Air travel might be getting easier, but for the companies that carry us from where we are to where we’re going, there’s an amazing amount of complexity at work — and they use a lot of data to make decisions. For airBaltic, a regional airline based in Latvia, recognising that its data was siloed in separate proprietary systems like booking platforms and revenue management tools pushed the company to reshape its data and analytics strategy.
About airBaltic
airBaltic is a hybrid airline serving over 60 destinations, combining the best practices of traditional network airlines with the savings of ultra-low-cost carriers.
Headquarters: Riga, Latvia
www.airbaltic.com
Goals
Consolidate data systems
Generate incremental revenue
Optimise investments
Approach
Executive support for data-driven marketing
Create more views on Data Studio
Results
Increased sales by 125%
Established over 35 custom reports
Streamlined processes by bringing work in-house
AirBaltic already leveraged Google Analytics 360 to measure the effectiveness of its marketing campaigns, but the company wanted to streamline all of its different data sources across Google (Google Ads, Performance, Bigquery pulls) and internal systems. Thanks to Google Data Studio, the teams across airBaltic were able to do just that — along with easily visualising their insights to consistently make smarter data-driven decisions.
Data-driven decisions from the top
Before airBaltic started using Data Studio, its employees spent a substantial amount of time and investment generating reports from different data systems. Then, once they had the data, sharing information across teams and third-party agencies was burdensome.
As champions of data-driven marketing, the executives at airBaltic knew that something had to change. Since they’d already made a large investment in Google Ads, adding Data Studio to their suite of marketing tools was a no-brainer, especially since it is free to use. It allowed the airline to make the most of the data it already had at its disposal.
Through Data Studio, airBaltic was finally able to set up a single “source of truth” dashboard that could be used securely by both internal teams and external partners. Data Studio let everyone align on the same KPIs, goals, and definitions. Plus, employees saved time and eliminated the need for manual data pulls, aggregation, and visualisation thanks to Data Studio’s automated reporting.
A reporting revolution
Data Studio, which turns raw data into reports and dashboards, transformed the way airBaltic does business. “Data Studio is very convenient. It helps us understand data with much less effort, and it’s taken months off our data analytics processes,” said Maris Rudens, the Head of Digital Marketing and Loyalty at airBaltic.
When airBaltic first started using Data Studio, it had a high-level summary dashboard. But since Data Studio gave airBaltic the ability to easily connect different data sources, members of the team quickly found new ways to create granular reports.
In fact, now the team has expanded to 25 unique custom views with 35 different pages and reports — and they’re continuing to find and add new use cases. For example, their Google Ads account best-practices report allows the team to easily identify gaps or inconsistencies, such as missing ad extensions in large-scale accounts
Data-driven marketing leads to results
Just like the number of Data Studio dashboards and reports, the number of employees with data expertise has grown, too. As the Head of Digital Marketing, Rudens has served as a data evangelist, bringing data-driven marketing to over five teams including Top Management, and external agency teams. This has enabled airBaltic to make better data-driven decisions faster.
With more data and more employees digging into the data, airBaltic has been able to get better results. The company has raised brand awareness in important submarkets, generating incremental revenue without a huge investment. Using the Data Studio dashboard for AdWords sales, the team has seen a staggering 125% increase in sales.
“Data Studio has helped airBaltic undergo a digital revolution.”
— Maris Rudens, Head of Digital Marketing, airBaltic
