(Cross-posted on ITA Software by Google blog)

Travelers searching for a good flight deal in Europe may have needed to check multiple online sites to be sure they found the lowest airfare and best flight options. Now with the addition of Ryanair flight information in Google’s Flight Search, it is much easier to find the lowest fare -- at lightning speed.

We are delighted that Ryanair, which is Europe’s largest airline and the largest airline in the world in terms of flown international passengers and which is known for its low fares, has joined the Google Flight Search family. 

Using Google’s Flight Search, travelers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain (as well as Canada and the USA) can quickly find, filter and compare flights, view prices in their local currency, save the results for later, or book directly with any of our booking partners.

Since we launched Flight Search in 2011, we've worked hard to add new features that make it fun, fast and easy to shop and book airfares

• Best Flights and Tips - Quickly get the best answers with suggestions for alternate dates, airports, and trade-off between price and convenience 
• Interactive Maps - users are able to explore possible destinations and view live ticket prices by surfing an interactive map 
• Saved Flights - Results can be saved to track price changes, helping users make smart booking decisions 

Google Flight Search is fast, easy to use and interactive so business people, parents and star crossed lovers can quickly book their travel and get back to their work, parenting or pining. We want to give users as many flight options as possible, so introducing Ryanair is very exciting. We are working to expand our relationships with other airlines and travel partners to bring Flight Search to more countries in Europe and around the world.

Posted by David Robles Fosg, Partner Development, Travel

Attribution modeling is the process of distributing credit between different marketing channels that a consumer interacts with, prior to completing a purchase. As online reporting becomes increasingly sophisticated, attribution modeling helps advertisers to understand the purchase journey of their users and find the most effective ways of targeting new customer segments.

Online travel specialist On the Beach used Multi Channel Funnels and the Attribution Modeling Tool in Google Analytics to understand which marketing campaigns were driving their sales. They analysed all of their online marketing channels and search campaigns to uncover their true performance. On the Beach compared different attribution models to assess the relative contribution of each of their campaigns to their online sales. They found that generic (non-brand) campaigns for travel destinations and holiday terms were driving more sales than were being reported via traditional “last click” methods.

By understanding the true value driven by their generics campaigns, On the Beach were able to reach more potential customers when they searched with generic keywords, by increasing their investment. As a result, they have seen significant growth in sales and revenue, with a 25% increase in return on investment. The full On the Beach case study can be found here.

These findings were also supported in a recent case study with lastminute.com, where they found that generics were driving 43% more sales than were reported through their online analytics. The lastminute.com case study can be found here.

For advertisers who want to get started with attribution, there are great resources available:

* The Customer Journey to Online Purchase
* The Multi-Screen World
* Marketing Attribution Playbook .

You can also catch up with our entire attribution webinar series:

*An overview of our research on how the industry approaches attribution (watch here),
*The foundational steps for attribution using Google’s tools (watch here),
*Intra-channel attribution with Search Funnels in Google AdWords (watch here),
*Cross-channel measurement with Multi-Channel Funnels (watch here),
*Strategies for the Attribution Modeling Tool (watch here).

Find out more about the updated attribution modeler in Google Analytics on the Google Analytics blog.

Posted by Paola Lopez, Industry Manager, UK and Edwina Keyes, Account Manager, Dublin.

It's been a while since we posted a G+ update so we'd like to share with you the latest successes our Travel clients have had on G+ this year: a case study from the UK and one from across the pond in the US.

Travel Republic: Online travel agents Travel Republic have two reasons to put the champagne on ice, having just reached a pair of major milestones in their social media activity. The company’s Google+ page is not only celebrating its first birthday, but it’s celebrating reaching 1 million followers on the platform too. Carry on reading if you want to know how they did it....click here.

Pure Michigan: As part of their social media campaign which won the Mercury Awards for Social Media, Pure Michigan created a G+ page in order 'to be where conversations about our state are happening. We created our Google+ Page to connect with folks inside and outside of Michigan to encourage them to vacation here.' They saw higher CTRs through social annotations: 'there is social proof in seeing which of your dozens of friends already follow the page. You feel compelled not to be left out.' In addition, they created an extremely successful hangout which resulted in their follower number jumping from 50K to more than 94K in a matter of days. For more, please click here.

Posted by Anna Tong, Industry Manager UK

Cross-posted on the ITA Software By Google blog.

