Zoo & Aquarium Advertising Agency Digital Marketing

An average zoo and aquarium business should spend between $772,500 and $1,545,000 a year on marketing and advertising expenses, or roughly 7.5% – 15% of annual gross revenue. The total amount may be higher if you are in a highly competitive industry, want accelerated growth, or your business generates high income during the holiday shopping season. 

Zoo Business owners are often heavily involved with the day-to-day operations of their business. Some of the most common challenges for a zoo business include: 

1. Conservation and Sustainability Challenges: Zoos and Aquariums are often committed to conservation efforts and the preservation of endangered species. However, they face challenges related to the high costs of breeding and maintaining endangered animals, habitat loss, and the need for sustainable practices both within their facilities and in the wild.
2. Animal Welfare and Ethical Considerations: Balancing the educational and entertainment aspects of their operations with a commitment to animal welfare and ethical considerations can be challenging. Zoos and Aquariums must continually address concerns about animal captivity, enclosure sizes, enrichment, and overall care standards.
3. Regulatory Compliance: Zoos and Aquariums are subject to various regulations related to animal welfare, safety, and conservation. Ensuring full compliance with these regulations can be complex and costly, requiring ongoing efforts and resources.
4. Visitor Engagement and Education: While the primary mission of Zoos and Aquariums is often conservation and education, engaging and educating visitors effectively can be challenging. Keeping visitors informed, interested, and emotionally connected to the animals and conservation causes requires continuous innovation in exhibit design and educational programs.
5. Financial Sustainability: Maintaining financial sustainability is a constant concern for Zoo & Aquarium companies. They must balance the costs of animal care, facility maintenance, and educational initiatives with revenue generation. Economic downturns, fluctuations in visitor attendance, and funding challenges can impact their financial stability.

Because zoo businesses are so focused on these challenges, it often becomes very efficient to bring in outside experts to help manage and ensure specific tasks are done correctly. Marketing and advertising are two of the most commonly outsourced areas businesses use because they are critical to their success. 

Zoo Lead Generation 

Many zoo companies are focused on generating leads. This can include building an internal email list for marketing purposes or generating high-value leads that can be quickly contacted to grow revenue. Lead generation typically involves creating a specific incentive, offer, or informational guide and then driving prospects to a landing page to collect their information. You can also manage the prospects’ information on a lead form hosted by the ad platform. Both options can be connected with your CRM or email marketing system so automatic calls, emails, and SMS messages are sent directly to your new prospect. If you want to help set up a lead generation for your zoo office, please contact the team at AdvertiseMint to discuss your options. 

Increasing Aquarium Sales 

The most popular of all advertising objectives for aquarium companies is sales. Increasing revenue is essential for every aquarium company to succeed. Many ad platforms have new tools that allow you to pass through values for each customer, which means they associate more weight towards the customers spending the most. This will enable them to find more customers like your top spenders. If you want to help grow your aquarium, please contact the team at AdvertiseMint to discuss your options. 

Zoo and Aquarium App Installs

Perfect for any zoo business that has a mobile app. The mobile app objective allows you to run ads for new app installs or for app events, which are specific events set up inside your app, such as account creation, payment method added, or transaction completion. It can also monitor usage inside the app or if users reach a particular area. This allows you to display highly targeted ads relevant to each user who sees your ads. The most common types of apps are games, utilities, or informational mobile apps. If you want to help grow sales or usage from your zoo] mobile app, please contact the team at AdvertiseMint to discuss your options.  

Zoo Local Traffic 

Many zoo companies have locations they are looking to drive local foot traffic to. This can be for a special event, promotion, grand opening, or daily usage. Local ads can be targeted down to a single zip code or a 1-mile radius around a spot on a map. This ensures you can reach the individuals close to your zoo location and get your ads in front of them. If you want to increase foot traffic for your zoo location,  please contact the team at AdvertiseMint to discuss your options. 

Zoo Brand Awareness 

As your zoo company grows, it will become essential that you stay ahead of your competition. This is generally done by Brand Awareness campaigns, which focus on reaching a vast number of targeted users consistently over a long period. This ensures that your zoo and aquarium company stays at the top of mind for your consumers, who continue to purchase your products and services. If you want to increase your Brand Awareness, please contact the team at AdvertiseMint to discuss your options. 

