With a little help from strategic Preferred Marketing Developer AdParlor, online travel agency ebookers used Mobile App Ads to promote a major iOS update in mobile News Feeds, driving large volumes of installs at low cost.

Their story

Mobile has fundamentally changed the consumer purchase path for travel. As people now have the ability to start researching their next holiday wherever they are, a mobile web or app presence is a critical component in the cross-channel planning process. When online travel agency ebookers saw that over 50% of its Facebook fans were interacting on mobile devices, it took the decision to integrate mobile and social much more deeply than in the past.

Their goal

Ebookers launched a major update to its iOS app at the end of April, supported by a significant marketing push. Its goal was to drive a high number of quality downloads that would result in actual bookings, and that meant a marketing strategy that moved away from traditional display advertising and brand awareness KPIs. Ebookers needed an app marketing solution that could drive installs and booking revenue. They needed something that enabled customers to take action.

If you need to drive quality downloads to a wide range of people then Facebook is the most important network. No one else can do what Facebook does.
Robert Define, Vice President, International Product Strategy & Mobile, ebookers

Their solution

With hundreds of thousands of apps on the App Store, ebookers turned to Facebook as a natural platform for discovery. Facebook is where people explore, connect and discover what matters to them—and that behaviour extends to apps. Ebookers had already experimented with a number of other app display networks, but as Facebook had recently launched Mobile App Ads—allowing people to download apps directly from the mobile News Feed—they decided to add this more interactive solution to the mix.

With the Mobile App Ads up and running, ebookers joined forces with Facebook ad tech specialists AdParlor to scale the campaign without having to build out its own internal team. At this point, CPI was starting to increase, so AdParlor’s first step was to optimise the campaign targeting.

Their success

Ebookers drove a high volume of app downloads at a cost-effective CPI, increasing its percentage share of booking through apps and its organic lift. According to VP Robert Define, ebookers “experienced a dramatic change in how we view Facebook. To a certain extent, Facebook is now a business-critical channel for ebookers.”

  • 41% increase in CTR
  • 33% decrease in CPC
  • 35% increase in daily average installs
  • 25% decrease in CPI
  • number 1 iOS travel app in 10 ebookers points of sale within 48 hours

“If you need to drive quality downloads to a wide range of people then Facebook is the most important network. No one else can do what Facebook does.” – Robert Define, Vice President, International Product Strategy & Mobile, ebookers.

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