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3 Things to Remember When Measuring Your Marketing’s Impact

Is your destination under the microscope? Pressure to show campaign value? Read these 3 highlights your stakeholders want to see when proving your marketing strategies are effective.


Written By - Hannah Avol

February 2025

Datafy’s brilliant VP of Product Kelly Smith took the stage last month at the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Marketing Outlook Forum to talk about measuring marketing’s impact on destination performance. The session included some great insights on different ways that DMOs can level up their measurement efforts. 

Missed it? No worries--we pulled out some key takeaways for you:

Financial Stewardship Matters

Showing real ROI means more than just ad clicks. It’s so much more powerful to be able to say “We generated $30 for the local economy with every $1 that tourists spent.”

Get Beyond the Basics when Measuring Your Influence on Visitor Behavior

Imagine being able to report: “8,000 people visited downtown area businesses after seeing our campaign to drive visitors to downtown during shoulder season; They spent an average of $237 per visitor, and total visitation to the area increased  by 18% year-over-year." (Way more compelling than a CTR, right?)

Industry Leadership Looks Different for Everyone

There are so many ways for destinations to lead within their community. Whether it’s pioneering new AI strategies, strengthening community partnerships, or building custom reporting models, the key is evolving basic KPIs into a holistic measurement approach to tell a full story.

Do these takeaways have your wheels spinning and make you want to dive deeper into your metrics? Hopefully, that’s a big YES! And if so, we suggest starting with something simple: placing a pixel on your destination’s website. It’s the perfect way to move beyond basic clicks and impressions, giving you a more detailed picture of the visitors arriving– accessing insights like: 

  • Where are your website visitors actually coming from?

  • What are your top visitation markets?

  • Which marketing channels are driving the most in-market visitors?

  • Are people who visit your website actually showing up in your destination?

And since you’ve made it this far, you’re in for a treat: a FREE look into your visitor data with Datafy. We’re currently offering DMOs the opportunity to place a pixel on their website at no cost, helping to better understand your audience, optimize your campaigns, and make smarter decisions. By using the power of your website and our innovative ad-tech capabilities, DMOs can leverage their own metrics to build smart strategies and truly grasp the impact that your visitors have on your destination.

You can head here to get started or reach out for questions. 

Authors

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Hannah Avol
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