Why Seasonal Google Ads Are a Game-Changer for RV Park Bookings
For RV parks, the difference between a fully booked holiday season and a patchy calendar often comes down to timing. Travelers who book for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s don’t wait until the last minute—they plan early.
In fact, studies show that 34% of shoppers begin their holiday planning in July (WordStream). Similarly, 23% of RV campers book three months or more in advance for holiday stays. If your park isn’t showing up in their search results when they start researching, you’re likely losing those reservations to competitors or Online Travel Agencies (OTAs).
Why let OTAs claim a portion of your revenue? Direct bookings through your own site mean you save on commission fees. Those savings are money you can reinvest into improving your park, expanding amenities, or running smarter ad campaigns.
By proactively running seasonal Google Ads, RV park owners can:
- Fill peak-season spots earlier, reducing stress about last-minute vacancies.
- Attract new guests who might not have discovered the park otherwise.
- Smooth demand during shoulder seasons, ensuring revenue doesn’t dip dramatically outside of holidays.
Plan ahead to build a reliable revenue pipeline.
The Foundation: Pre-Campaign Essentials for Success
Before you spend a single dollar on ads, your foundation must be solid. Google Ads rewards relevance, speed, and user experience, which directly impacts your Quality Score (and cost per click).
1. Website Readiness
- Ensure your site is mobile-friendly. Over 60% of RV travelers browse and book from mobile devices.
- Make booking seamless: one or two clicks from landing to checkout. Long forms and clunky navigation kill conversions.
2. Know Your Audience Personas
Different types of RVers respond to different messaging. Three common personas:
- Family Explorers – value kid-friendly amenities, safety, and holiday events.
- Seasonal Snowbirds – seek long-term, affordable stays in warmer climates.
- Remote Roamers – care about strong Wi-Fi, quiet sites, and workspace-friendly setups.
Tailor ad messaging and landing pages to resonate with each persona.
3. Conversion Tracking Setup
Many smaller parks face a challenge: low conversion volumes. A park may only need 40–50 total bookings in a year to be fully sold out in peak months. That volume is too small for Google’s automated bidding algorithms to optimize effectively.
You need to track micro-conversions alongside bookings. Examples:
- Click-to-Call
- Get Directions
- Contact Form Submissions
Each interaction provides valuable signals for campaign optimization, even if the final booking occurs offline.
Core Strategies for Capturing Early Holiday & Peak-Season Demand
Build a Seasonal Keyword Strategy
Think like your customers. Travelers don’t just search “RV park near me.” They look for holiday-specific experiences, using phrases such as “Thanksgiving RV camping Texas”, “Christmas RV park near Nashville”, or “RV sites for Winter Festival in Denver.” Tools like Google Keyword Planner can uncover seasonal search volumes and help you spot local variations you may not have considered.
Hyper-Local and Event-Based Targeting
One of the most overlooked opportunities for RV parks is event-driven demand. If your park is near a holiday market, concert, or local festival, you can create campaigns that directly target event-goers. Instead of bidding on broad terms like “holiday camping”, run ads that appear when someone searches “RV sites near [Local Christmas Festival].” Attendees often scramble for nearby accommodation, and positioning your park as a convenient option captures that high-intent traffic before hotels and OTAs grab them.
Ad Copy That Creates Urgency
Generic copy like “RV sites available” doesn’t cut it. Instead, build urgency into your message: “Book Your Holiday Site by Oct 31 & Save 15%!” or “Limited Full Hook-Up Spots Left for Christmas Week.” A countdown tone paired with specific amenities—heated restrooms, festive light displays, proximity to ski slopes—turns browsers into bookers.
High-Converting Seasonal Landing Pages
Community forums often reveal a pain point: Google flagging landing pages as “below average.” This hurts ad performance and increases costs. The fix is dedicated seasonal landing pages that mirror the ad promise. A “Christmas Camping Specials” page should feature festive imagery, highlight relevant amenities, and place a bright “Book Now” button front and center. According to RV Park Marketing Studio, aligning ad copy with landing page content directly improves Quality Score, which lowers your CPC and boosts conversion rates.
Advanced Tactics to Maximize Your Seasonal Ad Budget
Smart Bidding for Low-Volume Parks
Smaller RV parks can’t always rely on advanced strategies like Target CPA or ROAS due to limited data. Start with:
- Enhanced CPC (ECPC): Allows manual bidding with automated adjustments.
- Maximize Clicks: Useful for gathering traffic data before shifting to conversion-focused strategies.
This staged approach builds data without wasting spend.
Use Google’s AI Forecasting Tools
Google’s Performance Planner and demand forecasts can project traffic spikes. We recommend adjusting budgets and ROAS targets 4–6 weeks before peak season.
This proactive budget shift ensures you’re visible when booking intent is highest.
Retargeting Campaigns
Most visitors don’t book on their first site visit. With remarketing, you can:
- Show reminder ads to those who visited your holiday landing page.
- Reinforce urgency with countdowns or limited availability messaging.
- Offer a small incentive (e.g., “Book by Friday and get free firewood”).
Retargeting keeps your park top of mind until the customer books.
Beyond the Holidays: Using Google Ads for Shoulder and Off-Seasons
Holiday bookings bring revenue, but real stability comes from year-round occupancy.
Campaign Ideas by Audience
- Seasonal Snowbirds – Ads offering long-term stay discounts or winter packages.
- Remote Roamers – Highlight fast Wi-Fi, quiet surroundings, and extended-stay amenities.
Off-Peak Ad Copy Examples
- “Escape the Crowds: Peaceful Fall RV Stays”
- “Work from Your RV: High-Speed Internet + Scenic Views”
- “Stay Longer, Save More—Weekly Rates Available”
By positioning your park as more than just a holiday stop, you create steady demand even outside traditional peaks.
Measuring Success: Tracking KPIs That Actually Matter
Clicks alone don’t matter that much, but bookings do. For RV parks, the most relevant KPIs go beyond impressions and CTR.
The first and most crucial is Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), which tells you exactly how much revenue you’re generating for every dollar spent on ads. Alongside this, monitor Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) to see what you’re paying per direct booking, and Direct Booking Rate to measure how much traffic you’re capturing away from OTAs. Conversion rate still matters, but in context—it’s not just about the percentage, but whether the conversions are high-value stays.
Google Analytics makes it possible to connect the dots between campaigns, ad groups, and actual revenue. Reviewing this data weekly allows you to shift budget toward what’s working. Over time, you’ll build a playbook of seasonal campaigns that predictably generate results year after year.
Conclusion: Book Your Park Solid by Planning Ahead
Seasonal Google Ads are a roadmap to a more predictable, profitable calendar.
The key takeaways for RV park owners and managers: start campaigns early, use hyper-local event targeting, create landing pages that match ad promises, choose bidding strategies suited to your park’s scale, and track KPIs that matter to profitability. Tools like Keyword Planner, Performance Planner, and demographic insights from RVIA make these strategies not just possible, but highly effective, even on modest budgets.
By combining foresight with the right execution, even smaller RV parks can compete with OTAs and larger resorts. The result is a calendar filled months in advance, steadier occupancy across the year, and more control over your bottom line.
