Our 3 Pronged Approach to Success

1. Identifying What Visitors Are Searching For & How They Travel

Before launching ads, we needed to understand how potential tourists searched for destinations like Dublin, GA and what messaging would encourage them to extend their stay instead of leaving immediately after an event.

We implemented Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads to start gathering data.

Within two weeks, we identified key trends:

• Instagram was expensive and ineffective for engagement.
• Facebook delivered the lowest cost per impression, making it ideal for general brand awareness.
• Google Ads drove the most direct engagement, especially for people actively searching for things to do near major cities like Atlanta and Jacksonville.

One of the most successful campaigns focused on “Things to Do Near Atlanta” and “St. Patrick’s Festival in Georgia.” These search terms performed exceptionally well, helping to capture travelers looking for weekend trips, festivals, and regional getaways.

2. Optimizing Paid Ads for Awareness and Conversions

Based on our findings, we adjusted the ad strategy to maximize impact:

• Facebook became the primary awareness driver, acting as a digital billboard for Dublin, GA.
• This expanded regional recognition and made Dublin more top-of-mind for travelers looking for quick getaways.
• Locals engaged with the ads early on, but as we identified strong drive markets, we shifted budget toward attracting out-of-town visitors.
• Google Ads became the conversion engine, targeting high-intent searches such as:
• “Things to do near Atlanta”
• “Best weekend getaways in Georgia”
• “St. Patrick’s Festival in Georgia”
• Retargeting Strategy:
• We first introduced Dublin through display ads targeted at travelers.
• We then followed up with conversion-focused Google Ads, encouraging users to book hotels, attend events, and explore the city.
• Instagram received minimal budget after testing confirmed it wasn’t delivering strong results.

Through these optimizations, Dublin saw an increase in engagement from drive markets, more visitors staying overnight, and higher participation in local events.

3. Long-Term SEO Growth for Sustained Tourism Impact

While ads provided immediate traffic and event awareness, we wanted to ensure Dublin, GA continued attracting visitors without relying solely on paid advertising.

To achieve this, we:

• Provided keyword research and SEO recommendations to help optimize Dublin’s website for high-traffic searches.
• Worked with their team to ensure event pages ranked well, since St. Patrick’s Festival and The Nutcracker became top-performing pages.
• Expanded keyword rankings, leading to an increase in monthly website traffic from 6,490 to 9,647 visitors.

By continuously improving search visibility, Dublin strengthened its long-term ability to attract organic visitors searching for things to do, places to stay, and upcoming events.

This combination of paid advertising for immediate engagement and SEO for long-term visibility helped Dublin increase tourism revenue, hotel stays, and local business growth.

Expanding Reach Through Digital Ads

Dublin, GA had previously relied on traditional print ads, which lacked trackability and real-time optimization. Hatch shifted their focus to digital advertising, allowing us to:

• Expand the drive market audience to attract tourists beyond locals.
• Lower CPM/CPC to get the most engagement for the budget.
• Optimize messaging based on audience behavior, leading to increased engagement over time.

We ran Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads, with equal focus on each, ensuring that potential visitors encountered Dublin at every stage of their travel planning process.

Ad Performance Overview

• Facebook/Instagram Ads (Awareness & Event Promotion)
• 82,362 clicks, 2.4M impressions
• $0.12 CPC (vs. industry avg. $0.50-$1.00 for tourism ads)
• 3.43% CTR (vs. industry avg. 1-2%)
• Google Ads (Search & Retargeting for Travel Intent)
• 9,674 clicks, 212,972 impressions
• 4.54% CTR (vs. industry avg. ~2.5%)
  

Optimizing Paid Ads for Awareness & Conversions

We tailored our targeting to balance local engagement with out-of-town reach:

• Initially, locals engaged most with ads, so we focused early budgets there.
• Over time, we allocated more budget to drive markets as we identified key areas where out-of-town visitors were showing the most interest.
• We optimized campaigns for major events, driving attendance and encouraging extended stays in Dublin.

Best-Performing Campaigns & Messaging

• "Things to Do Near Atlanta" / "Things to Do Near Jacksonville" – Captured travelers searching for regional weekend getaways.
• St. Patrick’s Festival in Georgia – Event-related search ads drove significant engagement leading up to the event.
• Retargeting Strategy – Visitors who clicked on display ads were later shown conversion-focused Google Ads, increasing email signups and event RSVPs.
  

3. Supporting SEO & Website Growth

While Visit Dublin, GA handled SEO content creation in-house, Hatch provided keyword research, strategic guidance, and website optimization recommendations.

• Expanded event-based search traffic by promoting pages like St. Patrick’s Festival and The Nutcracker.
• Provided keyword research to ensure their content targeted high-search-volume, low-competition keywords.
• Worked alongside their team to optimize pages for better rankings and conversions.

SEO Growth Overview

• Website Traffic Growth: 6,490 visitors/month → 9,647 visitors/month (+48.7%)
• Top-performing event pages saw the most organic traffic gains.