From Views to Bookings
15%
1,255
500,000
Mid-Market
Travel & Hospitality
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G Adventures wanted to drive more bookings by reaching travellers earlier in their decision-making journey. Dynamic display ads had long been a reliable source of conversions, but scaling them had a hard ceiling.Rempa Display ads could only reach people who had already visited the site. So spend more and you simply show the same ads to the same people more often, paying more for less each time. On top of that, browser privacy changes were gradually reducing the number of people that could be tracked and retargeted at all, meaning the audience was getting smaller, not bigger. With competition for travel dollars at an all-time high, G Adventures needed a smarter way to grow.
Key friction points:
- Display ads were driving conversions but couldn't scale across formats without sacrificing performance
- Retargeting audiences were too small to fuel the growth the team was targeting
- High-value destinations weren't being showcased in ways that matched how travellers discover and dream about trips
"What stood out was that Brainlabs came with a point of view and the data to back it up. In executing this test, they strategically incorporated YouTube as an additional platform, enabling us to access a wider audience of highly interested users. That gave us the confidence to move quickly into a channel we hadn't fully explored before, and the results proved it — a significant lift in our retargeting pools, stronger focus on our high-value trips, and performance well beyond our projections."
From discovery platform to conversion engine
1. Identified YouTube as the missing channel in G Adventures' conversion strategy
The research insight reframed the brief. YouTube wasn't just a place to build brand awareness. For destination-focused travel audiences, it was already functioning as a search and consideration engine. The strategic case for introducing YouTube into the channel mix wasn't about reach for its own sake. It was about being present at the moment travellers were forming preferences and deciding where to go next.
2. Built a destination-led video strategy around high-value trips
Rather than producing generic wanderlust content, the team built a YouTube strategy focused specifically on G Adventures' highest-value destinations: Peru, France, and Japan. Each destination received a tailored video approach designed to bring the trip to life through immersive storytelling, speaking directly to travellers who were already researching those specific locations. The 85% destination-specific search insight shaped every creative decision.
3. Used YouTube to actively expand retargeting pools while driving conversions simultaneously
One of the core strategic goals was solving the retargeting pool problem that had been limiting the display strategy. YouTube was deployed not just as a conversion channel but as an audience-building tool, capturing engaged travellers higher up the funnel and feeding them into retargeting pools that could be activated across the wider channel mix. The campaign was designed to do both jobs at once.
4. Validated incremental impact through a Conversion Lift study
To measure the true impact of YouTube activity beyond what last-click attribution would show, the team ran a Conversion Lift study, Google's methodology for isolating the incremental conversions driven by YouTube exposure against a control group who hadn't seen the ads. This gave G Adventures a precise, evidence-based view of what YouTube was genuinely contributing, separate from conversions that would have happened anyway through other channels.
YouTube delivered on both sides of the funnel simultaneously
- 15% increase in conversions confirmed by the Conversion Lift study
- 1,255 incremental bookings directly attributed to YouTube activity
- 500,000 YouTube views per month
- 2,000 direct conversions per month from YouTube, accounting for 21% of all activity
- 3,500 assisted conversions per month confirming YouTube's role across the full funnel
15%
1,255
500,000
