Most outfitters want one thing from their marketing: more bookings without wasting money.
If you were to make a list of all the ways you are marketing your business, you’d likely have quite the list: Google Ads, SEO, Facebook Ads, TripAdvisor, tourism boards, blogs, QR codes, influencer partnerships, newsletters, social media, community partnerships…the list goes on.
The modern marketing mix is extremely layered, and it can feel overwhelming to track exactly what bookings are coming from where. But if you have the right systems in place, it’s easy.
If you want to grow sustainably, you need to know exactly which marketing channels are driving revenue, which ones are underperforming, and how to strategically adjust the levers in order to maximize your investment.
Tracking your channels carefully puts your Return on Investment (ROI) in black and white, allowing you to keep more green and scale your business.
Pitch Digital is an outdoor industry marketing agency that helps adventure brands build tracking systems that show exactly which channels perform. Clean data is the foundation of effective outdoor industry marketing and strong marketing for outdoor companies.
Tracking Non-Negotiables for Every Outfitter
No matter how your customers book, you need to measure these three actions by source:
- Online Bookings
Tracked using UTM codes and/or your booking platform (Arctic, Flybook, FareHarbor, etc.). - Form Submissions
Great for private groups, corporate tours, custom trips, and questions. - Phone Calls
This is the big one most people ignore. Larger groups often call, meaning your most valuable bookings may never show up in online analytics.
We use tools like CallRail so you know on a very granular level what channel (and even keyword) triggered that outreach.
Uncovering this data allows you to become very strategic on knowing what is working and what isn’t, making sure you aren’t wasting your marketing dollars guessing at results.
Where Outfitters Get ROI Tracking Wrong
Based on our experiences working with countless outdoor brands, here are the most common misconceptions:
1. Traffic Reports ≠ Revenue
“We got 10,000 sessions from SEO!”
“We got 200 clicks from Google Ads.”
Cool. But did they book?
As performance marketers, we aren’t as focused on vanity metrics like impressions or clicks. We are focused on booking clients for your kayaking, rafting, ziplining and snowmobile tours.
2. Relying on What Customers Say
If you do a lot of bookings via phone, then you are doing your own research when you interact with customers. But the truth is that when you ask them how they heard about you, you can’t fully rely on their answers because the data often tells a different story.
They might say “internet search” but that could be SEO, Google Ads, a TripAdvisor listing, or a blog post from two years ago.
Make your data more accurate by relying on tracking, not guesses.
3. Grouping All Marketing Into One Bucket
A $50,000 marketing spend isn’t as meaningful when determining ROI unless you are breaking it down into each individual channel. You should know exactly how much you’re spending on Google Ads, SEO, Facebook Ads, Microsoft Ads, social media, influencers, partnerships, hotel concierges, etc.
If you don’t track ROI at the channel level, you can’t make strategic decisions. This is why many operators partner with an outdoor marketing agency that understands channel level performance.
Real Example: When Assumptions Cost Money
We worked with a rafting company that had been running Google Ads for years without many results. We audited their account and found:
- They were paying for irrelevant keywords
- They were showing up on low-quality search partner networks
- They were targeting the wrong audiences
- They had no clear tracking beyond “traffic” and “clicks”
We fixed the basics, aligned the account with actual demand, and cleaned up the keyword structure.
The result was a 20x return on ad spend for the entire season.
We have also had clients stop their Google Ads because they think they are paying for fake clicks and bot clicks. Some digging revealed the issue wasn’t bot clicks, it was a bad SEO partner. SEO only works if you are focusing on the right keywords, audiences, and tracking metrics.
Where the Hidden ROI Usually Is
Outfitters almost always overlook:
1. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
You may not need more traffic. You need more bookings from the traffic you already have.
If you’re converting 1% and have 100,000 unique visitors per month, converting 2% of the same number of visitors at $60 per customer means $60,000 more revenue.
2. Microsoft Ads (Bing)
Historically underwhelming. But in 2025, we saw huge ROI due to one simple fact:
Low competition. Clicks were cheap, and people were actually booking.
We always recommend having at least one “experimental” channel running, and this was the surprise winner for the 2025 season.
3. SEO + Paid Search Together
This is consistently one of the most powerful duos for local businesses to increase revenue.
SEO captures people in search results and in the map pack. Paid search captures people ready to book now. Together, they dominate the demand funnel.
So… What Should You Do First?
If you have zero tracking set up, start here:
1. Google Analytics 4 + Booking System Integration
Tracks online bookings by source. GA4 is a free platform, so there’s nothing to hold you back from starting now.
2. CallRail (or CallTrackingMetrics)
Tracks calls by source, keyword and campaign. Click here to see pricing and set up an account.
3. UTM Codes Here, There and Everywhere
Every ad, email, QR code, tourism board link, influencer swipe-up and blog post. If it leads to your website, it gets a UTM.
These tactics are foundational to measure your outdoor industry marketing efforts.
Looking Ahead: Future-Proofing for Outfitters
Over the next 1 to 2 years, the top-performing outfitters will be the ones who:
- Track everything
- Complete monthly ROI channel reviews
- Invest in high ROI channels
- Pair SEO with paid search
- Use call tracking
- Focus on real revenue, not vanity metrics
- Adapt early to AI driven search behavior
The operators who stay stuck in the “we think this is working” mindset will fall behind.
The ones who trust the data and optimize around it are going to win.
Pro Tip
If your agency can’t tell you exactly how many bookings you got from each channel last month, you’re not getting real marketing, you’re getting a report.
Need help setting up ROI tracking?
Pitch Digital helps outfitters build ROI driven marketing systems that pay for themselves.
We specialize in:
SEO for Tour Operators
Google Ads for Outfitters
Analytics and Attribution
Seasonal Demand Capture
Outdoor Industry Growth Strategy
Learn more about our services or check out case studies with other outfitters who have experienced real results:
31.3% YOY Growth in Bookings
Double the Revenue in 6 Months
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