Introduction
The Google Flights Competitiveness Metrics dashboard analyzes the performance of your booking link on Google Flights.
The dashboard is divided into four sections:
| Section | Details |
|---|---|
| Pricing | Breakdown of competitive pricing factors and comparison to lower prices. |
| Visibility | Share of impressions visible by default, absolute top impressions, and participation rate. |
| Operating Carrier | Breakdown of your performance per airline. |
| Geography | Locations and routes receiving the most impressions. |
It counts the number of times your booking link and other Google Flights partners’ links are displayed to our users in the Google Flights booking page (the last page of our funnel, just before landing on your website).
It compares your booking link, including its rank and price, with other booking options.
Definitions
| Booking link/Booking option | The links to partner websites the user sees on the last page of the Google Flights funnel before redirecting our users outside of our product. You can find it in the Google Flights booking page, the last page of our booking funnel. The booking page displays the flights summary and a “Booking options” section that lists the links for Google Flights partners. Your booking option contains your logo and a blue “Select” button. |
| Google Flights Booking page | The last page the user visits in Google Flights before being redirected to your website. The page gives a summary of the selected flights and lists all the booking options. |
| Top impression (Top) | Represents the links that are visible without further clicks on the booking page. A link is considered to be a top impression if it is visible by default. Other booking links require expanding the UI. |
| Absolute Top | Represents the links that are ranked 1st. Being the absolute top means that your link is visible on desktop and mobile without additional clicks. |
|
Actual Impressions (% of Max) |
The number of times that your booking link appeared as an option on the booking page. This is number is displayed as a percentage of the maximum value, i.e., if your top route is ZRH to BOS and you have 1,000 impressions for this route, a route from ZRH to LHR with 100 impressions has an actual impressions (% of max) of 10%. |
| Eligible Impressions (% of Max) |
The number of times that your booking link could have appeared as an option on the booking page. This number is displayed as a percentage of the maximum value, i.e., if your top route is ZRH to BOS and you have 10,000 eligible impressions for this route, a route from ZRH to LHR with 1,000 eligible impressions has an eligible impressions (% of max) of 10%. |
| Participation Rate |
Actual impressions divided by eligible impressions. Using the two examples above for route ZRH to BOS, where eligible impressions are 10,000 and actual impressions are 1,000, the participation rate is 10%. |
Filters
At the top of the dashboard and on the upper right, you can find some filters that will allow you to drill into the data by filtering all charts in the dashboards.
At the top, you can find a date range selector.
On the upper right part, you can find three types of filters.
- About the geography of the flight, for example, the origin airport.
- About the airlines, for example, the airline operating the flight.
- About the user, for example, the type of device that users are using to access Google Flights.
Those filters can include or exclude one or multiple values.
List of Dashboards
Pricing
Price Buckets
This line chart compares the price of your booking link with those of the other Google Flights partners over a time period. You can track here whether your solution is the cheapest.
| Only Priced Option | Yours is the only price for the itinerary |
| Unique lowest | There is more than one price and yours is the cheapest option |
| Lowest | Yours is the cheapest option along with other links |
| Check Price | There is no price available on your link. Also called “Visit Site for Price” |
| Not Lowest | Any other options |
Note: In some rare cases, booking links will have a different currency than the currency of the point of commencement. To allow the price comparison, all prices are converted to a common currency using the daily Forex rate.
Average Difference from Your Competitor
The objective of those two charts is to measure your price performance against that of other booking providers (both carriers and OTAs).
The Closest Competing Price is defined by the following rules:
- If you are the cheapest booking option, the closest competing price is the next cheapest price
- If you are not the cheapest, the closest competing price is the cheapest price
The difference from the Closest Competing Price is:
- If you are the cheapest booking option, it is the difference between your price and the next cheapest
- If there is no Closest Competing price, meaning that either your link is the “Only Priced Option” or if your link is a “Check Price,” the difference will be 0
If you are the only price available, the average difference is 0.
If you are not the only price available, the average difference is computed using this formula:
If you are the only price available, then the difference will be 0%.
Average Difference from Cheapest Price
This line chart will represent how much higher your prices are compared to the cheapest available options.
Since your price is higher than all the other prices, the average difference from the cheapest price is a positive number.
In the example below, your price is higher than at least one other Google Flights partner on seven itineraries.
The average difference from the cheapest price is 16.76%.
| Your price | Partner A | Partner B | Partner C | Partner D | Cheapest price amongst the other partners | Average Difference from Cheapest Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200 | 175 | 150 | 180 | 300 | 150 | 33.33% |
| 200 | 210 | 210 | 190 | 180 | 180 | 11.11% |
| 200 | 170 | 220 | 180 | 210 | 170 | 17.65% |
| 200 | 210 | 220 | 185 | 175 | 175 | 14.29% |
| 800 | 760 | 810 | 750 | 770 | 750 | 6.67% |
| 40 | 40 | 42 | 39 | 35 | 35 | 14.29% |
| 30 | 32 | 35 | 28 | 25 | 25 | 20.00% |
| Average | 16.76% |
Average Difference from Closest Competing Higher Price
This line chart represents how much cheaper your prices are compared to the next cheapest available options.
Since your price is less than all the other prices, the average difference from the cheapest price is a negative number.
In the example below, your price is the cheapest on seven itineraries.
The average difference from the closest competing higher price is -13.00%.
| Your price | Partner A | Partner B | Partner C | Partner D | Cheapest price amongst the other partners | Average Difference from closest competing higher price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 140 | 175 | 150 | 180 | 300 | 150 | -6.67% |
| 170 | 210 | 210 | 190 | 180 | 180 | -5.56% |
| 150 | 170 | 220 | 180 | 210 | 170 | -11.76% |
| 120 | 210 | 220 | 185 | 175 | 175 | -31.43% |
| 740 | 760 | 810 | 750 | 770 | 750 | -1.33% |
| 30 | 40 | 42 | 39 | 35 | 35 | -14.29% |
| 20 | 32 | 35 | 28 | 25 | 25 | -20.00% |
| Average | -13.00% |
Note: You can use date range and the filters on the right part of the graph to narrow things down.
Visibility
Top Impression Share
Top Impressions are the first links that are visible without further clicks on the booking page (typically 5).
A Top Impression happens when your link is one of those links.
You can see in this line chart how often your link is displayed as a top impression.
Note: The number of top links has changed over time and device types, which may be reflected in charts by steep changes.
Absolute Top Impression Share
An Absolute Top impression happens when your booking link is ranked on the first top position.
You can see in this line chart how often your booking link is the Absolute Top.
Note: The ranking algorithm has changed over time, which may be reflected in charts by steep changes.
Participation Rate
The percentage of times that your booking link was displayed to the user (actual impressions divided by eligible impressions).
Google Flights has multiple reasons to not show the booking link, which could range from your API not returning a result for the choosen itinerary, to the response being too slow.
Operating Carrier
Operating Carrier Performance
This table lists, per operating airline, statistics about your impressions, the position of your link, how often your prices are the cheapest, and the difference between your price and the next Google Flights partner.
All the columns are an average based on the filters you have selected.
The Actual Impressions (% of Max) and Eligible Impressions (% of Max) columns will give you a relative size. For example, if you have 100% Actual Impressions for the airline XX, having 10% of Actual Impressions on YY will mean that you had ten times fewer impressions on YY solutions than on XX.
Geography
Top 1,000 Routes Based on Number of Impressions
This table lists, per origin and destination airports, statistics about your impressions, the position of your link, how often your prices are the cheapest, and the difference between your price and the next Google Flights partner.
All the numbers are an average based on the filters you have selected.