If you live in the UK, France, Italy, Spain or the Netherlands -- and are thinking of hiking the Swiss Alps, visiting the Greek Isles, taking a bite out of the Big Apple in NYC or simply planning a business trip -- Flight Search is now available to make planning your trip easier.

Starting today, you can use Flight Search to quickly find, compare and book flights originating from each of these countries to any airport in the world. You'll also be able to search for flights from airports in these countries and see prices in your local currency. Additionally, you can conduct searches in 8 languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, Basque, Catalan, Galician and Dutch -- and see prices in your local currency.

Smarter travel planning
Let’s say you’ve decided the Greek Isles are your vacation destination of choice, but you’re not sure which airport offers the most affordable fares. By typing ‘Greece’ as your destination, you’ll be able to quickly compare the cost of the different options, viewing live prices on the map.

Likewise, if you’re looking to take the family to New York City but are unsure of the best time to go, you can click on our ‘Lowest fares’ icon to see which dates will get you the lowest fare.

We choose the best flights based on cost and total travel time, while covering a variety of departure times and airlines. But, you can always view longer or more expensive flights by selecting, 'Show all'. Flight Search makes it easy for you to:

• Find flights quickly. As you make changes to dates, destinations and filters, results will load fast in a format that’s easy to scan.
• Discover places to go on a map. Explore possible destinations and view live ticket prices by surfing the map. You can filter by price, airline or flight duration.
• Figure out the best time travel. Quickly see which travel dates are least expensive by dragging the date selector forward or backward, or click the "Lowest fares" icon to compare lots of dates at once.
• See a simple list of the most relevant flights. Use our easy-to-scan list or compare options and find the flight that's most convenient, least expensive, wi-fi enabled or simply the one that best meets your needs.

Sometimes we are not able to show results for every single airline and we will make that clear. We are working to expand our relationship with other airlines, and bring Flight Search to more countries and in more languages.

To access Flight Search in your local country or language, type:

google.co.uk/flights/
google.fr/flights/
google.it/flights/
google.es/flights/
google.nl/flights/

We’ve worked to provide you with fast results as you browse a simple list of the most relevant flights, figure out when to travel, and get ideas about where to go and book your trip online. We hope you’ll enjoy planning your next trip with Flight Search! Bon Voyage!

Posted by Noam Ben Haim, Senior Product Manager, Travel

ADVERTISING TRAVEL PRODUCTS TO MULTI-SCREEN CONSUMERS
Many travel companies are struggling with the speed of change in the mobile sector and in assessing the scale of the mobile opportunity, in deciding when and how much to invest in mobile, and whether to build mobile optimized sites and/or apps. The travel path to purchase is becoming increasingly complex in a multi-screen world, where customers jump not only from site to site but also from device to device in their online travel-purchasing journey.

The shift from desktop-only towards the use of multiple devices to access the Internet has radically changed how consumers engage with digital content and when they choose to do it. It is no longer an activity we solely conduct either at home or our work via a desktop computer, but is something which now also happens on the train, bus, in a café with friends, everywhere possible.

In this whitepaper we have seen evidence that usage behavior varies by device, which in turn has made the travel-purchasing process highly complex and therefore challenging for advertisers to fully grasp and benefit from. The only common denominator across all devices is that we, as users, expect to have our needs for information and services fulfilled immediately in a seamless and intuitive way. Travel advertisers must meet these expectations in order for their multi-platform strategies to become successful.

You can access the whitepaper here.

Posted by Jonas Vang Gregersen, Senior Industry Analyst UK.

This summer we have seen a notable shift towards the use of mobile devices, when the Brits search for last-minute travel products. For certain types of products, up to 40% of all Google queries are made on either a tablet or other high-end mobile device. We encourage online marketers to align their activities accordingly to ensure full capture of traffic which comes through Search on all devices. Please find more details about our findings at this link.

Posted by Jonas Vang Gregersen, Sr. Industry Analyst

We're pleased to announce a new case study for how LateRooms.com has found success with Google+. A few of the top highlights from the study include: Approaching 600k followers Several posts have been re-shared over 2,500 times and have received 500 comments A 9% CTR uplift with social extensions on their Brand campaign. Take a look at the blogpost here and download the full case study to see more results and quotes from LateRooms.com! Posted by Erica Trittschuh, Industry Manager UK.