The Brittany Ates Marketing Portfolio

A strong digital marketing plan should not only explain how a new service will be promoted. It should also explain how the company will measure whether the strategy working. For Expedia CultureConnect, performance will be evaluated through a combination of awareness, engagement, conversion, customer retention, partner participation, and financial metrics.

The main purpose of CultureConnect is to help travelers discover culturally relevant destinations, local business, activities, and travel information while keeping them connected to Expedia’s websites and mobile ap. Because of this, the selected performance metrics must connect direly to the marketing objectives of increasing awareness, improving app engagement, generating bookings, supporting local partners, and encouraging repeat use, Zahay and Roberts (2018) explain that digital marketing measurements should be connected to customer actions and business objectives rather than being viewed as separate data points.

Performance metrics

Awareness will be measured through social media reach, impressions, video views, website traffic, and the number of new visitors to CultureConnect destination pages, These metrics will show many people are being introduced to the service through platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, email and paid search.

Engagement will be measured through click-through-rates, time spent on CultureConnect pages, destination guide views, itinerary saves, content shares app opens, and interactions with local business profiles, High engagement would suggest that travelers find the content useful and are interested in learning more about the destinations and experiences being featured.

Conversion metrics will include hotel bookings, vacation rental bookings, local experience reservations, package bookings, partner leads, and booking conversion rates. Expedia should also measure cost per acquisition, which shows how much the company spends to gain one new customer or booking through the campaign.

Retention will be evaluated through repeat app usage, repeat bookings, One Key engagement, saved itinerary return visits, email re-engagement, and customer satisfaction scores. These measurements are important because CultureConnect should create a longer relationship with travelers rather than only supporting one booking. Expedia’s current loyalty and digital marketplace model makes repeat engagement especially important to long-term growth (Expedia Group, 2026a).

How the Data Will Be Collected

Expedia can collect performance information through its website, mobile app, advertising platforms, customer relations ship management system, and booking system, Google Analytics can be used to track page visits, traffic sources user behavior, time on page, conversion paths, and completed actions.

Social media platforms can provide information about reach, impressions, engagement rates, video views, shares, saves, and clicks. Email marketing tools can track open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribes, and completed bookings, that begin form an email campaign.

Expedia’s app analytics can track app opens feature adoption, itinerary saves, destination searches, push-notification responses, and the number of users who return to CultureConnect after their first visit. Booking data can then show whether customers completed a hotel, flight, package, or experience purchase after interacting with the feature.

Partner performance can be measures through profile views, sponsored listing clicks, customer inquiries, referral traffic, and completed bookings. Customer survey, reviews and satisfaction scores can also provide feedback that may appear in the numerical data. Combining qualitative and qualitative information gives marketers a more complete understanding of customer behavior and campaign effectiveness (Kotler et al., 2022).

Customer Lifetime Value

Customer lifetime value, also known as CLV, estimates the total amount of value a customer may provide to a company during the entire customer relationship. For Expedia CultureConnect, CLV is important because the service is designed to encourage customers to return to Expedia for future trip planning.

For example, a traveler may first use CultureConnect to plan a weekend trip. Later, the same customer may return to book a family vacation, hotel, flight, rental car, or local experience. A customer who repeatedly uses Expedia and participates in the One Key loyalty program may provide more long-term value than a customer who makes only one booking.

Expedia can calculate CLV by reviewing the average booking value, the number of bookings a customer makes, and hoe long the customer continues using the platform. CultureConnect may improve CLV by giving travelers more reasons to return, save travel services. Customer lifetime value is useful because it helps companies look beyond one sale and focus on the long-term value of customer relationships (Kotler et al., 2022).

Return on Investment

Return on investment, or ROI, measures whether the financial value generated by a campaign is greater than the amount spent on the campaign. Expedia would need to compare the revenue created through CultureConnect with expenses such paid advertising, creator partnerships, technology development, content production, employee time, and partner recruitment.

A basic ROI calculation is:

ROI = (Revenue Generated – Marketing Cost) / Marketing Cost x 100

For example, if Expedia spends $500,000 on the pilot campaign and the campaign generates $750,000 in additional revenue, the return would be calculated by subtracting the cost from the revenue and dividing the result by the original investment. In this example, the campaign would produce a 50% ROI.

ROI should not be the only measurement used because some benefits may take longer to appear. Increased app engagement, improved customer trust, repeat bookings, and stronger relationships may create future value even when they do not immediately create revenue. Expedia’s recent growth in bookings, revenue, and business-to-business activity shows why both short-term financial performance and long-term customer value should be monitored (Expedia Group, 2026a, 2026b).

Dashboard and Feedback Process

Expedia should use a marketing performance dashboard to bring the major metrics together in one place. The dashboard should include awareness, engagement, conversion, retention, partner, and financial results.

The marketing team should review campaign performance weekly during the 90-day pilot. Weekly reviews can identify social platforms, destination guides, audience groups, creators, and aid advertisements are producing the best results. Monthly reviews should focus on booing revenue, customer acquisition costs, CLV, ROI, customer feedback, and partner performance.

The feedback process should also include customer surveys, app reviews, social media comments, support questions, and partner feedback. This information an help Expedia understand what travelers enjoy, what information missing, and what features may need improvement.

Based on the results, Expedia can adjust advertising budgets, improve destination content, update the app experience, add stronger calls to action, or expand partnerships with local businesses. This ongoing measurement and feedback process will help Expedia make better decisions before expanding CultureConnect into additional cities. Digital marketing plans are most effective when organizations continuously test, measure, learn, and improve their strategies based to customer data (Zahay & Roberts, 2018).

The success of Expedia CultureConnect should be measured by more than social media attention. The service should increase customer engagement, support, bookings, improve long-term customer value, generate a positive financial return, and create meaningful visibility for local travel partners. By connecting every metric to a specific marketing objective, Expedia can determine whether CultureConnect is ready to grow beyond the initial 90-day pilot.

References

Expedia Group. (2026a, February 12). Expedia Group reports fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. Expedia Group Investor Relations.

Expedia Group. (2026b, May 7). Expedia Group reports first quarter 2026 results. Expedia Group Investor Relations.

Kotler, P., Keller, K. L., & Chernev, A. (2022). Marketing management (16th ed.). Pearson.

Zahay, D., & Roberts, M. L. (2018). Internet marketing (4th ed.). Cengage Learning.