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The Small Agency’s Playbook for Using Limited Ad Budgets to Compete With OTAs

UUnknown

2026-02-18

6 min read

How small travel agencies can use Google’s total campaign budgets and CRM sequencing to sell seat-heavy flights and outmaneuver OTAs.

Hook: When OTAs outspend you, sell smarter — not harder

Every small travel agency knows the pain: OTAs drown you in ads, auction every keyword, and use massive budgets to push inventory. You have limited ad dollars, a flight or block of seats that must sell in a narrow window, and no time for constant budget fiddling. What if you could treat your ad spend like a single, controllable asset — allocate it across days and channels, pace it against remaining seats, and coordinate CRM outreach so each dollar converts to a sold seat and retained customer?

The 2026 shift you can’t ignore

In January 2026 Google extended total campaign budgets beyond Performance Max to Search and Shopping. That means you can now set a total spend for a campaign over a fixed period and let Google smooth pacing to hit the goal by the end date — a game-changer for short, seat-heavy campaigns. At the same time, privacy shifts and rising CPCs mean first-party data and CRM-driven outreach are now essential to outperform OTAs that rely on scale.

Why this matters for small agencies

Less manual budget babysitting — set the budget once and let automated pacing reduce wasted spend.
Better coordination — sync a total ad budget with CRM cadences so ads and emails don’t cannibalize each other.
Inventory-aware optimization — manage spend to target key sell-through curves for seat-heavy offers. See how tourism analytics inform inventory sensitivity in broader contexts: tourism analytics & eGate expansion.

Playbook overview: total campaign budget + CRM outreach

This playbook adapts Google’s total campaign budget idea into an actionable, step-by-step plan for seat-heavy campaigns over several days or weeks. Use it to compete with OTAs by combining automated ad pacing with aggressive, personalized CRM touchpoints.

What you’ll get

How to set and split a total campaign budget across channels
Inventory-aware pacing rules tied to remaining seats
CRM outreach sequences that amplify ad spend
Measurement and mid-campaign optimization guides informed by media architecture thinking (see media & brand mapping).
Templates and numeric examples you can copy — implementation ideas and team upskilling covered in implementation guides for marketing teams.

Step 1 — Start with seat-level unit economics

Before any ad dollar is committed, map the economics for each seat. You must know the true conversion value and acceptable CPA.

Inventory: total seats available for this promotion (e.g., 120 seats).
Target fill: seats you need to sell in the campaign window (e.g., 90 seats in 10 days).
Net revenue per seat: ticket price minus taxes, fees, and expected commissions (e.g., $200 net).
Acceptable CPA: decide what you can spend per booked seat to hit acceptable profit (e.g., $40 CPA for $200 net gives 20% acquisition cost).

Quick rule: Your maximum ad + CRM acquisition cost must be less than the net margin per seat.

Step 2 — Translate goals into a total campaign budget

Convert your seat goal and CPA into a total ad budget that you will manage as a multi-day pool.

Example:

Goal: 90 seats
Target CPA: $40
Total campaign budget = 90 seats × $40 = $3,600

This is the dollar amount you set as your total campaign budget in Google and reserve across other channels and CRM activities. If you’re planning paid amplification (SMS/email delivery, list rental), consider budgeting a portion specifically for those sends — a pattern used in micro-drop and live-send playbooks: micro-subscriptions & live drops.

Step 3 — Smart splits: how to allocate the total budget across channels

Not all channels perform equally. With seat-heavy campaigns, combine paid search, remarketing, metasearch (if affordable), and CRM outreach. Use historical channel ROAS to allocate the total budget (see strategic media mapping: principal media & brand architecture).

A practical allocation framework (starter)

Search (branded + high-intent non-branded): 45%
Performance Max/Discovery (awareness + mid-funnel): 20%
Remarketing/display/social retargeting: 15%
Metasearch or Flight Aggregators: 10% (if available)
CRM-paid amplification (SMS/email paid send costs, list rental): 10%

Using the $3,600 example: Search = $1,620; PMax = $720; Remarketing = $540; Metasearch = $360; CRM amplification = $360.

