Are your ticket sales coming from word of mouth or digital ads?
For the last few weeks, we’ve been diving deep into the data from the 2026 Haunt Industry Report. We’ve already covered the shift in the industry’s biggest challenges (where finding new customers and promoting attractions have officially dethroned staffing as the top headaches), and we’ve looked at the rise of digital waivers and ticket pricing trends.
This week, we are looking directly at how haunts are tackling that number one challenge: Marketing.
We asked haunters across the country how they promote their attractions and exactly how much they plan to spend doing it. The results reveal a massive divide in the industry, a heavy reliance on free channels, and a few glaring missed opportunities where your haunt could easily stand out.
The Tale of Two Budgets: Mean vs. Median
When we asked haunt owners how much they plan to spend on marketing and advertising this year, the responses gave us two drastically different numbers:
- Average (Mean) Response: $11,417.01
- Average (Median) Response: $2,000
That $9,417.01 gap is one of the most telling statistics in the entire report. It shows that our industry has a heavy top end. A small percentage of mega-haunts and scream-park-level attractions are spending tens of thousands of dollars on massive ad buys, pulling the average significantly higher.
But the median tells the true story of the typical haunt operator. Half of the haunted attractions in the country are operating on a marketing budget of $2,000 or less for the entire season. If you feel like you are constantly bootstrapping your promotions and stretching every single dollar to get eyes on your event, you are right in the middle of the pack.
Look, I know that $2k might not look like enough budget to really make much of an impact. But if your haunt is only open for six weeks (or less), you might only be running ads for a month total. (Or hey, maybe you’re just doing a few boosted posts!) Haunters are clearly doing what they can with the funds they have available.
The Reign of “Free” Marketing
With a median budget of just $2,000, it is no surprise that haunts are leaning heavily into channels that require sweat equity rather than cash.
- Word of Mouth: 86.2%
- Organic Social Media: 69.0%
Word of mouth is undeniably the lifeblood of the haunt industry. However, relying on it passively is a mistake. To truly leverage that 86.2%, you need a strong system for nurturing referrals. Instead of just hoping guests tell their friends, you can use automated SMS messaging workflows or integrations via Zapier to trigger a text message exactly 15 minutes after a guest’s ticket is scanned. Hit them up for a review or prompt them to share a referral link while their adrenaline is still pumping.
Paid Channels: Digital Dominates
When haunters do open their wallets, they want trackable results.
- Digital Advertising: 73.6%
- Outdoor Advertising: 50.6%
- Print Ads: 41.4%
- Podcasts or Radio: 31.0%
Digital advertising is the clear winner for paid spend. The ability to precisely target horror fans with Meta Ads or capture high-intent searches with Google Ads offers a much safer return on investment for a tight $2,000 budget than hoping the right demographic drives past a billboard or picks up a local magazine.
The Missed Opportunities
We also found a few promotional strategies that are shockingly underutilized across the board:
- Partnerships: 29.9%
- Giveaways & Contests: 27.6%
- Guerrilla Marketing: 11.5%
- Other: 8.0%
For an industry overflowing with talented actors, makeup artists, and set designers, the fact that only 11.5% of haunts are using guerrilla marketing (which could include influencer marketing) is the biggest surprise on the list. You are uniquely equipped to pull off incredible localized stunts. Imagine sending a street team into a busy downtown area on a Friday night (…perhaps tapping into visually striking pop-culture aesthetics like The Last of Us or Stranger Things…) to hand out flyers and create a viral, in-character moment.
Similarly, building Partnerships (29.9%) with local escape rooms, breweries, or restaurants costs nothing but a handshake, yet a huge majority of haunts are leaving this cross-promotional traffic on the table.
Stretch Your Budget with HauntPay
When your marketing budget is tight, you need ticketing software that works just as hard as you do to find new customers. HauntPay includes built-in marketing tools designed specifically to help haunted attractions reach more fans and sell more tickets. From optimized checkout flows that maximize your conversions to dynamic pricing that gamifies your sales, we make sure every dollar of your marketing budget counts.
Schedule a demo today to see how HauntPay can help you pack your queue line this season.
