Frequently Asked Questions

Campaign Production

What if I don’t have the ads and/or landing page(s) needed for my campaign? Can you design the ads and/or landing page(s) for my campaign?

Yes, Media Solutions will design one creative version for each ad format and one landing page (including translations, if necessary) per brand for your campaign. If you require our creative design services, please inform your Business Development Manager and your Account Manager will reach out to you to discuss the creative production needs for your campaign.

If Expedia Group Media Solutions designs my ads and/or landing page, what information do I need to provide?

For ad creation, please provide:

• 3-5 compelling images in high resolution .jpg format
• Details of the offer you wish to promote, if applicable, and any other related copy
• Your tag line
• Call to action

For landing page production, asset submission will vary based on the content to be featured on the landing page.

Your Account Manager will provide you with a comprehensive ad and landing page specifications document to help guide you through the process.

If Expedia Group Media Solutions designs my ads and/or landing page, how much input do I get on what it looks like? Can my landing page look like my website?

You have the opportunity to provide input on the overall messaging in addition to content and image suggestions. Our landing pages templates have been developed and tested by our Expedia Group User Experience and Design team with a focus on user relevance and accessibility. While we cannot replicate your website exactly, we can incorporate some of your brand identity elements into your ad and landing page design to deliver a similar look and feel.

How many ads will be produced for my campaign?

We will produce one creative version for each ad format. If you need more than one creative version for each ad format, please contact your Account Manager.

What if I want the ads to link to my website?

All IAB Standard ad units can link to your website. Any Expedia Group Native, Hotwire, Expedia Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP), and other selected ad units, must link to an Expedia Group landing page. Please contact your Account Manager for details based on your specific campaign.

How long does it take Expedia Group Media Solutions produce and launch a campaign with ads and a landing page?

Once we receive the final assets for the ads and landing page(s), it will take approximately 10–15 business days for production and launch. The production timeline allow for one round of feedback and changes prior to launch. If more than one round of feedback and changes are requested, then your campaign launch may be delayed. While we strive to create and launch your campaign as quickly as possible, this lead time provides the opportunity for your Account Manager to align creative strategy with the media plan, obtain translations for non-English sites, if neccesary, and produce the highest quality ads and landing page(s) for your campaign. Please speak with your Account Manager to discuss specific timelines for your campaign.

If I provide the final ads or third party tags, how long does it take to launch a campaign?

If your campaign links directly to your website, then once we receive the final ads or third party tags, it will take approximately 2–3 business days to review, schedule, and launch your campaign. If your campaign links to an Expedia landing page, you are still able to provide the final ads or third party tags, however, you will need to submit assets for Expedia Group Media Solutions to build the landing page. This will take approximately 10-15 business days once we recieve the final assets. While we strive to process ad creative as quickly as possible, this lead time provides the opportunity to review and resolve creative issues before implementation. Please speak with your Account Manager to discuss specific timelines for your campaign.

How will I know when my campaign is live?

Your Account Manager will contact you on the day of launch to let you know that your campaign is live and will follow-up via email with screenshots of your campaign to verify delivery.

How often can my ads and/or landing page be updated?

If you provided the final ads or third party tags, you may add or change your creative at any time. If Media Solutions developed your ads and/or landing page, we will update upon request to amend an offer or to accommodate seasonal changes.

What kind of images work best/get the most engagement?

• Use photography with vibrant colors and good contrast
• Give travelers a sense of what it’s like to be “there” experiencing your destination/activity/landmark
• People may be present, but they must be part of the landscape and not the focus
• Use images that are high resolution and free of pixelation and blurriness
• Use images that leverage natural light whenever appropriate

What can’t I include on my ad units?

• Superscript
• Exclamation points (!), ampersands (&), or quotation marks (“”) in the copy
• Images with people, animals and food as the primary subject
• Images that include text, are low resolution, blurry, or pixelated
• Fish-eye or distorted image lenses or treatments, including lens flare
• Solid colors, textured backgrounds, illustrations, graphics or brand-icon centric images
• Images with over-saturation, washed-out, heavy shadows, aggressive filters (dark, motion, blur) or any Instagram-style filter treatments
• URLs
• Imagery that shows animals working, animals that have been humiliated or harmed, or imagery that shows animals in captivity.
• Images that feature elephants, tigers and/or primates.

Can I provide a list of the hotel/air/package deals to feature on the landing page?

Yes, you can provide the desired destination/region that you would like to promote or provide a specific list of hotels and/or airport/airline codes. Please note that the hotels and airlines must be bookable on the Expedia brand sites. Your Account Manager will review and discuss this with you as part of the landing page production process.

Is there a limit to how many hotel/air/package deals that can be listed on the landing page?

We recommend featuring no more than 50 hotel, air, or package deals. Your Account Manager will review and discuss this with you as part of the landing page production process.

Can I change the order of the deals (hotel/air/package) listed on the landing page?

No, we are not able to manually change the sort order as they appear on the page. We are able to sort the deals by price, star rating, or guest rating (i.e. high to low).

Co-Op Campaigns

Once the co-op has gone live, can I change or edit my listing?

Once the campaign has gone live, we are unable to make changes to your listing. This includes changing images or copy.

What can I include in my co-op campaign hotel listing?

• Hotel name
• Property description (up to 200 characters max)
• Offer details, if applicable (Offers must be available and bookable throughout the entire duration of the campaign)
• One image (We recommend an inspirational, interior or amenity image. If you do not have an image, we will use the current photo from your Expedia site listing.)

I have a special offer for my co-op campaign. How do I load the offer or special rate?

Please log into your Expedia Partner Central Account or contact your Market Manager to load an offer or special rate.

Technical Questions

What size creative should I send for the jump page?

