Trivago Uses Universal App Campaigns Optimised to In-App Events to Drive Installs Among Valuable Customers

Each day trivago helps users compare hotel prices from more than 200 booking sites for approximately 1.3 million hotels throughout the world. trivago’s platform can be accessed globally via 55 localised websites and apps in 33 languages. Catering to an on-the-go audience, the brand’s mobile app enables consumers to search for hotels by date, location and price, discover properties near well-known sights and save hotels for future bookings.

trivago's aim was to bring more awareness to the benefits of the brand's app. To achieve scale, they adopted Universal app campaigns (UAC) to run ads across Google Search and Google Play, YouTube, the Google Display Network and through publishers that host app ads. AdWords then automatically optimised the number of installs by searching out those placements that offered the best potential according to a cost-per-install target.

After a year focusing on volume, trivago wanted to expand its UAC approach to find Android users who were most likely to be valuable as customers. The first step was to identify the in-app event that mattered most to the business: clicking on a hotel in order to make a booking. Next the team set a cost-per-install target that was 20% higher than usual. Over the course of 30 days, AdWords’ machine-learning algorithm found new users who were most likely to download the app and make the desired in-app action. As the campaign continued, performance improved thanks to efficient automated bidding.

For trivago, UAC was able to find Android users who were more likely to click on hotel deals in the app and book a room. As a result, the brand acquired customers who were 20% more valuable to the business. Going forward, the plan is to advance in-app measurement and launch UAC for in-app events for iOS in key markets.