How to Use Google Looker Studio for Campground Analytics

Data-Driven Decisions Matter for Campgrounds

Data doesn’t have to be intimidating. In our series on making data-driven decisions for your campground business, we’re peeling back the layers to help you make smarter choices without needing a tech degree. Today, we’re diving into one of our favorite free tools—Google Looker Studio for campgrounds—and why it’s a total game changer for the outdoor hospitality industry. If you haven’t read our first blog post this month about the importance of making data-driven decisions, go read that one first so you are all caught up, and then come back to us here.

What is Google Looker Studio?

Google Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is a free dashboard and reporting tool that turns your raw data—think website traffic, ad performance, booking sources—into beautiful, easy-to-understand visual reports.

At Martrek Digital, we use it every day to build client dashboards that show what’s working, what’s not, and where to shift your marketing focus. It’s like having your own campground command center.

Why It Matters for Outdoor Hospitality Businesses

Running a campground isn’t just about clean bathrooms and firewood bundles anymore (as you know) – its about smart marketing to attract guests and the guest experience. That is all driven by data. Here’s why Google Looker Studio for campgrounds fits perfectly into that puzzle. 

• Track Website Traffic – Know where your campers are coming from and what they’re clicking on to find you and/or explore on your website .
• Analyze Marketing Performance  – Spot underperforming channels and double down on winners.
• Simplify Reporting – No spreadsheets. Just clear, visual stories from your data.
• See Results – Better data = better decisions = more booked sites. 

Top Integrations for Campground Owners

Listen, we know you are strapped for time and resources. We don’t want you to have to open up 10 different websites with 10 different log-ins just to figure out how your digital marketing tactics and strategies are performing. We don’t want to do that for our business either! And, we know that it makes it really hard to understand the larger picture when that happens. Messy spreadsheets aggregating data together from different resources can be good, but also rely on manual accuracy and risk data input errors that sometimes can be costly. 

With Google Looker Studio for campground marketing analytics, you can plug everything into one spot. Some great resources that integrate into Looker Studio are: 

• Google Analytics 4 – Your site traffic and behavior
• Google Ads – Paid campaign performance
• Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram) – Ad performance and ROI
• Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Hubspot – Email opens, clicks, and list growth
• Booking engines (custom integrations or manual CSV uploads) – Reservation trends
• Google Search Console – Keyword rankings and SEO visibility 
• YouTube Analytics – Your organic and paid video promotions
• Semrush Domain – Your SEO score and keyword visibility 

How Martrek Digital Uses Looker Studio

One of the first things that Martrek Digital tackles for our clients is ensuring that your Google GA4 Analytics are set up correctly and that you receive a custom Looker Studio dashboard for all of your metric tracking. Here’s what that looks like in action: 

• A custom template that contains all of the key metrics that you need to be successful and to fully digest your data set and understand what it’s telling you. Things like full overview, sessions by channel, sessions by device, geographic breakdown are what we provide for all of our clients so you can understand who is coming to your site, from what top marketing channels and locations, on what types of devices, and from where in the country/world. 
• A comprehensive walkthrough of your dashboard with one of our team experts and each person on your team that needs access and understanding of the data set
• Personalized additions to your data set based on the unique needs of your business, and integrations that are appropriate and specific to your business model
• Consistent monitoring of your data and recommendations based on performance (and underperformance) of your strategy

What are some examples of how we might use this dashboard to inform your campaign strategy and/or make improvements to your site? 

• If your website metrics show that 70% or more of your users are coming from mobile devices, we would ensure that all pages are optimized for mobile and that any improvements that need to be made to improve the experience on a mobile device are made. When we create your site for you (from scratch) we design for mobile first. 
• If we see that all of your traffic is coming from within a 300 miles radius of your campground location, we would ensure that when running paid ad campaigns, we only serve ads to people within that 300 mile radius, as we know that is where the majority of your customers are coming from. Similarly, we would make sure that your Google Business Listing is optimized for local search as a priority, as we know most of your campground customers are coming from your broader local area. 
• If certain pages on your site are seeing the majority of your website traffic (other than your homepage), we might investigate that page and try to understand how people are using it. And, if it is a page like a reservation information page or contact us page, we would determine if there needs to be additional improvements, buttons, calls to action on this page to continue to serve your customers and optimize experience. 

Getting Started: How to Set Up Google Looker Studio for Your Campground

If you are ready to take the plunge and set up Google Looker Studio for your campground, give us a call! If you are ready to try it on your own first, you don’t need to be a data wizard to get started on a basic report. The great thing about Looker Studio is that they do provide some pretty easy to use prebuilt templates that you can select from that will give you the entry level things you need to begin using data to your advantage. 

Here is a simple starter guide: 

1. Make sure your GA4 property is set up. This is a critical step and we have found that many campgrounds or RV park owners either have never had this set up on their site, or they didn’t migrate over from Google Analytics Universal version in 2023 when they pushed everyone over the GA4 and that means the data was lost. Again, if you need help, give us a shout! 
2. Create a Looker Studio account (logging in to your Google Account)
3. Connect your GA4 property to Looker Studio (it will ask for access to your data, which is why you will need to make sure it is set up/exists first before you start). 
4. Decide what data you want to see (from our list above) and then knowing that, choose one of their pre-built templates from their template set up. 
5. Not needed, but nice to have, you can customize your visuals with your logo, colors, or branding. 
6. Add filters – segment your data by location, date, device, and more
7. Schedule report emails – you can have the data sent to you weekly or monthly, so you don’t have to remember to go in and check it all the time. This is a great way to ensure that your regular use of data is consistent, and that you remember to check! 

Outcomes: Why This Translates to Bookings

Using Looker Studio for campground owners means you’re not guessing anymore. You are making confident, informed decisions on your business strategy. And, that leads to: 

• A better user experience on your site for your campers (based on how your guests navigate your site)
• Better marketing decisions (shift dollars and staff time to what is actually working)
• Better operational efficiency (know when and where your site’s most active, and where there might be gaps that need to be filled or fixed)
• More booked campsites from smarter data-based moves

Want Help Setting Your Looker Studio Up?

At Martrek Digital, we don’t just build websites – we build smart marketing ecosystems for the outdoor hospitality industry exclusively. If you want a custom dashboard like the ones we’ve created for our clients, let’s chat. We’ll even build into your onboarding when you sign up for a marketing package with us.