The 1st Marketing Mistake Rental Operators Make (& How to Fix It)

The 1st marketing mistake rental operators make is trying to do everything at once.

• Social media starts as the priority task.

• Then, someone on a podcast recommended SEO.

• Finally, why not throw some email marketing and ads on top of that?

It's not long before they wonder why bookings aren't flowing like a spring melt waterfall.

Here's why: most rental operators start stacking tactics before understanding the most important metric in marketing.

Funnel math.

There are three questions great marketers ask themselves:

• How much caffeine is too much?

• How to cook? Healthy fast food near me.

• How many people need to see my offer before one books.

The third question is solved through funnel math. Find it, you become an unstoppable force.

P.S. If you have an established marketing plan, keep reading. I think this framework will help you.

Before we begin

You'll need two things ready to go:

1. An ads campaign for bookings (purchases). Meta or Google ads is recommended.

2. A direct booking website that accepts payments.

You can build these quickly.

• Ads campaigns take a better part of an afternoon.

• Websites take half an afternoon. If you hate building websites, hire someone on Upwork.

1 ) Build

The goal here is to get attention and eyeballs.

Start small. Run a broad ad campaign to your simple direct booking website.

Aim for:

• 100,000 ad views

• 1,000 website visitors

• 1 booking

This baseline gives ad platforms (like Meta or Google) enough data to learn who’s interested.

2 ) Know your numbers

Now it’s time to answer these questions:

• How many people saw your ad?

• How many clicked to your website?

• How many booked?

Your answers should be percentages. Here's a real example from one of our clients.

• Ad views: 136,726 (100%)

• Website views: 6,181 (7.01%)

• Bookings: 7 (.1%)

This tells you how efficient your system is - and what to expect when you scale.

Pro tip: Divide the number of bookings by the website views number for a more clear result (ex: 7/6,181 = .1%).

This is your funnel math. My example is close to what good looks like.

You might be asking, what do I do with this information?

Good question.

3 ) Increase volume

Now that you know your funnel math, you can grow with confidence.

Want 3x the number of bookings? You likely need:

• 3x the website visitors

• 3x the ad views

There are two ways to get there:

• Simply spend more on ads

• Find other ways to get more views through social media or email

How I would increase volume:

1. First, spend more on ads. It works. Do more of what works.

2. Then, find other ways to get views through free channels like social media or email.

Pro tip:

Drive free views using the same platform your ads are on.

• Meta Ads → Post on Instagram

• Google Ads → Create SEO content

• Email is universal

Do as much as you can while keeping the funnel math percentages the same.

Now, do this:

• Build an ads campaign for bookings (purchases)

• Launch a direct booking website that accepts payments.

• Run a broad ad campaign to your direct booking website.

• Find the funnel math.

• Increase volume.

That's all for today. I'll see you in the next article.

P.S. Writing this from Miami. Here for a quick meeting. Constant. Sweating.

Before you go

I spend about 10 hours writing this newsletter each week. The rest of my time is spent running Lodge Social.

Our marketing team will help you get more guests to like, share and book.

Work with me and my team here.

Links you might like:

1. $18,450 Instagram Reel secrets (The Lodge Social)

2. Top 10 year round short term rental markets (AirDNA)

3. How to find high ROI influencers (The Unique Stays Guy)

4. How Seth and Tori Bolt built an 8-figure Treehouse Business (Podcast)

5. Love this newsletter? Ask me anything (SURVEY)