Expedia Group Media Solutions, now Expedia Group Advertising: formats, data and how to buy

Expedia sells the traveller after the booking, not only before it. In June 2026 Expedia named Bill Watkins, formerly of Pinterest, general manager of global advertising. Skift reported that the business now pitches confirmed bookers, which Google and Meta cannot see because they do not process bookings (Skift, 1 June 2026). Expedia also moved advertising into its marketing department, to draw on loyalty and first-party data. In practice, a traveller with a hotel booked in Lisbon can be shown a tour or a car rental for that same trip.

Few commerce networks disclose audited revenue, and Expedia does. Its filings show EG Advertising revenue of $483 million in 2023, $639 million in 2024 and $758 million in 2025 (Expedia 10-K, FY2025). Growth has slowed each year: 32% in 2024, 19% in 2025, 11% for the first nine months of 2026 and 7% in the third quarter (Expedia 10-Q, Q3 2026). The new leadership and the Magnite deal arrived during that slowdown.

The data now travels through the sell side. On 16 April 2026 Expedia Group Advertising and Magnite announced that Expedia's traveller data would be available in curated deals across streaming, video, display and audio. The deals are DSP-agnostic, so a buyer does not need a direct contract with Expedia (PPC Land, April 2026). That differs from networks that tie their data to one demand-side platform.

Onsite. Sponsored listings and display run across Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo. Expedia's filings name both as the drivers of 2026 growth. Expedia told AdExchanger in 2024 that its onsite ads stay "contextually relevant" to what travellers search (AdExchanger, 14 May 2024).

Offsite. Campaigns extend to YouTube, connected TV and partner platforms such as Netflix and Disney+ (Marketing Dive, 14 May 2024). Since April 2026, Magnite carries Expedia data to publishers in all major formats. The offsite retail media explainer covers how such data flows work.

Out-of-home and creative. For Visit California, Expedia bought out the billboards in Heathrow's Terminal 5 and reported 275 million impressions (company claim, Marketing Dive). An in-house team co-creates campaigns.

trivago, Expedia's majority-owned metasearch site, earns advertising revenue of its own. It reported $165 million of third-party revenue in Q3 2026, up 20%, as a separate segment (Expedia 10-Q, Q3 2026).

Targeting draws on search queries, destinations, travel dates, property choices and bookings across Expedia's brands in more than 70 countries. In 2024 Expedia cited 200 booking sites and a B2B network of more than 60,000 partners (company claims, Marketing Dive).

Advertisers receive audiences and reports, not traveller records. Offsite, data reaches buyers as segments inside DSPs or curated Magnite deals. Onsite, Expedia limits ads to travel-relevant messages, so a credit-card advertiser may be turned away from a hotel search page even if the audience fits.

Expedia measures what happens on its own sites: clicks, bookings and revenue from sponsored listings and display. That is closed-loop for hotels, airlines and car-rental firms that sell through Expedia. For tourism boards and non-endemic brands, results depend on offsite partners and on studies agreed per campaign. We found no MRC accreditation and no published incrementality method. Buyers can compare reports against retail media measurement standards explained.

1. Contact Expedia Group Advertising. Endemic partners usually start with their Expedia market manager; others go to the advertising sales team.
2. Start with sponsored listings if you sell through Expedia. They tie spend directly to bookings on Expedia's sites.
3. Add display and offsite audiences. Use Expedia segments in The Trade Desk or Google DV360, or ask for a curated Magnite deal ID.
4. Use co-created campaigns for destination marketing. Tourism boards can combine onsite, offsite and out-of-home in one plan.
5. Agree measurement before launch. Define the booking window, which brands count, and how offsite exposure is matched to bookings.

It suits:

• hotels, airlines, car-rental firms and tours that already sell through Expedia;
• tourism boards that want to reach people who have booked a trip to their destination;
• travel-adjacent brands that can use confirmed-booker audiences offsite.

It suits less:

• brands that want onsite ads unrelated to travel, which Expedia may decline;
• buyers that need a self-serve console with published prices;
• advertisers that need accredited, independently audited measurement.

• The date Expedia Group Media Solutions became Expedia Group Advertising.
• Any self-serve platform, rate card or minimum spend.
• How much of EG Advertising revenue comes from offsite media.
• Whether the OpenX curation relationship, reported by PPC Land in 2026, is still active.
• Product changes under Bill Watkins since June 2026.

1. Expedia Group, Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1324424/000132442426000008/expe-20251231.htm
2. Expedia Group, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1324424/000132442426000062/expe-20260930.htm
3. Marketing Dive, "Inside Expedia's plan to be the world's travel media network" (14 May 2024). https://www.marketingdive.com/news/expedia-travel-media-network-endemic-nonendemic-brands/715497/
4. AdExchanger, "Expedia Has Booked Its Trip To Ad Land" (14 May 2024). https://www.adexchanger.com/commerce/expedia-has-booked-its-trip-to-ad-land/
5. PPC Land, "Expedia's 200 petabytes of traveler data lands in Magnite's programmatic pipes" (26 April 2026, on the 16 April 2026 announcement). https://ppc.land/expedias-200-petabytes-of-traveler-data-lands-in-magnites-programmatic-pipes/
6. Skift, "Expedia Names Ex-Pinterest Exec to Lead Ads. The Pitch: Real Bookings, Not Intent." (1 June 2026). https://skift.com/2026/06/01/expedia-names-ex-pinterest-exec-to-lead-ads-the-pitch-real-bookings-not-intent/