How to build a campaign
in Ads Manager

Jump to:

01 Create a campaign and add a line item

02 Configure basic settings

03 Define Targeting

04 Tracking Implementation

05 Submit for review

Step 01 | Create a campaign and add a line item

1. Click Advertising > Campaigns

2. Click 'Create campaign +' in the top right

3. Enter a campaign name that is clearly identifiable

4. You’ll be presented with an empty campaign, so let’s add your line items. Click 'Line Items +' on the left (below campaign name) and name your line item

Your campaign is now ready to be configured. 

Once you've gone through the line item creation, creative and tracking implementation, you can click 'Send for Review'. From here, one of our support team will confirm the campaign is ready and put it live.

Step 02 | Configure basic settings

Ad formats

Select the product you wish to target, more information on our formats can be found here.

Device Targeting

Select the device or devices you wish to target: Mobile, iOS, Android, Desktop

Campaign date & timezone

Choose your preferred timezone. If left unchanged, the default will be Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Then select your start and end date.

Pricing & Budget

Enter the values that have been agreed with your Skyscanner contact.

• The agreed minimum CPC or CPM
• The budget for this line item

Step 03 | Define Targeting

Targeting determines which users see your ad, this is a critical step.

Market Selection

Select the markets you wish to target (e.g., Spain). You may:

• Target a single market
• Target multiple markets
• Leave markets empty to target globally

Locale Selection

If your ad contains custom copy, select the appropriate locale. You can upload multiple language versions where required. For example:

• Spanish copy → Select French locale
• English & Spanish copy → Select both locales
  

Itinerary Type

Select the itinerary type relevant to your campaign from Return, One way, and Multi-city.

Route Configuration

Basic Route Configuration

You can select preconfigured options:

1. All - For dynamic priced products, this will serve ads where a priced itinerary is available. For non-dynamic priced products, the ad will serve on all route searches.

2. Domestic - Domestic routes only

3. International - International routes only

Advanced Route Configuration

Option number 4 is ‘Custom’.

To upload a custom route list you will need a blank csv file, or you can download the template file by selecting ‘Custom’ and clicking ‘Upload’. You will see ‘Download Example’ above the example of the file.

Cabin Class

Select the cabin class you want to target, including Economy for budget travellers or Premium Economy, Business and First Class for higher-value audiences.

Passenger Mix

Target families, couples, or solo travellers by defining the number of adults and number of children. 

Search Window

This allows you to target users based on how far in advance they are planning travel. Set the search window to align with your campaign objectives.

Step 04 | Tracking Implementation

If you require separate tracking by device, you will need to split your device targeting into separate line items.

Basic Configuration - Priced Products

Basic configuration is perfect for simple tracking deployment. Simple does not mean it isn’t dynamic though. For example, you could set up a basic config and have x5 UTM parameters and a click tracker. Parameters can dynamically pass information such as routes, user market etc.

Five UTM parameters are used, three of which are dynamic. For instance, the ‘utm_content’ parameter passes the origin and destination IATA codes, separated by a manually entered hyphen.

To add dynamic parameters, enter '@' and the available values will appear in a list. Multiple values can be selected within one row, depending on your requirements.

You are not restricted to UTMs. If you use other parameter names, such as CID, this is also valid.

Advanced Configuration - Priced Products

Advanced configuration is used when you have individual trackers for specific targeting values (as per the basic configuration article a lot of data can be passed dynamically so bear this in mind). You may use an advanced configuration if you have specific Double Click trackers per market.

1. Your tracking string should have populated within the Basic view, so make sure to copy this and paste in a note for now.
2. To access the advanced configuration option, click ‘Advanced’ and you will be presented with the uploader(s).
   
   
   

    

3. Click ‘Upload ⬆️ ' and then 'Download Example’
4. You’ll be presented with a csv which looks like the below:
   
   
   

    

5. The first row contains examples you can reference for formatting, but should be deleted before upload. In this example you can see the three markets I selected are UK, FR and DE. The file will show the markets selected within the line item plus the locales combined with each market. You can add and delete as required.

6. Now you can amend your tracking string which will look something like this (this example contains a click tracker):

   <tracking>
     <format pattern="https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/XXXXXXXXX;XXXXXXXXX;X?{0}">
       <add_params action="UPDATE">
         <original_request/>
         <param pname="utm_source" pvalue="skyscanner"/>
         <param pname="utm_campaign" pvalue="alwayson"/>
         <query_param pname="utm_term" pvalue="user.country_id"/>
         <query_param pname="utm_content" pvalue="from_place.iata_id-to_place.iata_id"/>
       </add_params>
     </format>
   </tracking>
7. In this instance let’s say that you have a different Double Click tracker for each market (but not locale), but everything else remains as per the above as we’re dynamically passing information in the UTMs. Paste your XML string into the ‘trackingModifications’ column, replacing the click tracker URL depending on the market. Your file would end up looking like this:
   
   

    

8. It’s important that you add one of the strings as a duplicate in the final row (notice the above has a tracking string with no market assigned). This acts as a fallback should there be a mismatch between the targeting in your line item and the targeting in your configuration.
9. Now, save your csv and upload it using the uploader UI. If you need guidance you can contact Advertising Support.
10. The same applies to the Impression Tracking Configuration, only you’re uploading your pixel URL and ensuring the '[timestamp]' is replaced with ‘[TIMESTAMP]’.

Basic Tracking Configuration - Unpriced Products

1. Deposit your click through URL in the first box. This can be a static URL with tracking parameters appended or a click tracker with a redirect set up in the third party ad server. We accept third party tracking URLs from approved third party vendors found on this page.
2. Put your impression pixel url (if applicable) into the second box. The TIMESTAMP should automatically appear. Note that we do not accept the Javascript versions of these. You must use the URL.

Advanced Tracking Configuration - Unpriced Products

The same fundamentals apply to Unpriced Products when it comes to advanced tracking configuration. The biggest difference is that we’re not working with XML here. You can follow the same steps and simply add in your tracked URLs to the ‘clickthroughUrl’ column.

If you need a custom deeplink to send users to your sales funnel please contact Advertising Support and provide your URL schema. The team will support you to make this dynamic, where possible.

Step 05 | Submit for review

Once you've gone through the line item creation, creative and tracking implementation, you can click 'Send for Review'. From here, one of our support team will confirm the campaign is ready and put it live.