Why reserve budget for CRM?

First-party outreach converts at higher rates and costs less per booked seat when sequenced properly. Treat a portion of the total campaign budget as an investment in prioritized CRM sends and paid inbox/sms delivery for high-intent segments — a pattern explored in micro-send and live-drop playbooks: micro-subscriptions & live drops.

Step 4 — Implement total campaign budgets in Google and set pacing rules

Use Google’s total campaign budget feature (now available for Search and Shopping as of Jan 2026) to set the campaign-level spend target and end date. Then combine automated pacing with inventory-aware guardrails.

Configuration checklist

Set campaign start and end dates that match the seat sell window — and sync those dates to your calendar and CRM workflows: CRM & calendar integration.
Enter the total campaign budget equal to your allocated ad spend for Google channels.
Choose a pacing preference: prioritize full utilization by end-date (default) but apply manual rules for high-price periods.
Use asset-level signals: attach conversion value per seat as the conversion event so Google optimizes to high-value conversions; document conversion values and testing plans alongside your team playbook: implementation & publishing guides.
Activate bid strategies with flexible targets (target CPA or maximize conversion value with a target ROAS) and allow some leeway for automated systems to find demand.

Example: For Search + PMax combined spend of $2,340, set two total budgets — one for Search ($1,620) and one for PMax ($720) with identical start/end dates.

Step 5 — Add inventory-aware pacing and manual guardrails

Automated pacing is powerful, but you still need inventory signals. Sync your booking system or CRM to bid rules with these guardrails:

Remaining seats thresholds: If remaining seats < 30% of target, increase bids or shift budget to high-intent channels to accelerate conversion. For flight-focused channels and aggregator behavior, monitor metasearch opportunity windows: where airlines add capacity & aggregator dynamics.
Time-to-close adjustments: Last 48–72 hours before campaign end, aggressively reallocate leftover budget toward high-conversion audiences and switch to CPA bidding if ROAS was suboptimal — this is the core of many last-minute booking strategies: last-minute bookings & microcation revenue tactics.
Price-sensitivity caps: Reduce bids by X% when inventory is abundant to avoid overpaying for marginal conversions; use external analytics and tourism data to inform caps (tourism analytics).

Inventory-aware pacing: spend more when seats are scarce and time is short; conserve when fill is healthy.

Step 6 — Coordinate CRM outreach as the campaign’s multiplier

CRM outreach turns ad clicks into bookings and captures customers who don’t convert on first visit. The key is segmentation + sequencing — not blasting the entire list.

Segment examples

Hot leads: recent website visitors who viewed booking pages or started checkout in the last 7 days.
Warm prospects: email opens/clicks in past 30 days but no booking.
Past bookers: customers who booked similar routes in the last 12–24 months.
Price-sensitive list: users who previously used promo codes or price alerts.

Sequence (10-day example)

Day 0 — Launch ad campaigns + SMS to hot leads: short, direct CTA and low-friction booking link. If you run flash sends or paid-list activations, the micro-drop playbook is a good reference: micro-subscriptions & live drops.
Day 2 — Email to warm prospects: highlight scarcity (remaining seats) + social proof + limited promo code.
Day 4 — Retargeting ads to site visitors + push notification to app users: dynamic creative showing remaining seats/pricing tiers.
Day 7 — Urgency SMS to all non-bookers with personalized offer (seat-specific discount or bundled ancillaries).
Day 9 — Last-chance email + one-click checkout link; increase ad bids for branded keywords to capture search-intent spikes.

Each CRM touch should include a clear micro-conversion (book now, request callback, claim code) so you can feed back performance to ad platforms and adjust. Document templates, workflows and creative in your team playbook — implementation checklists are covered in practical guides for marketing teams: from prompt to publish.

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