Direct Demand & Paid Acquisition

The paid marketing trap

Most operators approach paid acquisition backwards: copy what works for e-commerce, run ads continuously, optimize for clicks or traffic, wonder why customer acquisition cost exceeds margin.

Experience bookings aren't product purchases. Booking windows matter (30% book same-day, 50% within 5 days per TourScanner/Barclays). Consideration cycles are longer. Competition from marketplaces with massive budgets makes generic campaigns unprofitable.

The question isn't "should we do paid marketing"—it's "when does paid acquisition make strategic sense for direct bookings?"

What we address

High-intent demand identification Not all traffic is equal. Someone searching "skip the line Vatican tickets tomorrow" has radically different intent than "things to do in Rome." We identify search patterns, booking windows, and customer segments where paid acquisition actually works—where you can profitably compete against marketplaces and aggregators with 10x your budget.

Channel selection & unit economics Google Search vs. Meta vs. TikTok vs. Pinterest—each has different customer intent, booking conversion, and economics. Google Search captures high-intent demand but is expensive and competitive. Meta/Instagram build awareness but rarely drive immediate bookings. We assess which channels deliver profitable customer acquisition for your specific products and margins (spoiler: most operators should focus on 1-2 channels max, not spray-and-pray across everything).

Marketplace arbitrage opportunities Strategic paid acquisition that drives customers to your direct channel when marketplace commissions make it profitable. Example: 25% marketplace commission = you can spend up to 20% on acquisition and still win. But timing, targeting, and booking experience must be precise—small mistakes make this unprofitable quickly.

Seasonal & dynamic campaign strategy "Always-on" campaigns waste money during low-demand periods and miss revenue during peaks. We build dynamic strategies that scale spend based on demand signals, booking pace, capacity, and competitive dynamics. Increase spend when you're undersold on high-margin dates. Pull back when capacity is tight or demand is organic.

Landing page & booking flow integration Paid traffic to generic homepage = wasted money. We build dedicated landing pages for each campaign, optimized for the specific intent and promise of the ad. Mobile-first (70%+ of clicks), clear value proposition, minimal friction, tracking that shows true profitability per channel/campaign/keyword.

Attribution & profitability tracking Most operators track cost-per-click or cost-per-booking but miss true profitability. Customer lifetime value matters more than first booking. Assisted conversions (saw ad, booked later via organic or direct) get missed. We implement multi-touch attribution that shows what's actually profitable—not just what looks good in ad platform dashboards.

What makes this different

Experience-specific approach Not generic performance marketing. We understand experience booking behavior: longer consideration cycles, high comparison shopping, booking windows that vary by product type, the reality that marketplaces own much of the paid search landscape.

Profitability over vanity metrics We optimize for profit, not clicks or impressions. If paid acquisition doesn't deliver better margins than marketplace commissions (after accounting for all costs), we tell you to stop spending and fix other issues first.

Selective, not always-on Most agencies want continuous retainers. We design campaigns that run strategically—during shoulder seasons when organic demand is weak, for new products that need demand generation, when you have excess capacity to fill. Turn off when it's not profitable.

Integration with overall strategy Paid acquisition only works if booking experience converts, pricing is competitive, product is compelling, and operations can deliver. We don't run campaigns in isolation—we ensure the full funnel is ready before spending money driving traffic.

Honest about when NOT to do paid If your website converts at 1%, fixing that delivers more value than any paid campaign. If you're already at capacity from organic/marketplace, paid acquisition makes no sense. If margins are too thin, paid acquisition won't work. We'll tell you when to wait.