Overview: Turning Search Into a Reliable Growth Engine
Wingo is Colombia’s leading low-cost airline serving destinations across Latin America and the Caribbean. Operating in a highly competitive leisure travel market, the airline needed to maximize every marketing dollar while continuing to grow bookings and revenue.
One of the most effective digital marketing channels for airlines, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) helps them connect with travelers actively searching for flights and provides highly measurable performance data. For many airlines, SEM contributes significantly to the total digital marketing revenue, making it one of the industry’s most valuable digital channels.
To elevate the performance of its paid search, Wingo leveraged airSEM, PROS Search Engine Marketing solution. Through a performance-driven strategy focused on market prioritization, demand-focused campaign management, and bidding optimization, Wingo significantly increased bookings, revenue, and return on ROI.
Challenge: Optimize the Investment for Maximum Impact
With paid search playing an important role in its commercial performance, Wingo sought to improve the profitability of that investment. Improving marketing efficiency is essential for maximizing return on investment. Cost reduction, however, should be guided by a clear strategy to preserve performance and maintain growth momentum. To this end, the team evaluated its campaign structure to:
- Identify the highest-performing markets
- Prioritize campaigns that generated the greatest revenue
- Focus on markets and demand opportunities with the strongest travel demand
- Improve ad rankings and visibility
- Implement the most effective bidding strategies
The analysis enabled Wingo and PROS to make strategic investment and optimization decisions balancing efficiency with continued commercial growth.
Solution: Data-Driven Search Optimization with airSEM
After identifying the campaigns that generated the highest revenue and ROI, PROS worked closely with Wingo to refine bidding strategies and campaign management practices. Using airSEM’s campaign- and market-level optimization approach, the team:
- Prioritized top-performing markets
- Aligned campaigns with the most relevant markets, routes, and demand opportunities
- Implemented smart bidding strategies across all campaigns
By leveraging historical campaign performance data and continuous optimization, airSEM dynamically adjusted campaign bids to maximize return on ad spend (ROAS) while adapting to market demand and seasonality. Performance was continuously monitored against key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure campaigns remained aligned with Wingo’s growth and profitability goals.
Impact: More Revenue, Less Spend
Wingo and PROS implemented the airSEM-powered strategy in June 2024. The impact was immediate. Compared to a year before, Wingo reduced its Google Ads investment by 23% while significantly improving business performance. The airline achieved:
- 46% increase in revenue
- 90% hike in ROI
- 17% rise in bookings
- 37% drop in CPA
- 44% decrease in CoS
SEM remained Wingo’s highest-performing digital marketing channel, accounting for 33% of total transactions across all digital channels.
Source: Google Ads performance data
Most importantly, the performance gains continued. From June through October 2025, Wingo delivered further improvements compared with the same period in 2024:
- Marketing spend was reduced
- Bookings rose by 62%
- ROI increased by 34%
- CPA dropped by 22%
- CoS decreased by 25%
- Search impression share (SIS) rose by 115%
Overall, performance improvements became more consistent throughout 2025. Paid search attribution accounted for approximately 40% of Wingo’s total sales, reinforcing SEM’s role as a critical driver of revenue growth and a cornerstone of the airline’s commercial strategy.
Building on the success of its airSEM implementation, in 2026, Wingo continues to refine its search marketing strategy through advanced automation and data-driven budget allocation. This ongoing focus positions the airline to sustain profitable growth while maximizing the impact of every marketing investment.