Latest Inbound Marketing Strategies: How to Attract Customers Effectively with SNS, Ads & Content
Authors: Shusaku Yosa
In 2025, the number of international visitors to Japan reached approximately 42.68 million, with travel spending totaling ¥9.46 trillion—both record highs. The inbound market continues its robust growth trajectory toward the government’s target of 60 million visitors and ¥15 trillion in spending by 2030.
Meanwhile, the travel style of international visitors has clearly shifted from group tours to independent travel (FIT), with travelers themselves using social media, review sites, and OTAs to compare and select destinations. In other words, if you don’t have a presence at the “pre-trip” information touchpoints, you won’t even make it onto the consideration list.
This article systematically explains the latest inbound customer acquisition methods that integrate three channels—social media, advertising, and content—based on data. From channel-specific strategy design to performance measurement, this is a practical guide for building an integrated multi-channel acquisition infrastructure.
What You’ll Learn
Latest 2025 inbound market data and context / The big picture of the SNS × Ads × Content trinity strategy / Platform-specific social media acquisition tactics / Concrete digital advertising methods for inbound targeting / Multilingual SEO and MEO content strategies / Channel mix by country and region / Data-driven performance measurement and PDCA cycles
Before designing your inbound acquisition strategy, start by understanding the market landscape through data.
According to the Japan Tourism Agency, inbound travel spending in 2025 rose 16.4% year-on-year to ¥9.46 trillion, surpassing ¥9 trillion for the first time. Visitor numbers also hit an all-time high of 42.68 million, with 20 out of 23 tracked markets setting new records. By country, China topped spending at ¥2.003 trillion (21.2% share), followed by Taiwan at ¥1.211 trillion (12.8%), the U.S. at ¥1.124 trillion (11.9%), South Korea at ¥986.4 billion (10.4%), and Hong Kong at ¥561.3 billion (5.9%)—with the top five markets accounting for over 60% of total spending.
A crucial trend is the qualitative shift in spending. “Service consumption”—accommodation, dining, and transportation—now accounts for 70% of total expenditure, marking a clear move from shopping-centric to experience-and-stay-oriented spending. Per-capita travel expenditure remains high at ¥229,000, calling for acquisition strategies focused not just on visitor volume but on increasing spending per visitor.
The Japan Tourism Agency’s survey also reveals that international visitors’ most useful pre-departure information sources were video sites (35.2%), social media (32.5%), personal blogs (27.4%), and review sites (12.7%). With traveler touchpoints clearly concentrated in digital channels, an integrated SNS-Ads-Content strategy is the decisive factor in inbound acquisition success.
Successful inbound acquisition requires not operating social media, advertising, and content in silos, but designing all three channels holistically around the traveler’s behavioral phases.
Inbound traveler behavior breaks down into three phases: Pre-Trip (awareness, interest, consideration), During-Trip (experience, consumption), and Post-Trip (sharing, return visits). During the Pre-Trip phase, social media and video content spark interest, while search ads and social ads drive visitors to websites and booking pages. During the trip, Google Maps and MEO tactics facilitate on-the-ground discovery. Post-Trip, UGC (user-generated content) amplification and repeat-visitor nurturing become the focus.
Designing this entire flow across channels—while measuring results at each phase with data and running PDCA cycles—forms the foundation of sustainable inbound acquisition.
In inbound social media acquisition, the platforms used differ by target country and region, making proper media selection the critical first step.
Instagram is the primary battleground for inbound acquisition, capable of conveying the appeal of tourist destinations and facilities intuitively across language barriers. Hashtag search and map search features enable organic reach to target international users. Demand for short-form video content via Reels and Stories is expanding rapidly, with immersive content showcasing real travel experiences driving high engagement.
YouTube is the world’s largest video platform, and the Japan Tourism Agency’s survey ranks video sites as the top information source used before visiting Japan. Long-form video content provides a virtual experience of facilities and regions, significantly influencing pre-trip decision-making. As a Google-operated service, YouTube content also surfaces in search results, creating synergies with SEO. Commissioning foreign YouTubers to create “native-perspective” content is another highly effective approach.
TikTok’s algorithm gives quality content broad reach regardless of follower count, enabling significant impact at low cost. Millennial and Gen Z travelers in particular actively use TikTok for pre-trip research. Short videos with niche angles—such as “hidden gems in Japan” or “local street food”—tend to achieve high view counts.
Capturing the top-spending Chinese market requires navigating its unique social media ecosystem. Xiaohongshu (RED) has rapidly grown as a review-driven purchase-decision platform, where travel rankings and experience reviews directly influence visitor behavior. Weibo is suited for broad demographic reach, while Dianping functions as a review platform for dining and tourism venues, proving effective for during-trip acquisition.
Engaging influencers from target countries is highly effective for inbound social media acquisition. Micro-influencers (roughly 10,000–100,000 followers) in particular have followers closely aligned with specific countries or interest groups, delivering higher engagement rates and better cost-effectiveness than mega-influencers. Influencer-generated UGC is received as a “trusted third-party recommendation” rather than advertising, delivering end-to-end impact from awareness through to action.
Combining paid advertising strategically with organic social media reach dramatically increases both the precision and scale of inbound acquisition.
Meta Ads (Instagram/Facebook) offer precise targeting by country, language, and interest to reach inbound prospects. Dynamic retargeting ads enable re-engagement with users who have already visited your site. TikTok Ads excel at reaching younger demographics, while YouTube in-stream ads influence pre-trip decisions through video storytelling. For all platforms, localizing creatives—adding subtitles and narration in the target language—is a critical success factor.
