How to expand programmatic advertising up the funnel, with Tripadvisor’s Matteo Balzani

“Over time, in order to compete and continue to grow, you need to expand your funnel. Otherwise you risk to optimize yourself to the ground and run out. If you continue to sharpen a pencil, at some point you run out of pencil,” Tripadvisor’s Matteo Balzani said on the latest episode of the Digiday Podcast, which was recorded live during last week’s Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit in Nashville.

As senior director of acquisition and retention, it is literally Balzani’s job to make sure the travel booking platform does not run out of potential customers. And so he plans to rejigger the company’s programmatic strategy in 2025.

As the pandemic-era travel restrictions lifted, Tripadvisor found itself in the enviable position of fishing in a barrel. People were desperate to travel again, so all the brand had to do was prod people to book through its platform. “The focus was really on capturing all the pent-up demand that was there,” said Balzani.

Tripadvisor still has one eye on capturing that lower-funnel demand, but it is also looking to get in front of potential customers much earlier in their travel-planning processes. To that end, this year the brand tested extending its programmatic buying to mid- and upper-funnel media channels, such as connected TV and podcasts. And heading into next year, it is weighing whether to adopt a media mix model to further inform its full-funnel approach.

“What we want to do is to use Q1 and Q2 to figure out what works and what doesn’t and make sure we have everything in place. And then based on the results, then we figure out which direction we want to go,” said Balzani.

Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been edited for length and clarity.

Why TripAdvisor needs to move up the funnel

Competition is increasing. [Cost-per-click ad prices] are increasing. And so we need to find a way not only to capture the existing demand but to create some demand.

How TripAdvisor has started to move up the funnel

We have been on a path in the last year with some tests, but I think that next year will really be when we’re being more aggressive in pursuing a full-funnel strategy. In the last year really, we focused on the lower funnel with some attempts to go mid-funnel. We had some tests at the top of the funnel, but not in a way that would impact the overall performance.

Why a full-funnel approach requires a new measurement system

The way you measure mid-funnel and upper-funnel cannot be the same as lower-funnel. But it’s something that you have to explain also to your CFO and to your leadership because you go from a place where you say, “I’m spending X million dollars, and I’m getting back hopefully more than X million dollars right away.” In terms of attribution and measurement, you need a different framework.

What role creative plays in an upper-funnel approach

The biggest aspect that we need to explore more is the creative. Being focused on the lower funnel, most of the creative was really kind of basic, template-ized ads. Maybe focusing on the specific hotel or experience that the customer looked at. The further you go up the funnel, the more creative becomes important and can make or break the success of a campaign.