Content marketing is a marketing strategy that involves creating and sharing valuable and relevant content to attract and retain a specific audience. This can ultimately lead to increased profitability. Zoo and aquarium companies can utilize content marketing in numerous ways to reap its benefits:

1. Connecting through Captivating Stories: Content marketing offers Zoo and aquarium companies the opportunity to share captivating stories about their residents – the animals. By narrating their animal inhabitants’ daily lives, conservation efforts, and heartwarming stories, these institutions create a personal connection with visitors and potential visitors alike. These stories can resonate deeply, fostering a sense of attachment to the animals and a desire to support conservation efforts.
2. Educating and Inspiring: Zoo and aquarium companies are not just entertainment venues; they are centers of education and conservation. Through blog posts, videos, and social media content, these organizations educate the public about wildlife, habitat preservation, and the importance of biodiversity. This informative content empowers visitors to take positive action and make more informed choices to support conservation efforts.
3. Virtual Engagement: In an age where digital experiences are increasingly vital, content marketing allows Zoo and aquarium companies to engage visitors both within and beyond their physical facilities. Virtual tours, live-streamed animal encounters, and interactive web content enable these institutions to reach a global audience, fostering interest and loyalty.
4. Showcasing Conservation Initiatives: Zoo and aquarium companies play a significant role in conservation efforts. Content marketing helps them showcase their initiatives and partnerships with wildlife organizations. By highlighting successful conservation stories and encouraging donations or participation in conservation programs, they can mobilize their audience to contribute to these vital causes.
5. Leveraging Social Media: Social media platforms are natural extensions for Zoo and aquarium companies to connect with their audience. Through regular updates, engaging visuals, and educational content, they stay top-of-mind and attract new visitors and advocates. Social media allows these organizations to create a thriving online community passionate about wildlife conservation.

The world has changed for zoo, looking to increase their marketing and advertising efforts using AI. Various new tools enable automation and AI to be used in areas like sales, graphic design, video production, content creation, voiceovers, spokesperson, video creation, blog writing, and more. 

The current average cost per click (CPC) on Google ads for the term “Zoo and Aquarium” is $0.49 and is expected to increase over time. SEO generates these same clicks from targeted keywords for free. SEO has tremendous value as you can generate a high traffic volume for your critical business segments. However, SEO is a long-term investment. We recommend that zoo companies should be willing to plan for 6-12 months of SEO services before expecting an increase in results from these efforts. Please know that with SEO, the work is foundational, which means each task builds on top of each other. Each action adds more credibility to your website in the eyes of Google and other search engines. AdvertiseMint only believes in high-quality SEO, or long-game efforts, when building SEO. Most SEO tricks or gimmicks often work for a bit but later hurt your zoo company when updates are made to the search engines. The only way to move forward regarding SEO is by doing a lot of the right things and doing them faster than your competitors. Zoo and Aquarium SEO involves three main areas. The first is onsite optimization, which means the pages of your website contain content and are optimized for the search engines. The second step is to build more topical authority around your business to help Google understand that you are an expert in the zoo area. This is done by writing consistent blogs between 500-2000 words on core topics relating to your business. The final area is off-site linking, meaning other websites link back to your site and use specific anchor text. This can be achieved by public relations, outreach, and building relationships with other websites. When these three are done together, the result is that your Zoo SEO will improve, and your organic ranking will start to increase, thus sending more traffic to your website. If you are looking to improve your SEO, please contact AdvertiseMint. 

Yes. Every zoo should have email marketing and SMS marketing for their company. Email marketing has continually been proven to be one of the most profitable marketing channels for zoo companies. Email marketing allows you to reach your prospects and customers with specific messaging based on their location in your customer journey. These “flows” can be set up so that every person experiences the same informational process regardless of when they join. This ensures your company communicates 24/7 with the people most interested in your zoo and aquarium services and products. SMS messaging is also becoming highly profitable for breaking through all the noise and reaching your most valuable prospects via text. There are many rules regarding SMS marketing and how to add and remove people from your Zoo SMS marketing. If you want to learn more about optimizing your Email and SMS marketing for your zoo company, AdvertiseMint is here and ready to help. 

