting, who you need to reach and when. We’ll come back with a media plan built around it.
