In the debut session of the Attractions Toolkit webinar series, Brett Sheridan, Field General Manager at ROLLER, sat down with Jeroen Sijl, Director and Data Scientist at Smart Segments, to dig into the metrics that truly move the needle for attraction venues. Across acquisition, operations, and retention, the two unpacked how to make sense of your data and, more importantly, how to act on it.
Here are the key insights, told through direct quotes and real-world examples from venues using Smart Segments and the ROLLER platform.
🎥 Missed the live session? You can catch the full recording below!
Watch the full webinar here
Acquisition: Focus on conversion
Acquisition begins the moment a potential guest first encounters your brand. Whether that’s through search, social, or email, understanding how to measure performance is crucial. Jeroen kicked things off by identifying one of the most important metrics to track: “Your website is very important, and one key metric that you always want to be looking at is your conversion rate.”
He illustrated this with a simple analogy: “If you compare it with running a restaurant. How many customers walk by your restaurant? How many of those end up buying coffee or some food? So, if 100 people walk by a restaurant and 10 of those buy coffee, then your conversion rate is 10%.”
How to track conversions and combat drop off
Using Google Analytics, venues can drill into conversion by device, channel, and funnel stage. Jeroen recommended using funnel analysis to track drop-offs and uncover opportunities to improve: “If you see people dropping off after adding something to cart, you can do an abandoned cart email, which you can do with most email marketing software.”
Acquisition: Don’t forget ROI
Beyond conversion rates, measuring your marketing spend effectiveness is key. “Marketing ROI is basically how much revenue you are making, and how much you are putting into your marketing,” Jeroen explained.
To measure this objectively, he advised using Google Analytics rather than relying solely on ad platform dashboards: “If you compare the revenue generated by these channels with the cost you put in, you have an idea on the return on investment.”
Urban Planet, one of Smart Segments’ clients, benefited from this data setup by creating daily dashboards: “Every day, the stakeholders in the business get an email with the report in PDF and can quickly check if anything requires attention.”
Brett added that having real-time access to performance data allowed his team to respond quickly to changes and make strategic calls: “That’s the beauty about this, making sure it’s effective data, so you can make timely decisions on it.”
Operations: Building a unified view of your venue
Once guests are in the door, understanding operational efficiency is essential—especially for multi-revenue stream venues like Luna Park, which Brett formerly managed.
“Luna Park had around 800 staff on the books. We had high asset utilization. We had revenue streams all over the place. Retail, gift shop, food and beverage, and ice cream outlets. If you're running an operation, you want to try and get a holistic picture. It's not really about choosing one or two metrics to really look at. You want to get a holistic picture,” said Brett.
Jeroen emphasized the need for a centralized dashboard: “You want to get all the data that matters for your operations into one system, into one dashboard.”
Jeroen explained that by pulling in sales, labor, and cost data from different systems, venues can track key metrics like revenue, cost, profit margin, spend per guest, and guest experience scores. He also stressed that optimizing cost alone isn’t the goal: “It’s not all about optimizing cost. It’s about optimizing all those metrics together.”
Balancing your metrics with experiences
Brett shared that one of his favorite metrics is spend per guest: “You can drill down to a product level, channel level, department level… then measure that individual spend and what it’s contributing.”
However, Brett cautioned against chasing revenue in isolation and encourages operators to balance their approach to data: “You can’t view just revenue because you might see your guest experience drop because of it.”
To monitor guest satisfaction, he pointed to ROLLER’s integrated guest surveys while also highlighting the need to monitor public forums regularly: “On Google, you might want to get on there almost daily because the reviews are in a public domain.”
Retention: Segmenting for loyalty and growth
It’s no surprise that acquiring new customers is more expensive than retaining existing ones. That’s why Brett and Jeroen closed the session with a deep dive into retention metrics and segmentation strategies.
Jeroen started a powerful framework on how to capitalize on loyalty: “Recency, frequency, and monetary value of your customers… they’re levers you can pull.”
Using this data, venues can categorize guests into actionable groups, including your brand champions and those at risk of not returning. “Reach out differently to your champions as you want to reach out to your at-risk,” said Jeroen.
This strategy becomes especially powerful when automated through CRM platforms: “When they become a champion, you send them an email like, ‘Hey, thank you for visiting so often, here’s a free coffee.’”
Brett emphasized the strategic value of segment-based targeting: “Your intent is to move those customers from one segment to another, hopefully culminating in a membership, season pass or repeat visits.”
Looking ahead: The future of venue analytics
In closing, Brett asked Jeroen what lies ahead for data in the attractions space. His answer? Voice-powered, AI-driven insights. “In the future, you’ll just speak to your computer and ask, ‘Can you give me a conversion rate for the past year?’ and it will show you on the screen straight away,” said Jeroen.
Want more from your data?
The webinar wrapped with a reminder to download ROLLER’s free analytics ebook for even more dashboards, definitions, and practical tips. As Brett put it, “Hopefully, people see the value in the gold nuggets we’ve delivered today… and you’ll get even more from the ebook.”
