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Advertisers can now target Expedia audiences across the open web.
The capability comes with the launch of Expedia’s travel media network, building on the travel company’s 20-year-old advertising business. According to the company’s most recent earnings report, advertising and media through Expedia Group Media Solutions accounted for $145 million in revenue in the first quarter, up from $99 million in Q1 of 2023.
“We can appeal to—especially with audience extension—anybody that’s going after that travel audience. It could be automotive or financial services or retailers,” Jennifer Andre, vp of business development at Expedia Group Media Solutions, told ADWEEK. “This gives us a lot more opportunity to proactively speak to those advertisers and connect them to travelers in the right places.”
Taking a page out of the retail media playbook, Expedia announced the new travel media network, an evolution of its ad and media business to include offsite targeting and expand its appeal to non-endemic advertisers, today at its annual Explore 24 partner event in Las Vegas.
Expedia’s travel media network is one of the dozens of companies—inside and outside of traditional retail—using first-party data to expand offsite advertising capabilities for brands in recent years, especially as the deprecation of Google’s third-party cookie looms.
Going offsite
While the high-income audiences that Expedia attracts are enticing, the quality of the network’s measurement tools could make or break the opportunity for some brands, media buyers told ADWEEK.
“Expedia offers a highly qualified audience opportunity,” said Dan Maguire, director of retail media at agency GALE. “It will be interesting to see how many sectors can make use of this audience especially as they start leaving the hospitality realm and cross over into more conversion-dependent brands in verticals like grocery or beauty.”
The company gathers data from over 200 points of sale in 70 different countries, explained Rob Torres, svp of media and affiliate solutions. While sponsored listings and display offerings have long been available in Expedia’s ad business, advertisers will now be able to target Expedia audiences on connected TV, video and social, he said, with measurement all in one place.
Hotels and other properties that buy sponsored listing ads on Expedia get 120% more bookings and 50% higher conversion than non-enrolled properties, the company said.
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