Strategy Over Spending: A Cost/Benefit Analysis for Timeshare Digital Marketing
After 20 years in marketing, I’ve seen some giant waste. Money just flying out the window on marketing campaigns that nobody planned, measured, or understood. I’ve watched resort operators throw $10,000 a month at Facebook ads because “everyone’s doing it” without knowing if a single booking came from those efforts.
But I’ve also seen $100 on Meta generate thousands in sales when the campaign was built with strategy and measured properly. I’ve watched small resort operators outperform massive management companies because they understood their audience and spoke to them authentically across the right channels.
The difference isn’t budget size. It’s whether you’re spending strategically or just spending.
According to a 2024 Insider Intelligence study 26% of marketing budgets are wasted on ineffective strategies. For timeshare operators, where customer acquisition can cost anywhere from $40 to over $400 depending on your approach, that waste adds up fast.
The problem is that most people don’t know how to evaluate the waste. Because marketing is stuck in a world between attribute everything and knowing that attributing every single dollar made to every single marketing effort launched is a futile chase. So there has to be a middle ground, an intelligent, strategic way to measure your marketing investment and decide what’s working and what’s not.
The Reality of Today’s Fragmented Customer Journey
Here’s what makes timeshare marketing particularly challenging right now: your prospects aren’t following a nice, tidy path from awareness to booking anymore. Travelers spend over 5 hours researching trips and visit an average of 141 pages of content over 45 days before making decisions, according to 2024 Expedia research.
Think about what that means for your marketing budget. Your prospect might see your Facebook ad, research you on Google, read reviews on TripAdvisor, watch a YouTube video about your destination, check prices on Booking.com, and then finally call you directly to book. If you’re only tracking the phone call, you’re missing most of the journey that led to that conversion.
This gets even more complicated when you’re marketing both vacation rentals and timeshare sales. That family who books a rental week might be your ideal sales prospect, but if you can’t connect their rental stay to their potential interest in ownership, you’re leaving money on the table.
80% of travelers visit an OTA at some point during their journey according to Expedia research, even when they book elsewhere. Your direct booking might look like a success, but it could have started with discovery on Airbnb or VRBO. Without proper attribution, you’re making budget decisions based on incomplete information.
Where the Money Goes Wrong
I’ve audited enough digital marketing campaigns to see the same mistakes over and over. Resort operators often spread their budget equally across channels without understanding what actually works. They’ll spend $2,000 on Facebook, $2,000 on Google, $2,000 on email marketing, and wonder why nothing’s working particularly well.
The problem is that different channels serve different purposes in your customer journey. Email marketing delivers $36-$40 return for every $1 spent according to WordStream research, but that’s only if you’re doing sophisticated segmentation and automation. Blast emails to your entire list with generic offers? You’ll probably see the industry average conversion rate of 0.2% according to Hospitality Net benchmarks.
Google Ads can deliver 8.24% click-through rates in travel—the highest across all industries according to WordStream’s 2024 benchmarks. But if your landing pages aren’t optimized or you’re bidding on the wrong keywords, you’ll burn through budget without results.
Here’s what really gets expensive: 68% of traffic comes from mobile devices, but desktop accounts for 62% of actual sales according to TravelPerk’s 2024 analysis. If your mobile experience isn’t seamless but you’re driving mobile traffic, you’re paying for visitors who can’t easily convert.
Related: Actionable Strategies for Marketing Independence
The Professional vs. DIY Cost Reality
Let me be straight with you about the numbers. Well-managed PPC campaigns achieve 7:1 ROI according to hospitality industry benchmarks, while poorly managed campaigns struggle to break even. The difference isn’t just expertise—it’s systems, tools, and the time to optimize continuously.
Professional digital marketing management typically costs $3,000-$15,000 monthly for mid-size properties. That sounds like a lot until you consider the alternative. Customer acquisition costs vary dramatically based on management quality—professional guidance helps achieve industry benchmarks of $40-$200 per guest acquisition, while unguided efforts often exceed $400 per lead according to Vena Solutions’ 2024 data.
But full outsourcing isn’t your only option. Hybrid consulting approaches run $1,500-$5,000 monthly and can help you build internal capabilities while getting strategic guidance. Training your existing team through programs like Cornell University’s AI in hospitality courses costs $500-$2,000 per employee and creates lasting value.
The key is matching your approach to your situation. If you need immediate performance improvements and have the budget, professional management makes sense. If you’re building for the long term and want to develop internal expertise, consulting plus training might be your best bet.
The Attribution Problem Nobody Talks About
Here’s something that keeps me up at night: Only 16% of companies consider their collected data to be of very high quality according to ClicData research. That means 84% of operators are making budget decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate information.
