From vanity to sanity metrics

By Astha Kalbag

It’s absolutely essential that we focus on a common set of metrics

In this post I’m going to speak about what we like to call vanity and sanity metrics and what this means for Growth.
 
Solving problems faced by travellers is at the heart of everything that we do. And at Skyscanner, we take this challenge very seriously. 
 
Growth is about data driven decision making and its results are measured by business-relevant metrics. However, metrics can often mean everything or it can mean nothing. It’s absolutely essential that we focus on a common set of metrics, speak the same language and apply the same heuristics when it comes to making these decisions.

Vanity vs sanity — V and S fight it out

In jargon-filled social media marketing, metrics such as click through rates (CTR), engagement rates and post reach often have little relevance to business results. Although these vanity metrics seem appealing, at Skyscanner we focus on things that matter — our own roaring ‘sanity’ metrics which are acquisition, activation and retention (AAR). 
 
These ‘pirate metrics’, a term originally coined by the tech-prenuer Dave McClure, focus on acquiring and on-boarding the right users (A), encouraging them to use our product (A) and giving them reason enough to come back and back at scale (R). AAR to us is our sanity framework and its ability to understand user behaviour has retained (R) its championship title in the Skyscanner metrics league.

What does S mean for Skyscanner?

Now that we know what our ‘sanity’ metrics are, how does this manifest itself in growth? How do we use these metrics? What does it all mean for Skyscanner’s growth strategy?

Sanity is asking yourself the right questions

Our mission is to solve traveller problems and in my team we look to provide tangible value through our Growth and content marketing efforts. 
 
Having this clarity is essential to understand the direction we take in our growth strategy. For example, we decided to evaluate the type of content articles that performed ‘well’ on social platforms. There was a clear disconnect between content that had a high click through rate (CTR) and content that brought enough value for users to come back and back at scale (Retention). 
 
Travel is a topic that has universal appeal with endless growth opportunities. But we started asking ourselves — what is the Skyscanner’s mission and how do our content marketing efforts solve traveller problems? With much retrospective and soul-seeking, we moved away from buying the cheapest clicks to drive high traffic volumes to acquiring high quality users who didn’t just have the interest to travel but also the intent to travel.

Sanity is leveraging on the right resources

In our squads and tribes model we have the ability to be extremely agile and often lean on each other to drive business results and increase customer value. All tribes work closely together to harness our capabilities and to share each other’s resources to achieve our common mission. 
 
For example, the various market teams, squads and tribes work closely to increase the value we provide to our users by leveraging on continuous feedback loops. These collaborative efforts help us accelerate our growth and break down silos that are created when different teams are focused on different metrics and goals.

Sanity is aligning our channels with the right user journeys

At Skyscanner the tiny atoms of Growth, Product and Data strive to make a coherent molecular bond. Together, we map our users’ journey, highlight their pain points and solve them with our content, product design and personalisation engine. 
 
We recognise that each user is different and believe that by using the AAR framework, we can create the right personalised channel mix that will move our users from being unaware to falling in love with us.

S for summary

We continue to strive towards achieving our mission — solving traveller problems and making their travel booking experiences as seamless and intuitive as possible. This might sound like Mission Impossible, but don’t worry — we are confident in our ability to become Tom Cruise.

About the author

Hey there! My name is Astha Kalbag and I am part of the Central Growth tribe. Based in the Singapore office, I am part of the team that manages paid spends across our digital channels in the Asia Pacific Region. If you are ready to embark on your Skyscanner mission, check out our Senior Growth Hacking Role based in our Singapore office where I’m currently situated.
 
Skyscanner falls in the sweet spot between the three things I love — travel, technology and digital marketing. I have had a fantastic journey at Skyscanner so far because it truly fosters an environment of openness, ownership and autonomy. 
 
Culture at Skyscanner is so much more than our colourful offices and our ping pong tables. To truly experience it, come and be a part of it!