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Japan delivers high-value audience reach for trivago

  Article , Success stories

Travel provider uncovers potential of new markets

Trivago logo.

Trivago logo

Expanding to new horizons

When Microsoft Advertising launched in Japan in May 2022, trivago was keen to be one of the first advertisers to run search and native campaigns targeting Microsoft Advertising’s high-quality audience.

In Japan, Microsoft has strong rates of Edge browser usage, Microsoft Bing, and high Windows PC adoption. By working directly with Japanese agencies and digital marketers, Microsoft Advertising can empower more marketers to reach over 1 billion audiences via search and native solutions targeting high-quality audiences across Microsoft properties, globally.

For trivago, having the opportunity to reach new audiences around the world is key. The metasearch allows travelers to make informed decisions by personalizing their search for accommodations and providing them with access to more than 5 million hotels and other types of accommodation in over 190 countries.

When trivago’s Head of Performance Marketing, Bruno Frangen, heard Microsoft Advertising was expanding into Japan, he didn't want to miss the opportunity to reach new audiences. "Considering Microsoft Advertising’s rich data and knowing that the quality of trivago users in Japan is very high, we thought it was a great opportunity," explains Bruno.

"There's a lot of value in the market. We were eager to see what we could get out of Japan".

“We can’t ignore the potential of Microsoft Advertising. It makes a difference and it makes sense for us to be here [in Japan]”.

— Bruno Frangen, Head of Performance Marketing, trivago

How trivago maximized audiences in Japan

Getting started was easy for trivago. Thanks to its previous experience in the market, the company already knew what users were searching for in Japan and which destinations were the most popular.

"The whole process was very smooth," says Bruno. "We used existing campaign content and our knowledge of operating in Japan with other search engines to quickly create new campaigns in the Microsoft Advertising platform."

They started out with the basics: Text ads. And to avoid having to manually monitor performance, trivago decided to try the Target cost per acquisition CPA automated bidding strategy to save time and improve ad efficiency. Once everything was set up, the volume started to come in.

Higher conversion at a cheaper cost

The ratio of clicks that converted to actual bookings was 20% higher on Microsoft Advertising, while it was 25% cheaper in cost per click (CPC) from June through July 2022, despite lower volume compared to competitors.

“Even if the volume is smaller than Google or Yahoo, with this amount of traffic, we just can’t ignore the potential of Microsoft Advertising,” said Bruno. “It makes a difference, and it makes sense for us to be here”.

Now, trivago achieves more booking value with the same investment than other search platforms.

“At the moment, we’re having around 50% less price of buying the booking value compared to others,” admits Bruno.

The high quality of the Microsoft Advertising audience has been a differential factor for trivago.

“The type of traffic we’re getting from Microsoft is usually desktop heavy, and they come with higher likelihood of making the purchase compared to the mobile users”.

"Considering Microsoft Advertising’s rich data and knowing that the quality of trivago users in Japan is very high, we thought it was a great opportunity.”

— Bruno Frangen, Head of Performance Marketing, trivago

See a summary

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