For timeshare operators, this is particularly problematic because your customer journey spans both immediate rental bookings and long-term sales conversions. A guest might book a rental today and attend a sales presentation six months later. If you can’t connect those dots, you’re undervaluing your rental marketing and potentially missing opportunities to nurture prospects through the full ownership journey.
Marketing and advertising technologies not working together waste 12% of budgets globally according to Forrester Consulting research. Your email platform doesn’t talk to your PPC data. Your website analytics don’t connect to your property management system. Your sales team doesn’t know which marketing channels generated their best prospects.
This is where strategic investment pays for itself. Whether you hire professionals or train your team, implementing proper attribution systems reduces waste and helps you double down on what’s actually working.
Related: The Dangerous Gamble of Marketing Dependency
Channel Strategy Based on Actual Performance
Instead of spreading budget equally, let me share what actually works based on the data. Paid search returns $2 for every $1 spent on average with proper management. But “proper management” means understanding which keywords drive bookings vs. which ones just drive clicks.
Social media performs differently across platforms. TikTok achieves 7.43% engagement according to Hospitality Net research, but engagement doesn’t always mean bookings. Facebook delivers only 0.09% engagement but costs just $0.63 per click for travel advertisers per WordStream data. The question isn’t which platform has better engagement—it’s which platform delivers guests who actually book and potentially convert to ownership.
Email marketing has the highest ROI potential at $36-$40 return per dollar invested, but only with sophisticated automation. Simple newsletter blasts won’t cut it. You need sequences that nurture rental guests toward ownership presentations, personalized offers based on previous stays, and behavioral triggers that respond to how prospects interact with your content.
The most successful operators I work with use social media for inspiration and brand awareness, search marketing for immediate booking intent, and email for long-term relationship building. They understand that rental guests represent their ideal ownership prospects, so their marketing systems track and nurture that complete journey.
Making the Investment Decision
Strategic planning prevents the 26% budget waste that affects unguided digital marketing efforts according to Insider Intelligence. But strategic planning doesn’t require unlimited budgets. It requires understanding your customer journey, measuring what matters, and optimizing based on actual results rather than assumptions.
Start by auditing your current attribution capabilities. Can you track a prospect from first touch to rental booking to ownership presentation? If not, that’s your first investment priority, whether you handle it internally or hire help.
Next, assess your team’s capabilities honestly. Digital marketing has become incredibly sophisticated. Cross-device attribution ranks as the second biggest challenge for 42% of media professionals according to eMarketer research. If your team is struggling with basic tracking, advanced optimization probably isn’t realistic without training or outside help.
Consider your timeline too. If you need improvements this quarter, professional management or consulting makes sense. If you’re building for next year and beyond, investing in training your team while getting strategic guidance creates lasting value.
Here’s what excites me about timeshare marketing: when done right, every rental booking is also a potential sales lead. The global vacation ownership market is projected to grow from $19.68 billion in 2023 to $36.36 billion by 2032 according to Business Research Insights’ 2024 report. Competition will intensify, but operators who understand the compound value of rental guests who become owners will have a significant advantage.
Your rental marketing shouldn’t just fill units—it should fill your sales pipeline with qualified prospects who already love your property. Your email campaigns shouldn’t just promote rental specials—they should nurture relationships that lead to ownership presentations.
This requires systems that track the complete customer journey and campaigns designed for multiple objectives. But when it works, you’re generating immediate rental revenue while building long-term ownership value. The numbers justify strategic investment because you’re optimizing for compound returns, not just single transactions.
The Bottom Line
Marketing budgets average 7.7% of company revenue in 2024 according to Gartner’s Annual CMO Spend Survey. Whether you’re spending $50,000 or $500,000 annually on digital marketing, the question isn’t whether you can afford strategic guidance—it’s whether you can afford to keep wasting 26% of whatever you’re spending.
The vacation ownership industry’s growth will intensify competition for qualified prospects. Properties that invest strategically in digital marketing capabilities—whether through professional management, consulting partnerships, or internal development—will capture disproportionate market share.
The choice isn’t between unlimited spending and minimal investment. It’s between strategic precision and scattered efforts. After 20 years of watching both approaches, I can tell you which one builds sustainable businesses and which one just burns through marketing budgets.
The data supports strategic investment. The question is what approach fits your situation, timeline, and goals. But doing nothing different while expecting different results? That’s not a strategy.
That’s just expensive hope.
Hi, I’m Kelley Ellert and each month this column will be coming to you from my curious mind. I look forward to exploring ways that technology amplifies hospitality and data enriches human connection. I own a marketing company, Waterwheel Marketing, that helps businesses cultivate digital ecosystems where efforts work together, not in silos.
As a lifelong learner and curious traveler, I’m always seeking fresh perspectives on how innovation can make hospitality more remarkable. Through this column, I’ll explore practical solutions that create more time for what hospitality is all about – exceptional guest experiences.
Connect with me on LinkedIn @kelley-ellert or at waterwheelmarketing.com..
