Challenge
Turning visibility into qualified travel engagement
Skyscanner is a leading travel platform, connecting millions of travelers with flight, hotel, and car hire options globally. While its display campaigns were effective in driving broad visibility, the team sought to go deeper—transforming reach into engagement with high-intent users.
The goal: optimize mid-funnel efficiency by identifying and scaling audiences that show clear signs of travel planning, not just casual browsing. By focusing on this middle stage, Skyscanner hoped to improve retargeting quality and drive stronger ROI from its performance media.
Solution
Measuring and optimizing for travel intent with Conversion Events
Skyscanner partnered with Criteo to activate Conversion Events, an optimization approach to move beyond last-click optimization and drive meaningful engagement over volume.
The team defined Engaged Search Sessions (ESS) as sessions in which users didn’t bounce and completed at least one search for flights, hotels, or car hire. ESS served as a clearer signal of genuine travel intent than broader metrics like total sessions or click-based conversions.
“Using ESS as our optimization signal gave us clearer visibility into engagement quality. It helped us scale audiences more likely to convert and allocate budget more efficiently,” said Liam Hall, Marketing Manager, Skyscanner.
Results
Validating impact with strong uplifts across regions
Skyscanner ran tests in India and Canada, comparing ESS-optimized campaigns against conversion-based campaigns tracking downstream booking-proxy events.
The results were immediate and consistent:
- Up to +80% growth in ESS
- Up to +67% ROI uplift (Skyscanner last-click attribution)
- +43% growth in total sessions
The performance was validated in Skyscanner’s internal BI platform and Criteo reporting, with aligned results across both. Critically, ESS optimization for mid-funnel engagement improved the quality of users entering the retargeting pool, reducing waste and setting up stronger downstream conversions.
“Conversion Events helped us measure and optimize true engagement quality, not just clicks. It’s a smarter way to drive ROI and reduce waste.”
Following the success of this mid-funnel strategy, Skyscanner is scaling ESS optimization across more markets and channels. In partnership with Criteo, the brand is evolving how it defines and delivers value—moving beyond clicks to measurable intent at every step of the journey.
