If you’re running a small tour operation and wondering how much you should be spending on marketing, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most common questions I hear from outfitters and guides who are serious about growing their business but want to make sure they’re investing wisely.
The truth is, there’s no magic number that works for everyone. Your marketing budget should reflect your revenue, your growth goals, and the season you’re in as a business. But there are some solid benchmarks and principles that can help you figure out what makes sense for your operation.
Industry Benchmarks: What Other Tour Operators Are Spending
Most small tour operators and outfitters invest somewhere between 5% and 12% of their gross revenue into marketing. If you’re in a growth phase or just getting started, you might push closer to that higher end. If you’re established and running steady year after year, you might be closer to the lower end.
Let’s put that in real numbers. If your operation brings in $200,000 a year, you’d be looking at a marketing budget between $10,000 and $24,000 annually. For a $500,000 operation, that’s $25,000 to $60,000.
Now, I know what you might be thinking. That sounds like a lot. But here’s the thing: marketing isn’t an expense. It’s an investment. When it’s done right, every dollar you put into marketing should be bringing in more than it costs. If it’s not, then the strategy needs to change, not necessarily the budget.
Some operators spend less and rely heavily on word of mouth and repeat clients. That can work, especially if you’ve been around for years and have a loyal following. But if you want to grow, you have to be willing to invest in getting in front of new people.
What Should Be Included in Your Marketing Budget?
Your marketing budget isn’t just ad spend. It should cover everything you’re doing to attract, convert, and retain customers. Here’s what that typically includes:
Website and SEO
Your website is your storefront. If it’s outdated, slow, or hard to navigate, you’re losing bookings. Budget for hosting, maintenance, updates, and search engine optimization. SEO takes time, but it’s one of the best long-term investments you can make.
Paid Advertising
This includes Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, and any other platform where you’re paying to get in front of potential customers. Paid ads can work fast, but they require ongoing management and testing to get right.
Content Creation
Photos, videos, blog posts, social media content. All of this takes time or money. If you’re doing it yourself, you’re still investing your time, which has value. If you’re hiring it out, it’s a line item.
Email Marketing and CRM
Staying in touch with past clients and nurturing leads is critical. Budget for an email platform and the time it takes to write and send campaigns that actually get opened.
Booking Software and Tools
If you’re using a reservation system, online booking tools, or scheduling software, that’s part of your marketing ecosystem. It’s what turns interest into revenue.
Professional Help
Whether it’s a marketing agency, a freelancer, or a consultant, getting expert help can save you time and get you better results faster. This is often the difference between spinning your wheels and actually moving forward.
How to Know If You’re Spending Enough
Here’s a simple test. Ask yourself: am I turning away business because I’m fully booked, or am I hoping the phone rings more often?
If you’re consistently booked solid and have a waitlist, you might not need to increase your marketing spend. You might just need to raise your prices or expand capacity.
But if you’re sitting around wondering where the next booking is coming from, or if your slow season feels a little too slow, then you’re probably not investing enough in marketing. Or you’re investing in the wrong things.
Another way to measure it: look at your cost per booking. If you spent $1,000 on ads last month and booked 10 trips that brought in $10,000, your cost per booking was $100. If your average trip profit is $500, you’re doing great. If it’s $150, you need to either lower your cost per booking or increase your prices.
Common Mistakes Small Tour Operators Make with Marketing Budgets
One of the biggest mistakes I see is spending money without a plan. Running a few Facebook ads here, paying for a directory listing there, maybe sponsoring a local event. None of it’s connected, none of it’s tracked, and at the end of the year, you have no idea what worked.
Another mistake is cutting the marketing budget the second things get tight. I get it. When revenue dips, the instinct is to cut costs. But cutting marketing when you need more bookings is like turning off the engine when you’re trying to climb a hill.
And then there’s the opposite problem: spending too much too fast without understanding what’s working. Just because you have the budget doesn’t mean you should dump it all into one channel and hope for the best. Start small, test, measure, then scale what works.
What If You Don’t Have Much to Spend?
If you’re bootstrapping and don’t have thousands of dollars to put into marketing, that’s okay. You can still move forward. Focus on the things that don’t cost much but take effort: organic social media, email marketing, partnerships with other local businesses, asking happy clients for reviews and referrals.
But be honest with yourself. Time is money. If you’re spending 20 hours a week trying to figure out Google Ads or editing Instagram reels, that’s time you’re not guiding or running your business. Sometimes paying someone who knows what they’re doing is actually the cheaper option.
Final Thoughts
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to what you should spend on marketing. But if you’re serious about growing your tour operation, you need to treat marketing as a real investment, not something you do when you have time or money left over.
Start with 5% to 12% of your revenue as a baseline. Track what you spend and what it brings in. Adjust as you learn. And if you’re not sure where to start or what’s actually going to work for your business, that’s where a conversation with someone who understands the outdoor industry can save you a lot of time and money.
If you’re ready to build a marketing system that actually fills your calendar without taking over your life, let’s talk. Book a Discovery Call with Outfitter Marketing Pros and we’ll walk through what makes sense for your operation.
