The shifting paid social landscape

Over the past few years, the ability to reach niche, highly-defined audiences has eroded significantly. Meta has pulled back on refined interest targeting, meaning campaigns now cast a much wider net – and with broader reach comes more ad wastage.

The platforms use a variety of engagement signals, click behaviour, and purchase data to find the right users to target. But the algorithm needs something worth responding to, and ad creative itself has to work harder to pre-qualify the right kind of traveller. If your ad doesn’t immediately communicate who it’s for and why they should engage, you’re splashing budget in the wrong direction.

ATK’s ads, before and after 

When we first launched their Meta ads, our primary formats were carousels and single images – which made sense at the time, but weren’t translating well across portrait placements, and weren’t doing justice to the sheer beauty of the experience. After all, a kayak gliding through turquoise waters deserves more than a cropped carousel frame! 

We also took a close look at how users actually consume content in a feed. The majority scroll with sound off – meaning any audio storytelling was effectively invisible. So we introduced captions and text overlays across both video and static formats, giving every ad the ability to communicate context and hook attention without the viewer needing to turn the volume up. 

The refresh was centred around three key pillars: 

• Video first:
  Facebook and Instagram Reels are high-performing real estate right now, and the best format for conveying their immersive kayaking experiences.

• Placement fit:
  Rather than trying to adapt lengthy landscape b-roll into a snappy portrait video, we worked with the ATK team on a shoot brief for content filmed specifically to suit each placement – feeds, stories, and reels each getting custom-made creative.

• Creative as targeting:
  We introduced messaging that speaks directly to the adventure seeker, the spontaneous planner, and the nature lover – giving the algorithm better signals to work with, and letting creative filter the right audience in. 

What does this mean for tourism operators in 2026? 

The targeting landscape is changing – and your creative needs to work harder than ever. With reduced granular targeting, the decline of third-party cookies, and AI reshaping how platforms serve ads – the operators who’ll win are those who invest in creative that fits key placements and genuinely earns attention. 

Eye-catching visuals and clear contextual captions don’t just look good – they do the work that refined keyword lists and individual targeting buckets used to do. 

So if your Meta ads still look the same as they did two years ago, and aren’t pulling in the numbers they used to, it’s probably time to chat with a Maverick performance expert – reach out for a yarn today!