Yes, there are advertising restrictions and regulations that apply to Zoo and aquarium businesses, and these regulations can vary by region and country. These restrictions are typically in place to ensure responsible marketing practices, protect the welfare of animals, and provide accurate information to the public. Here are some common advertising restrictions and regulations that Zoo and aquarium businesses may encounter:

1. Animal Welfare Regulations: Zoos and Aquariums are often subject to animal welfare regulations. Advertisements should not misrepresent the conditions in which animals are kept and should not promote practices that could harm or stress the animals.
2. Educational Claims: If a Zoo or Aquarium advertises educational programs or conservation efforts, they should ensure that these claims are accurate and supported by factual information. Misleading educational claims can lead to consumer trust issues.
3. Conservation Messaging: If a Zoo or Aquarium promotes its involvement in wildlife conservation or preservation efforts, the claims should accurately reflect their contributions and initiatives. This helps maintain transparency and credibility.
4. Use of Imagery: The images used in advertising for Zoo & Aquarium businesses must accurately represent the animals and exhibits, avoiding deceptive or manipulated imagery..
5. Ethical Considerations: Some advertising regulations may relate to ethical considerations, such as whether certain animals are appropriate to use in advertisements. Advertisers should be mindful of cultural and ethical sensitivities.
6. Compliance with Local Regulations: Regulations related to advertising can vary by location. Zoo and aquarium businesses need to ensure that their advertisements comply with local laws and regulations specific to their region.
7. Use of Endorsements: If using endorsements or testimonials from individuals, including animal conservation or education experts, businesses should ensure that these endorsements are genuine and not misleading.

You can find examples of zoo competitor ads online in several places. Here are the instructions for how to view competitor ads running on Facebook, Google, and TikTok ad platforms. 

View Zoo Competitor Facebook Ads 

1. Go to Facebook Ad Library 
2. Select the country where the ad appeared. 
3. Select ad category (All, Politics, Housing, Employment, Credit).
4. Search by keyword or advertiser.
5. Review Facebook ads.

View Aquarium Competitor Google Ads 

1. Go to Google Ads Keyword Planner
2. Sign into Google Ads.
3. Click ‘Tools and settings’ in the top nav.
4. Click ‘Keyword Planner’ under the ‘Planning’ heading.
5. Click ‘Discover new keywords’
6. Type a relevant keyword into the box.
7. Click ‘Get Results’
8. Review Top of page bid and Google ads. 

View zoo and aquarium Competitor TikTok Ads 

1. Go go TikTok Ad Library 
2. Select ad target country 
3. Select ad type.
4. Select ad published date.
5. Enter in the desired keyword or advertiser.
6. Hit search. 
7. Review TikTok ads. 

For most companies, revenue is the KPI (key performance indicator) we monitor when determining whether marketing and advertising efforts are successful. The revenue can be used to determine the ROI or ROAS for your campaigns over a set time. ROI (Return on Investment) is calculated by subtracting the initial cost of the investment from the final value, then dividing this new number by the cost of the investment, and finally, multiplying it by 100. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is determined by dividing the total revenue by the actual ad spend for a specific time. 

In addition to revenue, other companies may use metrics such as CPL (Cost Per Lead), CPA (Cost per Acquisition), or CPI (Cost per Installs) for mobile apps. Monitoring these costs over time can help understand factors increasing or decreasing these numbers. They can be affected by various factors, such as landing page optimization, time of the year, and competitors. 

Many digital ad platforms offer a tool called the brand lift study for companies interested in branding and spending over $100,000 on advertising. This study is used to measure the impact on the perception of your brand when running ads. A brand lift study splits a specific audience into two groups. The first group is shown your ads over a particular time; the second group sees none of your ads. At the end of the study, users in both groups were shown a survey by the ad platform. The difference between the first and second groups is called the brand lift, or the increased consumer awareness of your brand due to running advertising.