Larger sizes are encouraged because it gives us more room to work with. EPS files are ideal. We prefer JPGs and TIFF files over GIFs for photography. Logos/illustrations should be in AI or EPS formats.

Do you accept GIFs or JPGs?

Yes, both formats are accepted.

Do you accept Photoshop files?

While we would prefer to work with raw images, we will accept these. Depending on the quality and size of the layers, we may or may not be able to work with the individual layers.

Is animation allowed?

Yes, we allow animation on IAB ad placements. We have a looping limit of no more than 15 seconds or 3 rotations (whichever is shorter).

Site Listing Changes

I need to update my hotel description. Who do I contact to get this updated?

To make property updates, log into your Expedia Partner Central Account. Available updates on this tool are as follows but not limited to:

• Photos
• Amenity-list updates
• Room descriptions
• Airport driving directions and nearby points of interest

My airline logo is incorrect. Who do I contact to get this updated?

Please submit the correct logo to your Account Manager and they will route it to the appropriate Expedia Group team for updating.

Campaign Costs

How much does a campaign cost?

We can create campaigns for all budgets, starting with a minimum of $10,000 USD. The campaign costs will vary depending on the time frame, the placements, the number of impressions and the amount of exposure you wish to purchase. Please contact us to request a proposal based on your advertising needs, or speak with your Business Development Manager.

Reporting

When can I expect to receive campaign reporting?

You will receive a Campaign Performance Report (CPR) and at the end of your campaign. For campaigns that run for 2 months or longer, you will also receive a delivery report at mid-campaign. If you require any additional campaign delivery reports, please contact your Account Manager.

Invoicing and Payment

When can I expect to receive the invoice for my campaign?

Invoicing is based on the agreed billing terms as outlined on your IO. Please refer to your IO or reach out to your Business Development Manager to confirm the billing terms specific to your campaign.

Please refer to the information below once you have confirmed the billing terms for your campaign:

• Pre-bill – You will be billed for the total IO value once the campaign has gone live. This will usually occur towards the end of the first month after your campaign has begun to deliver.
• Post-bill – You will be billed for the total IO value once the campaign has ended. This will usually occur just after the last day of the month after your campaign has finished delivering.
• Client actuals monthly – You will be billed monthly based on delivered impressions as reported from your designated 3rd party ad server. This will usually occur within four weeks of the last day of the month in which your campaign has delivered.
• Publisher actuals monthly – You will be billed monthly based on delivered impressions as reported from Expedia’s ad server (Google Ad Manager). This will usually occur within four weeks of the last day of the month in which your campaign has delivered.

What are the payment terms?

Media Solutions requires all payments to be submitted within 30 days from receipt of each invoice. If you require other payment terms, please speak to your Business Development Manager.

What are the methods of payment?

At this time, we accept checks and wire transfers for the payment of Media Solutions invoices.

Where do we send our payment?

Mail checks to:

Travelscape, LLC P.O. Box 847677, Dallas, TX 75284-7677.

If you prefer to forward payment via wire transfer, it should be sent to:

• Travelscape, LLC
• Account # 3751606213
• ABA (ACH) #111000012
• ABA (wire) #026009593
• Bank of America, NY
• SWIFT Code: BOFAUS3N Branch Code: 3751

If you need to submit payment in non-USD currency, please reach out to business development manager for bank account information.

Whom do I contact if I have a billing issue?

Please contact the Expedia Collections team if you have a billing query or issue or contact your Business Development Manager.

Terminology

Click-through rate: Click-through tells you how often users clicked on the ad. It is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions. A typical online advertisement has .14% click-through. That is, for every 714 times the advertisement is displayed, a user will click on it.

CPM: CPM is “cost per thousand” ad impressions, an industry standard measure for selling ads on websites. This measure is taken from print advertising. The “M” has nothing to do with “mega” or million. It’s taken from the Roman numeral for “thousand.”

Creative: Ad agencies and buyers often refer to ad banners and other forms of created advertising as “the creative.” Since the creative requires creative inspiration and skill that may come from a third party, it often doesn’t arrive until late in the preparation for a new campaign launch.

Impressions: Impressions are the number of times visitors to Expedia see the ad on a page.

Insertion order (IO): An insertion order is a formal, printed order to run an ad campaign. Typically, the insertion order identifies the campaign name, the website receiving the order and the planner or buyer giving the order, the individual ads to be run (or who will provide them), the ad sizes, the campaign beginning and end dates, the CPM, the total cost, discounts to be applied, and reporting requirements and possible penalties or stipulations relative to the failure to deliver the impressions.

Inventory: Inventory is the total number of ad views or impressions that a website has to sell over a given period of time (usually, inventory is figured by the month).

Jump page: Also referred to as landing pages, jump pages are specially built promotional pages for your product on Expedia.com. They usually contain a “booking wizard” and details about any current promotion or offer you may be running on Expedia.com.

Kilobyte: Kilobytes is a standard that depicts the actual image file size.

Pixel: The smallest unit of an image displayed on screen. A typical monitor setting is 1024×768 pixels. Expedia’s top banner promotions are 468×60 pixels.

Run-of-network: A run-of-network ad is one that is placed to run on all sites within a given network of sites. Ad sales firms handle run-of-network insertion orders in such a way as to optimize results for the buyer consistent with higher priority ad commitments.

Run-of-site (ROS): A run-of-site ad is one that is placed to rotate on all non-featured ad spaces on a site. CPM rates for run-of-site ads are usually less than for rates for specially-placed ads or sponsorships.

Share of Voice (SOV): This is when an advertisement runs a certain percentage of the time for a certain placement. It is the opposite of a CPM campaign.

Unique Users (UU): A Unique User is a person who is seeing the ad or page for the first time. The opposite is someone who may have refreshed the page or come back to the page from a bookmark.