Many international travelers still use Google Search during the pre-trip research phase, making multilingual search ads a foundational tactic. Target specific queries like “Tokyo sushi restaurant” or “Kyoto ryokan booking” to drive visitors directly to reservation or venue pages. During the trip, language targeting based on smartphone language settings enables real-time outreach to foreign visitors currently in Japan.
Deploying remarketing ads to users who visited your website or social media during their pre-trip phase delivers exceptionally high cost-effectiveness for inbound acquisition. By tracking users who browsed specific sites or social accounts before their trip and serving reminder ads just before departure or during travel, you push conversions from consideration to booking and visit. Approaching from both pre-trip and during-trip angles minimizes drop-off.
Social media and ads alone are insufficient for building a mid-to-long-term acquisition foundation. To secure stable organic traffic from search engines, pursue a multilingual content strategy in parallel.
When international visitors plan their trips, searching on Google and other engines remains a mainstream behavior. By preparing websites and blog articles optimized in target-market languages—English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, etc.—you aim for higher search rankings. Rather than relying on machine translation alone, producing content with natural expression by native speakers of each language is crucial from both SEO and credibility standpoints.
International visitors during their trip increasingly rely on Google Maps to find local shops and attractions. With over 1 billion monthly active users, Google Maps’ auto-translation feature makes reviews accessible in multiple languages. By registering accurate business hours, menus, photos, and multilingual descriptions on your Google Business Profile—and actively collecting reviews—you improve your map search ranking and drive foot traffic.
TripAdvisor, with over 400 million monthly users, is the world’s largest travel review site and a primary information source for Western visitors to Japan. Listing on international OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) is a prerequisite for making it into the comparison set at the search and consideration stage. Responding to reviews, uploading high-quality photos, and maintaining accurate information are key to boosting exposure and credibility on these platforms.
A common trait among businesses succeeding in inbound acquisition is that they accurately identify which platforms are used in each target market and tailor their channel mix accordingly.
South Korea (No. 1 in visitor volume at 9.45 million) relies primarily on Instagram, YouTube, and Naver for information gathering. Presence on Naver Blog and Naver Map is essential for the Korean market. China (No. 1 in spending at over ¥2 trillion) centers on Xiaohongshu (RED), Weibo, Dianping, and Fliggy—note that Instagram and Facebook are inaccessible. Taiwan (No. 3 in visitor volume at 6.76 million) shows high Facebook and Instagram usage, with experience-oriented content performing well given its pro-Japan sentiment.
Western markets (U.S.: 3.3 million; Australia: 1.05 million, surpassing 1 million for the first time) tend to favor Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok alongside TripAdvisor and Google Search. Given higher per-capita spending, a strategy combining premium experience content with SEO and advertising is effective. Southeast Asian markets favor Facebook and Instagram, with strong affinity for short-form video content.
Rather than deploying identical tactics across all markets, customizing channels and content to each market’s digital behavior characteristics is the key to maximizing results within a limited budget.
In multi-channel inbound acquisition, quantitatively measuring each initiative’s effectiveness and continuously refining strategy based on data is indispensable.
For social media initiatives, core KPIs include engagement rate, follower growth, reach, and shares. For advertising, track CPA (cost per acquisition), ROAS (return on ad spend), CTR (click-through rate), and CVR (conversion rate)—broken down by language and nationality. For content, measure organic search traffic, language-segmented access, Google Business Profile impressions, and review counts to visualize ROI per initiative.
UTM-parameter-based channel analysis in GA4 (Google Analytics 4) is essential. Analyze post-level performance with each platform’s native insights (Instagram Insights, X Analytics, YouTube Studio), and centralize ad performance management in Meta Business Suite. Adding dedicated SNS analytics tools (SINIS, SocialDog, Meltwater, etc.) extends coverage to competitor analysis and social listening, enabling truly data-driven decision-making.
The critical point is not merely tracking numbers, but visualizing the end-to-end journey: which country, which channel, which content, and which outcome—then continuously optimizing budget allocation. Cross-channel attribution analysis enables you to concentrate limited marketing budgets on the highest-performing initiatives.
Even businesses actively investing in inbound acquisition can fail to see results. Common patterns emerge.
The most frequent issue is “translating your website but neglecting traffic-source design.” Simply translating content without establishing exposure on international OTAs and social media means travelers never see you. Another fatal mistake is “one-size-fits-all messaging that ignores country-specific characteristics.” Broadcasting identical content to all markets fails because information-gathering behaviors and platform preferences differ drastically between, say, the Chinese and Western markets.
Additionally, “weak booking and pre-payment funnels that cause drop-off at the comparison stage” is often overlooked. Even when interest is sparked, if the path to booking is complex or multilingual payment isn’t supported, conversions won’t happen. Designing a seamless journey from awareness to final booking and visit—with mechanisms to prevent drop-off at each touchpoint—is a prerequisite for success.
The inbound market—recording 42.68 million visitors and ¥9.5 trillion in spending in 2025—is expected to continue expanding through 2026 and beyond. However, even within the same area and industry, wide gaps in acquisition outcomes are the reality.
What separates winners is not running social media, ads, and content in isolation, but integrating channels holistically—aligned to traveler behavioral phases and target-market characteristics—and sustaining data-driven PDCA cycles.
Start by clearly defining your target market, then accurately map the platforms and information-gathering behaviors used in that market. Pre-Trip awareness through social media and advertising; During-Trip local guidance via MEO and map ads; Post-Trip repeat-visitor nurturing through UGC. Designing these three phases as one seamless journey—and continuously optimizing through cross-channel data analysis—is the foundation for sustained inbound acquisition success.
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