How Expedia's Meta ads actually work.

Expedia's ads lead with stunning destination footage, turquoise water, cobblestone streets, golden hour on a mountain, and only show the booking interface in the last 2 seconds. This is the opposite of a product demo. The emotional desire for the trip does all the work. The platform is just the mechanism. Nobody books on Expedia because they love the UI. They book because they want to be on that beach. The ad's job is to trigger the wanting; the brand just needs to be there when the viewer decides to act.

Emotional-first advertising works for any experiential product, restaurants, events, resorts, adventure activities, destination weddings. The rule: show the experience for 80% of the ad, show the brand for 20%. If you flip that ratio, you get a boring product ad. The footage must trigger genuine desire, stock footage rarely works. Real, specific, beautiful imagery of the actual experience you're selling. For small businesses: a 15-second iPhone video of your actual restaurant/venue/location beats any stock footage library.