KEY TAKEAWAYS
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Growing visitation requires continually reaching new audiences, including first-time visitors and those who haven’t visited in years.
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Incrementality focuses on generating ticket sales that likely wouldn’t have happened without advertising—not simply taking credit for purchases.
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Meta’s Incremental Attribution and Google Ad Grant strategies can help attractions prioritize new ticket sales over existing demand.
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Location-based visitation data can help measure whether billboard campaigns are expanding your audience into new markets.
Growing visitation means reaching beyond your existing audience
For zoos, aquariums, museums, and botanical gardens, long-term growth depends on continually introducing your institution to new audiences.
First-time visitors—and those who haven’t visited in years—are essential to sustaining and growing attendance.
Of course, advertising to people already familiar with your attraction is important. They’re often highly engaged and more likely to purchase tickets.
But I recommend dedicating a portion of your advertising budget specifically to reaching new audiences.
This brings us to the concept of incrementality: measuring the additional ticket sales generated because of your advertising, rather than sales that would likely have happened anyway.
A campaign can deliver an impressive return on ad spend while primarily reaching people who were already planning to visit. Another might have a higher cost per ticket sale but introduce your attraction to an entirely new audience.
Both have value. Here are three ways to make incremental visitation a bigger part of your advertising strategy.
Test Meta's Incremental Attribution setting
Meta offers an Incremental Attribution setting designed to optimize campaigns toward purchases that likely wouldn’t have happened without your advertising.
Traditionally, digital advertising platforms measure conversions based on whether someone viewed or clicked an ad before making a purchase.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean the advertising caused the sale.
Meta’s Incremental Attribution uses predictive models to help identify and optimize toward additional conversions—not simply purchases that can be credited to an ad.
For attractions selling tickets online, this is an exciting shift.
Instead of only asking how many ticket purchases your Facebook and Instagram ads can claim, we’re starting to ask how many additional purchases those ads helped generate.
It’s not a perfect measurement, and an incremental purchase isn’t necessarily from a first-time visitor. But it’s an interesting tool for attractions looking to grow ticket sales beyond existing demand.
Shift branded Google Search advertising to your Google Ad Grant
When someone searches your attraction by name, there’s a good chance they’re already familiar with you and may be planning to visit.
These branded searches often generate strong conversion rates and impressive returns on advertising spend.
But do you really need to pay Google to reach everyone who is already looking for you?
Eligible nonprofit attractions have access to up to $10,000 per month in free Google Search advertising through the Google Ad Grant.
Consider using your Google Ad Grant to capture more branded searches, freeing up paid advertising dollars for searches like:
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“Things to do this weekend”
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“Family activities near me”
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“Things to do with kids in [city]”
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“Date night ideas in [city]”
These people are looking for something to do, but they aren’t necessarily looking for your attraction.
That’s the opportunity.
Your cost per ticket sale may increase when you shift dollars away from branded searches. Your reported return on ad spend may decrease.
That’s okay. You’re investing in reaching people who weren’t already looking for you.
I wouldn’t recommend abandoning paid branded search entirely. There are situations where it still makes sense, particularly when competitors are bidding on your institution’s name or your Ad Grant isn’t providing sufficient coverage.
The goal is to ensure you’re dedicating enough of your paid advertising budget to reaching new audiences.
Use billboards to grow visitation in new markets
Incrementality isn’t just a digital advertising concept.
Traditional media, including billboards, can also help attractions introduce themselves to audiences who may not have considered visiting.
Start by looking at where your visitors currently come from.
Visitor ZIP code data can help identify parts of your market with opportunities to grow attendance.
Then, strategically place billboards along major roads and commuter routes reaching those audiences, rather than concentrating your outdoor advertising near your attraction.
We can measure visitation growth from those markets.
Location-based analytics platforms like Placer.ai or TruTrade can help compare visitation from targeted ZIP codes before and after a billboard campaign.
For example, if an area generated 10,000 visits last year and 12,500 this year, that’s a 25% increase in visitation from that market.
That doesn’t necessarily mean every additional visit was caused by the billboards. Other factors can influence attendance.
But it’s a practical way to evaluate whether visitation is growing in the markets where you’re investing advertising dollars.
Make incremental visitation part of your marketing strategy.
Advertising to your existing audience remains important. Repeat visits, memberships, and special event attendance all contribute to your institution’s success.
But long-term attendance growth also requires bringing new people through your doors.
That means making room in your advertising budget for campaigns that may not produce the lowest cost per ticket sale but have the potential to generate additional visitation.
Generate ticket sales that might not have happened without your advertising.
