Google Ads Starter Plan

Prerequisite: conversion tracking must be live and verified first. See conversion-tracking-spec.

Budget

Why nationwide, not local: almost nobody who books a Yellowstone snowmobile tour lives in Wyoming. They're planning from Texas, California, Florida and Illinois weeks or months ahead. Targeting "near Jackson" would be a serious mistake. Use "presence or interest" targeting so people researching the trip from home are included.

Bid adjustments to layer on: +20% for people already in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho (they're closer to booking); +15% mobile; +25% for the 5 p.m.–10 p.m. window, which is when trip planning actually happens.

Season timing: start ads November 1, not December 1. Multi-day and holiday-week bookings are made 4–8 weeks out. If you wait until the season starts you'll miss the highest-value bookings entirely.

Campaign 1 — High Intent (60% of budget)

Search, exact and phrase match.

Keywords:

[yellowstone snowmobile tours]
[yellowstone snowmobile tour]
[snowmobile tours yellowstone]
[snowmobile tour jackson hole]
[jackson hole snowmobile tours]
[old faithful snowmobile tour]
[yellowstone winter snowmobile tour]
[guided snowmobile tour yellowstone]
"yellowstone snowmobile tour"
"snowmobile tours in yellowstone"
"yellowstone winter tours"
"snowmobiling in yellowstone"
"yellowstone snowmobile tour from jackson"

Ad group split: run one ad group per tour so the ad and landing page match the query. Old Faithful, Grand Canyon, Multi-Day, General. Send each to its own tour page, not the homepage.

Responsive Search Ad — headlines (Google mixes and matches; give it 12–15):

Yellowstone Snowmobile Tours
Authorized NPS Concessioner
Owner-Led. Small Groups.
Book Direct — No Middleman
Full-Day Old Faithful Tour
All Gear & Hotel Pickup Included
Talk To The Owner Directly
25 Years Guiding Yellowstone
No Experience Necessary
Ski-Doo 4-Stroke Sleds
From $XXX Per Snowmobile
Wilderness First Responder Guides
Only 3 Guides. Real Attention.
Reserve Your Winter Trip

Descriptions (give it 4):

Small-group guided snowmobile tours of Yellowstone from Jackson Hole. Insulated
gear, boots, helmet and hotel pickup all included. Call the owner directly.

Ride 90 miles to Old Faithful past frozen waterfalls and steaming geyser basins.
Breakfast and lunch included. Most guests are first-time riders.

An authorized concessioner of the National Park Service — you book direct with
the operator, not a call center. Three guides, including the owner.

Yellowstone in winter is the park at its most pristine. Late-model Ski-Doo
4-strokes, certified guides, and groups small enough to actually enjoy it.

Campaign 2 — Long Tail (25% of budget)

Cheaper clicks, better-qualified traffic, and it matches your positioning better than the head terms do.

"yellowstone snowmobile tour with kids"
"family snowmobile tour yellowstone"
"private yellowstone snowmobile tour"
"first time snowmobiling yellowstone"
"3 day yellowstone snowmobile tour"
"overnight snowmobile tour yellowstone"
"multi day yellowstone winter tour"
"yellowstone south entrance snowmobile"
"snowmobile tour from flagg ranch"
"best yellowstone snowmobile tour"
"small group yellowstone winter tour"
"yellowstone snowmobile tour cost"
"what to wear snowmobiling yellowstone"
"do you need a guide to snowmobile in yellowstone"
"yellowstone winter tour for beginners"
"grand canyon of the yellowstone snowmobile"

Point the family and first-timer keywords at the family landing page (see icp-landing-pages), not the generic tours page. That's the single highest-leverage thing you can do with this campaign.

The last three are informational rather than transactional — bid low, and send them to the corresponding article once it exists. They're cheap and they seed remarketing audiences.

Campaign 3 — Brand & Competitor Defense (15% of budget)

Cheap and protective. Someone hears about you from a hotel front desk, googles your name, and you want to own that result.

Brand:

[yellowstone snowmobile tours]
[snowmobileynp]
[kyle james yellowstone snowmobile]
"yellowstone snowmobile tours jackson"

Competitor (phrase match, low bids, monitor closely):

"scenic safaris snowmobile"
"brushbuck snowmobile tour"
"yellowstone vacations snowmobile"
"three bear snowmobile"

Competitor bidding is legal and normal. You cannot use their trademarks in ad text — write ads about what makes you different instead. "Book Direct With The Concessioner" is a legitimate and effective angle here, since at least one competitor is openly a reseller booking under someone else's permit.

Keep this campaign small. If cost per lead runs high after a month, cut the competitor half and keep brand only.

Negative keywords — add before launch

These will save you real money. A large fraction of "snowmobile" search volume is people buying machines, not tours.

-rental
-rentals
-rent
-buy
-sale
-"for sale"
-used
-price of snowmobile
-parts
-repair
-dealer
-dealership
-ski-doo dealer
-polaris
-arctic cat
-jobs
-job
-hiring
-career
-salary
-employment
-free
-cheap
-discount
-coupon
-map
-maps
-weather
-forecast
-road closures
-webcam
-trail conditions
-permit lottery
-non-commercially guided
-noncommercially guided
-diy
-own snowmobile
-summer
-atv
-utv
-side by side
-snowshoe
-skiing
-ski resort
-dog sled
-west yellowstone rental

Review the search terms report weekly for the first month. This is the highest-value 15 minutes in the whole account. You will find waste you didn't anticipate. Add negatives every week.

Extensions to configure

• Call extension: 307-690-5501 (standardized site-wide). Enable Google forwarding numbers for call tracking.
• Location extension: once Google Business Profile is verified.
• Sitelinks: Old Faithful Tour · Grand Canyon Tour · 3-Day Expedition · What to Wear · FAQ · About Our Guides
• Callouts: Authorized NPS Concessioner · Owner-Led Tours · All Gear Included · Hotel Pickup Included · Small Groups · Certified Guides · No Experience Needed
• Structured snippets: header "Types," values: Full-Day Tours, Multi-Day Expeditions, Private Tours, Custom Tours
• Price extension: as soon as you publish pricing. Price extensions raise click-through and pre-qualify clicks, which lowers your effective cost per lead.
• Image extensions: your best three wildlife and trail shots.

What NOT to do in year one

• Performance Max. It needs 30+ conversions of history to work. Run it with no data and it will spend your budget on display placements that never convert. Revisit in year two.
• Display Network. Terrible for high-consideration purchases. Skip.
• Broad match. Not until you have conversion data and a mature negative list. Broad match with no history will match you to "snowmobile trailer rental" all day.
• Automated bidding on day one. Start with Maximize Clicks and a cap. Move to Maximize Conversions at 30 conversions. Move to Target CPA at 50.
• Changing things daily. Give changes 7–14 days. Constant fiddling resets the learning phase and you learn nothing.

Remarketing — add in month two

Cheap, and it works well in a category where people research for weeks before booking.

Audiences:

• Visited a tour page but didn't submit the form → 30-day window
• Started the form but abandoned → 14 days, bid aggressively
• Submitted the form but didn't book → this is an email list job, not an ads job
• Past guests → upload to Customer Match for next season and referral campaigns

Run remarketing as RLSA (bid adjustments on your existing search campaigns) before running it as a standalone display campaign.

Realistic first-season expectations

If a booking averages $1,000+, that's a solid return. Month one will look worse than these numbers — the account is learning and so are you. Judge it at 60 days, not 14.