Cashback and discount partners are among the biggest revenue drivers in travel affiliate marketing. According to the APMA’s State of the Nation report, 71% of affiliate investments in the travel sector are allocated to cashback and discount publishers. But what happens if a travel brand cannot rely on that route?
That was the challenge Itaka and Tradedoubler set out to solve.
Due to the brand’s strategy and positioning, the affiliate program needed to scale without depending on traditional cashback and voucher mechanics. Instead, the strategy focused on high-value publisher partnerships, stronger tracking and analytics, and long-term affiliate optimisation.
The approach delivered measurable business impact, including:
+50% sales YoY
+40% order value YoY
+10% higher ROAS
The partnership has evolved into an award-winning affiliate program, earning the title of “Most Effective Affiliate Program” at the Performance Marketing Diamonds EU 2026.
In this case study, we take a closer look at the challenges behind the project, the strategy that drove growth, and what other brands can learn from this partnership-driven approach to travel affiliate marketing.
The Challenge: Building Growth Beyond Traditional Travel Affiliate Models
When Itaka and Tradedoubler started working together, the goal was clear: build a scalable affiliate program in one of ecommerce’s most competitive verticals - while also setting new standards for efficiency, transparency, and strategic partnership within the travel industry.
Challenge 1: Growing beyond cashback and voucher partnerships
Cashback and discount publishers are key revenue drivers in travel affiliate marketing. However, Itaka’s strategy required a different approach.
Key challenges included:
Limited use of voucher and cashback partnerships
Less room for standard affiliate expansion due to existing publisher relationships
Need to scale through high-quality publisher collaborations instead of discount-led tactics
Challenge 2: Improving tracking and attribution
The travel customer journey is increasingly fragmented across apps, browsers, and devices - especially within social media environments.
This created challenges around:
Accurate conversion tracking within Meta’s in-app ecosystem
Visibility into publishers’ real contribution to sales
Maintaining transparency and trust within a performance-based model
Without reliable attribution, scaling publisher activity and optimisation becomes significantly more difficult.
Challenge 3: Managing a complex booking journey
Travel bookings typically involve longer and more dynamic customer journeys than many other ecommerce purchases.
This meant the affiliate strategy needed to balance:
Scalability and efficiency
Reliable data and transparency
A strong publisher experience
Sustainable long-term growth
The Solution: A Partnership-Driven Travel Affiliate Marketing Strategy
Itaka and Tradedoubler focused on building an affiliate strategy centred around transparency, high-quality publisher partnerships, and continuous optimisation, creating long-term value for both the brand and its publisher ecosystem.
1. Strengthening tracking and attribution
One of the key priorities was improving tracking accuracy and attribution visibility.
To support this, we implemented:
first-party tracking solutions
branded tracking
and tracking infrastructure improvements to increase resilience against browser limitations and ad blockers
This helped improve data quality and attribution transparency across the affiliate program, creating a stronger foundation for scaling publisher activity and optimisation decisions.
2. Building high-value publisher partnerships
Rather than focusing purely on volume, the strategy prioritised publisher collaborations capable of delivering long-term value and high-quality traffic.
This included:
closer collaboration with key publishers
tailored partnership models
optimisation based on traffic quality and customer journey insights
non-standard campaign activations designed to combine performance and brand visibility
3. Creating stronger collaboration across the affiliate ecosystem
Relationship-building also became a core part of the strategy.
Throughout the collaboration, Itaka and Tradedoubler invested in:
direct advertiser-publisher communication
offline networking initiatives
ongoing optimisation discussions
and closer strategic collaboration across all stakeholders
This partnership-driven approach helped strengthen publisher engagement, improve transparency, and support sustainable long-term affiliate growth.
The Results: An Award-Winning Affiliate Program
Itaka and Tradedoubler transformed the affiliate program into a scalable long-term growth channel. The strategy not only improved performance and efficiency but also strengthened publisher engagement across the program.
Key results
+50% sales YoY
+40% order value YoY
+52% clicks YoY
+10% higher ROAS
9% decrease in COS
As Zofia Wieszczeczyńska-Anlauf, Digital Marketing Coordinator at Itaka, explains: “Our partnership with Tradedoubler raises our expectations for affiliate marketing to a new, increasingly higher level each year. We don't just scale and optimize operations together. We also set ourselves goals, including such important ones as technology development and deepening analysis, which together deliver highly effective results.”
This partnership- and technology-driven approach ultimately earned Itaka and Tradedoubler the “Most Effective Affiliate Program” award at Performance Marketing Diamonds EU 2026.
Conclusion
The Itaka case study shows that successful travel affiliate marketing does not have to rely exclusively on cashback and discount mechanics. With the right combination of stronger tracking, high-value publisher partnerships, and long-term collaboration, affiliate marketing can become a scalable and sustainable growth channel.
Looking to grow your affiliate program strategically?
Get in touch with us to discover how partnership-driven affiliate marketing can help your brand scale sustainably.