Lower CPA, more earnings
Tourism
CAC
A global airline needed direct customer acquisition without handing commissions to OTAs and metasearch platforms. Navigator reached passengers at the moment they were searching for flights and drove them back to the airline's own site.
The Challenge
A global airline struggled to acquire new customers outside of their own first-party data, and without handing over commissions to OTAs and other online booking platforms.
The airline was already working with the OTAs and Metasearch platforms to be competitive. However, they had been tasked with delivering more direct customer acquisition without giving up the commissions payable to 3rd party platforms.
They wanted to stand out from other airlines in a very competitive landscape on key routes which drove the most margin per customer for their business.
They felt that their branding campaigns globally (which included significant spends across TV and OOH) worked really well but their direct acquisition of new customers via their digital campaigns were expensive and ineffective.
Additionally, they had previously used open audiences with the main advertising platforms such as Meta, Google and, most recently, TikTok but these were proving to be very untargeted leading to a lot of wastage and poor performance.
The Strategy
The airline was looking for a new solution that could get them in front of their potential customer at the very moment they were searching and ready to book a flight.
Using Navigator's exclusive relationships with some of the world's biggest OTAs and Metasearch platforms, they were able to target a customer who was searching for flights to their key destinations, serve them an airline branded advertisement, and drive the customer back to their website whether they would benefit from a direct booking.
The airline had an understanding of the cost per acquisition (CPA) and the commission they were having to pay other sites to help sell their inventory, so were able to provide clear guidance on what success looked like and what CPA Navigator had to achieve.
By being able to not only target on the cabin class the customer was searching for on the OTA/Metasearch website, but also being able to target on data such as star rating of hotel and average room night pricing, Navigator created a multi-approach campaign which was able to sell economy, business, and first class airfares.
The strategy was to run an aggressive conversion campaign which aimed to persuade the passenger at the very moment they were about to book a flight to fly with this airline rather than their competitors.
The Results
Tickets
Sold thousands of airline direct tickets, at a lower CPA than the airline was able to achieve via their prospecting and OTA/Metasearch campaigns.
Retargeting
The airline was able to run highly effective retargeting campaigns themselves for ancillary products and their airline loyalty program.
The Conclusions
Navigator can help airlines achieve lower CPA, additional ancillary revenue, and loyalty program sign ups. With Navigator's highly targeted and effective 1st party data access the airline can reach their customer at the very moment they were about to book a flight and persuade them to book direct on their website.
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