For decades, campground marketing followed a familiar formula: send flyers to nearby zip codes, place ads in local newspapers, or sponsor regional events. This strategy worked when most travelers planned trips close to home. But today’s campers behave differently—and digital marketing offers a more precise, effective way to reach them.
Enter audience-based targeting: a smarter approach that prioritizes people over places.
Traditional Geographic Targeting: A Broad Approach
Geo-targeting focuses on location—delivering marketing to users in specific areas, such as:
– Sending mailers to households within 100 miles.
– Running digital ads confined to a particular region or state.
While this can still drive some awareness, it has major limitations:
– You may pay to reach people who have no interest in camping.
– You can’t filter by behavior, search intent, or booking history.
– You miss out on high-intent travelers outside your defined area.
This approach is reactive and often wasteful, especially in a world where consumers are planning and booking trips from their phones in minutes.
Audience-Based Targeting: Smarter, Data-Driven Marketing
Instead of targeting based on proximity, audience-based targeting uses real data to identify and reach people most likely to book—no matter where they live.
It works by:
– Pulling data from mobile apps, online behavior, and search patterns.
– Building profiles based on interests, online activity, and travel intent.
– Serving ads to users who are actively researching camping, RV parks, glamping, or outdoor experiences.
For example, you can target someone three states away who just Googled “best places to camp this summer” and visited two campground directories in the past week. That’s powerful.
Why Campgrounds Should Make the Switch
Audience-based targeting unlocks new levels of precision and performance. Campgrounds that embrace it benefit from:
– Higher conversion rates: Ads reach people already showing interest in camping.
– Lower ad waste: Eliminate spending on uninterested, unqualified users.
– Scalable marketing: Promote shoulder-season or weekday bookings to specific audiences.
– Competitive advantage: Reach high-intent campers your competitors aren’t even targeting.
This approach isn’t just for large resorts or national parks—it works for independent campgrounds offering everything from primitive sites to luxury cabins.
A Real-World Example
One campground saw a major shift after adopting audience-first targeting. Previously relying on zip code targeting, they realized that over 70% of their bookings came from outside the targeted region. By switching to behavior-based targeting, they filled more sites with the same budget—reaching urban travelers planning last-minute weekend getaways that never would have seen their ads otherwise.
Final Thought: Don’t Just Target Where People Are—Target Who They Are
The camping audience is evolving. They’re mobile, tech-savvy, and often planning from hundreds of miles away. Audience-based targeting helps you meet them where they are—in mindset, not just geography.
If you’re still using old-school targeting strategies, you’re limiting your growth. It’s time to update your playbook and connect with the campers who are most likely to book—no matter where they are on the map.
