An Edinburgh hospitality group with three venues had no Google Business Profile optimisation and no local SEO strategy.

All three venues existed on Google Maps but had incomplete profiles. No business hours, no photos uploaded, no response to the 47 reviews they had accumulated over two years. When tourists searched for 'cocktail bar Edinburgh Old Town' or 'wine bar near the Royal Mile', competitors with polished profiles took the top three spots. The group's venues did not appear until page two.

Within 60 days of fixing citations, completing and optimising all three Google Business Profiles, and building local links from Edinburgh tourism directories and hospitality publications, all three venues appeared in the local three-pack for their target searches. Direct table bookings increased 28% compared to the same period the prior year.

All 3 venues in Google local 3-pack. Table bookings up 28% versus same period prior year.
£1.7bn
Edinburgh tourism revenue in 2023 highest on record
VisitScotland 2024
4.5M
Overnight visitors to Edinburgh each year
Edinburgh Council 2024
28%
Average increase in direct bookings after Google Business Profile optimisation for Edinburgh hospitality
Asquare AI internal
Plain English

What social media advertising actually is, explained simply

Word of mouth used to be the most powerful marketing in the world. One happy customer would tell three friends. Social media advertising is word of mouth at scale: except instead of telling three friends, one piece of well-placed content can reach three thousand people who look just like your best customers. The catch is that you have to earn the right to be there. Nobody forwards an advert. They share something that taught them something, made them laugh, or made them think. The skill is making content that does one of those things AND sells.

Permission marketing is the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who actually want to receive them.

Seth Godin
Permission Marketing (1999)
Godin's insight, written before social media existed, predicted exactly how it would work. Interrupting people with irrelevant ads builds resentment. Earning permission by being genuinely useful, entertaining, or interesting builds the kind of audience that actually buys. The brands winning on social media in 2024 have permission. The ones losing are still interrupting.
NEWS
£1.7bn Edinburgh tourism revenue in 2023 highest on record. Edinburgh's tourism sector generated £1.7bn in 2023, its highest ever recorded figure. Hospitality and tourism businesses compete intensely for high-intent local and tourist searches.
Source: VisitScotland / Edinburgh Council 2024
The social media reach funnel
How audiences move from unaware to customer
Awareness reached by content
Consideration engaged with post or ad
Intent visited your website
Conversion contacted or purchased

Retargeting is the mechanism that moves people from Consideration to Conversion. It shows ads to people who already know you, at the moment they are closest to deciding.

Why Edinburgh businesses are investing in social media advertising now

£1.7bn
Edinburgh tourism revenue in 2023 highest on record
VisitScotland 2024
4.5M
Overnight visitors to Edinburgh each year
Edinburgh Council 2024
28%
Average increase in direct bookings after Google Business Profile optimisation for Edinburgh hospitality
Asquare AI internal

Edinburgh's financial services sector, Standard Life Aberdeen, Royal Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, and Baillie Gifford, makes it the most professionally sophisticated business market in Scotland. Alongside financial services, tourism, and legal and professional services create a business community with high expectations for marketing quality, compliance, and measurable outcomes.

Industries we serve in Edinburgh

Financial services (Standard Life, RBS, Scottish Widows) Tourism and hospitality Legal and professional services Technology and fintech

Social Media Advertising services
for Edinburgh businesses

Paid social campaigns that target the right audience with creative that stops the scroll. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn advertising managed end-to-end.

Audience strategy and targeting

Audiences built from your actual customer data: demographics, interests, lookalikes from your best customers, and retargeting lists of people who have already visited your site. We target people likely to buy, not just people who loosely fit a category.

Creative development

Ad creative that earns attention. Images, carousels, and short-form video scripts. We brief, produce, and test multiple variations. Most accounts run one creative for months without testing. We test systematically to find what actually converts.

Meta advertising (Facebook and Instagram)

Full Meta campaign management across feed, Stories, Reels, and Messenger. Every placement and bidding decision is made against your actual conversion data, not default settings.

LinkedIn advertising

LinkedIn lets you target by job title, seniority, company size, and industry. Higher cost per click than Meta, but for B2B businesses with high-value clients, the lead quality is in a different category. We manage the full setup and optimisation.

Retargeting campaigns

Ads shown to people who have already visited your site or engaged with your content. Retargeting consistently delivers the highest ROAS of any paid social format because the audience already knows who you are.

Performance reporting

Cost per result, ROAS, reach, and frequency reported monthly with analysis of what is working and what we are changing. We do not dress up weak results with impressive-looking reach numbers.

Questions from Edinburgh businesses

Is Facebook advertising still effective in 2024?
Yes, for the right business types and with the right creative. The mistake most businesses make is treating Facebook ads like print ads: a static image with a logo and a phone number. The ads that work in 2024 look like content, not ads. We build creative that fits the feed, not creative that interrupts it.
Should we use Meta or LinkedIn for B2B advertising?
It depends on who you are trying to reach. LinkedIn gives you more precise job title and company targeting, which is valuable for reaching specific decision-makers. Meta has far larger reach and lower CPCs, which works for B2B businesses with a broad target audience. Most B2B businesses benefit from both, used for different objectives.
How much of our budget goes to Asquare AI versus to the platforms?
We charge a management fee for running your campaigns. Your ad spend goes directly to Meta or Google. We will explain the split clearly in our proposal. Our management fees are structured to scale with what you are spending, so they represent a smaller percentage as budgets grow.
Edinburgh businesses are quality-conscious. How does Asquare AI meet that standard?
We work with Edinburgh financial services, legal, and professional services businesses precisely because they expect rigour. Our reporting is transparent, our strategies are documented, and our results are measurable. We do not make claims we cannot back up with data.
Do you understand FCA compliance requirements for Edinburgh's financial services businesses?
Yes. FCA regulations affect how financial services businesses can advertise online. We work within these constraints and will not recommend campaigns that put your regulatory standing at risk.

Ready to grow your Edinburgh business?

Get a free social media advertising audit for your Edinburgh business. We will identify your biggest opportunities and tell you exactly what we would do first.