Search ads for travel agencies: reach people already searching for a tour on specific dates.
Someone searching “tours to Egypt from Astana in November” has already decided to go and is choosing who to buy from. We set up Google Ads and Yandex Direct by destination and departure city, send traffic to a landing page with price and dates, and count paid tours rather than clicks.
Search ads in tourism are the hottest and most expensive traffic. Generic queries like “tours to Turkey” are contested by aggregators, tour operators and dozens of agencies, clicks are expensive, and some people are just checking prices. So an agency is better off with narrow queries: destination plus departure city, resort plus month, “last-minute tours from Shymkent”, “umrah price Almaty”.
The second point is the landing page. An ad saying “Sharm el-Sheikh from Almaty from ₸260,000” must lead to a page with that price, departure dates, package contents, Kaspi installments and a WhatsApp button. If it leads to a home page with general search, the budget burns.
The third is season and region. Bids and budgets by destination change month by month, campaigns are split by departure city, and impressions are limited to regions where you have departures. Calls and messages from ads go into the CRM so you can see which queries produce bookings and which only produce questions.
What search ads include.
Queries by country, resort, departure city, month and type of holiday, separate groups for umrah and domestic tourism.
We filter out “free”, “jobs”, “on my own”, “traveller forum reviews” and other queries without purchase intent.
Almaty, Astana, Shymkent and other cities — separate campaigns with prices and dates relevant to that departure.
Search campaigns for hot demand, Yandex display network and Google display campaigns for early booking and retargeting.
A page for each destination: starting price, dates, package contents, installments, WhatsApp. We build them if needed.
Budget reallocation between destinations by month and peak: early booking, holidays, New Year, Ramadan.
Call tracking, goals for WhatsApp and forms, leads passed to the CRM with the query and campaign.
Cost per lead, booking and paid tour by campaign, not just CTR and clicks.
Typical campaigns.
- Search: destinations from your departure city
- Search: last-minute tours
- Search: umrah and hajj
- Search: domestic tourism and Issyk-Kul
- Search: brand and “travel agency + city”
- Yandex display network: early booking
- Retargeting landing page visitors
- Google display ads for seasonal destinations
- Kazakh-language campaigns
Which queries sell tours and which burn the budget.
More likely to pay back: “destination + departure city + month” combinations, last-minute tours from a specific city, umrah with the city and year, domestic tourism with a place name, the agency brand. The person has already chosen where and when and is looking for who to buy from.
Less likely to pay back: generic “tours to Turkey”, “beach holiday”, “where to go”, hotel names without agency intent — lots of browsers and strong aggregator competition.
In our experience and according to market data, it is wiser to start with narrow queries for 2–4 seasonal destinations and expand keywords once the cost per paid tour is visible in the CRM. Generic queries only with a separate budget and a strong landing page.
Why search ads do not pay back for travel agencies.
- One campaign for all of Kazakhstan, although departures are only from Almaty.
- Ads lead to the home page rather than a destination page with price and dates.
- The price in the ad does not match the price on the site and from the manager.
- No negative keywords — the budget goes to “tourism jobs vacancies” and “how to travel on your own”.
- The same budgets for Turkey in December and in May.
- Calls and messages from ads do not reach the CRM — it is unclear what was bought and what was just asked.
- Last-minute deals in ads are not switched off after seats sell — clicks go to a tour that no longer exists, and the traveller leaves annoyed.
How much search ads cost.
Managing one system (Google Ads or Yandex Direct) with 2–4 destinations — ₸150,000–₸250,000 per month. Both systems, several departure cities or two languages — ₸250,000–₸400,000 per month. Setup is included in the first month; one-off setup without management is ₸150,000.
The ad budget is paid to the systems separately: from ₸200,000 per month, and from ₸250,000–₸400,000 for competitive destinations from Almaty. Landing pages, if you have none, are separate. Base terms are on the search advertising page.
The short version.
How much do search ads for a travel agency cost?
Management starts at ₸150,000 per month for one system, ₸250,000–₸400,000 for Google Ads and Yandex Direct together. The ad budget is separate, from ₸200,000 per month.
Google Ads or Yandex Direct?
In Kazakhstan Google provides the main search volume, Yandex Direct adds more, especially its display network for early booking. We usually start with Google and add Direct once payback is visible.
Can we compete with aggregators on cost per click?
On generic queries it is expensive. An agency wins on narrow queries with the departure city, resort and month, where the landing page is more precise and conversion higher.
Is a website needed for search ads?
You need at least a landing page for the destination with price, dates and a WhatsApp button. If you have none, we will build one — more on the website for travel agencies page.
How do we know the ads pay back?
Leads and calls from ads go to the CRM with the query and campaign. After a month you can see the cost per booking and per paid tour for each destination, and the budget moves to where it sells.
Same service for other industries
Want leads from search this season? Tell us about your destinations — we will estimate the budget.
Tell us which destinations and departure cities you sell and whether you have landing pages and a CRM. We will reply with a campaign structure, budget forecast and estimate within 1–2 business days.