How much should an outdoor business spend on paid ads?

Why the answer is not a single number

Every outdoor business owner wants a clean dollar figure. A number they can plug into a spreadsheet and move on. But the honest answer is that no single number works for a fly shop in Montana and a zipline park in Gatlinburg the same way. Your ad budget depends on your revenue, your season, your margins, and how much of your calendar is already full.

What follows are the benchmarks, what real outdoor businesses spend, and how to build a number that fits your operation.

Start with revenue, not a dollar amount

The U.S. Small Business Administration suggests businesses earning under $5 million per year put 7 to 8 percent of gross revenue toward marketing. That covers everything: your website, email, content, and paid ads.

Paid ads typically eat 35 to 45 percent of that marketing budget for small businesses focused on growth. So if your guided fishing operation brings in $600,000 a year, a reasonable total marketing budget lands around $42,000 to $48,000. The paid ad slice is roughly $15,000 to $21,000 per year, or $1,250 to $1,750 per month.

Those are averages. A raft company that is booked solid from June through August does not need to spend the same percentage as a new kayak rental shop trying to fill its first season. If you are still building awareness in your market, push closer to 10 to 12 percent of revenue on total marketing, with a heavier share going to ads.

What outdoor businesses actually spend

A 2024 benchmark study of the outdoor hospitality industry found the average Google Ads budget for search campaigns was $680 per month. With display ads included, that rose to about $823 per month.

Those numbers skew toward campgrounds and RV parks. Tour operators and outfitters spend more because each booking carries a higher ticket price. Agencies that work with outdoor recreation businesses typically see clients putting $1,000 to $2,000 per month into ad spend alone.

One case worth knowing: an outdoor recreation company ran a Google Ads campaign with a $2,600 budget and pulled in $18,000 in trip bookings. A 6.9-to-1 return. Not every campaign hits those numbers, but it shows what happens when targeting is right and the landing page actually converts.

The cost-per-click advantage you already have

Outdoor recreation sits in a good spot for paid search. The average cost per click across all industries on Google Ads runs between $4.50 and $5.25. Travel, tourism, and recreation keywords average $1.50 to $2.00 per click.

Your ad dollars stretch further than a law firm’s or an insurance company’s. A $1,500 monthly budget at $1.75 per click puts roughly 857 people on your website each month. If your site converts at even 3 percent, that is 25 new bookings from paid search alone.

But that math only works if your website is fast, mobile-friendly, and built to book. Paying for clicks that land on a slow page with no clear booking path is the most common way outdoor businesses waste ad money. If you have not tested your booking flow recently, do that before spending another dollar on ads.

Where to put the money: google vs. meta vs. both

Google Search ads work best when someone already knows what they want. The person typing “whitewater rafting near Asheville” or “guided elk hunt Montana” is ready to book. Google captures that intent. Return on ad spend for Google Search in adventure travel runs between 4-to-1 and 6-to-1.

Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) do something different. They put your trips in front of people who were not looking. A 15-second video of a raft crashing through a Class IV rapid plants a seed that turns into a booking two weeks later. Meta ROAS for travel typically falls between 3-to-1 and 5-to-1.

The strongest results come from running both. Google catches the person ready to buy. Meta retargets the one who visited your site but did not book. That is how you close the gap between “I saw it” and “I booked it.”

If you have to pick one platform to start, pick Google Search. It connects you with people already looking, and you can measure results within two to three weeks. Once that is running, layer in Meta for retargeting and prospecting.

For a deeper comparison of paid and organic approaches, see our breakdown of organic SEO vs. paid ads.

How to shift your budget with the seasons

Seasonal businesses waste money by spending the same amount every month. Your ad budget should follow your booking curve, not a flat monthly number.

Scale your campaigns up three to four weeks before peak season starts. Google Ads campaigns need time to gather data and get dialed in. If your busiest month is July, your ads should be running strong by early June. Waiting until bookings slow down to “try ads” is backwards.

You do not have to go dark in the off-season. A smaller budget aimed at early-bird bookings or gift certificates keeps revenue trickling in when competitors have turned their ads off. Use that quieter stretch to invest in SEO and content so organic traffic picks up the slack when you pull back on paid.

Weather matters too. A week of clear skies in the forecast? Bump your bids. Storms rolling in? Dial back. Once your campaigns are set up, those adjustments take minutes and keep you from paying for clicks when people are checking the radar instead of booking trips.

How to know if your spend is working

A paid ad budget without tracking is a donation to Google. Before you spend anything, make sure you can answer two questions:

• What does a new booking cost me in ad spend (cost per acquisition)?
• What is each booking worth in revenue (average order value)?

If you are paying $40 in ad spend per booking and each trip is worth $250, you are in good shape. If you are paying $200 per booking on a $250 trip, something is broken. It is probably your landing page or your targeting, not your budget.

Google Ads gives you conversion tracking for free. Set it up. Connect it to your booking system. Check your cost per acquisition weekly. Good numbers? Spend more. Bad numbers? Fix the funnel before adding money. That is how you measure whether your overall marketing is working across all channels, not just paid.

A starting point you can use today

If you run an outdoor business under $1 million in annual revenue and have never run paid ads, start here:

• Set a Google Ads budget of $750 to $1,500 per month during peak season.
• Focus on search campaigns targeting your core activity plus your location (“kayak tours Lake Powell,” “guided fly fishing Bozeman”).
• Run for at least 60 days before judging results. Campaigns need data to get dialed in.
• Track every booking back to the ad that drove it.

As your data builds, you will see which campaigns earn their keep. Move money toward what works. Cut what does not. That feedback loop matters more than whatever number you start with.

Paid ads are one piece of a bigger picture. They work best when your website is solid, your Google Business Profile is set up right, and your content answers the questions people ask before they book. Get those pieces in place and every dollar you put into ads goes further.