Escape Room Marketing Case Study: 500–600 Monthly Bookings | Time Heist
Time Heist already had a strong product. What it needed was a marketing system capable of turning that experience into predictable bookings.
The Budapest escape room was not starting from zero. The concept worked, customers enjoyed the experience and the owners were continuously improving the rooms based on guest feedback.
The problem was on the marketing side.
Previous efforts had been fragmented across different partners, platforms and ideas. Campaigns could bring customers in, but there was no reliable system behind them that consistently supported growth.
When HelloProVision joined the project in October 2025, our goal was not simply to manage ads. We wanted to build an escape room marketing system that connected strategy, seasonality, channel roles and business performance.
The objective was simple: move marketing from unpredictable activity to a measurable growth engine.
A Strong Entertainment Product Ready for the Next Stage of Growth
Time Heist is a Budapest escape room business that has continuously developed its customer experience since opening in 2022.
The business began with five rooms in Budapest’s 9th district. By the time of our work together, seven rooms were operating and the team was already developing the concept for an eighth.
The owners actively listened to customer feedback and used it to improve the experiences they offered.
In other words, the product itself was not the problem.
The real question was how to support a strong customer experience with marketing that was equally structured, proactive and scalable.
The Marketing Was Active, but the System Behind It Wasn’t
Time Heist had already worked with multiple agencies and freelancers before we entered the project.
The issue was not a lack of marketing activity. It was the lack of a connected strategy behind it.
Too Many Disconnected Marketing Efforts
Different partners had worked on the account, but the strategic direction and execution never fully came together into a consistent system.
A Complex Existing Website and Booking System
Several developers had already worked on the underlying website and booking infrastructure. We had to generate stronger business results without pretending we were starting with a perfect technical setup.
The Client Was Carrying Too Much of the Strategy
The owners did not want another partner waiting for instructions. They expected proactive recommendations and a clear professional direction.
Bookings Were Too Unpredictable
Roughly 300 monthly bookings represented the break-even threshold. Daily volume was around 10–15 bookings, but even that level was not guaranteed.
Build a Marketing System That Could Support Predictable Growth
Our goal was to move Time Heist away from reactive marketing and toward a model that could be planned, measured and improved continuously.
The system needed to do several things at the same time:
- bring new customers into the business,
- coordinate multiple advertising channels,
- capitalize on seasonal demand,
- increase gift voucher sales,
- raise monthly booking volume,
- support revenue growth,
- and remove the strategic burden from the client.
This meant looking beyond individual campaigns and focusing on how the entire acquisition system worked together.
Bringing Clear Strategic Direction to the Marketing
The first change was not a new ad. It was a change in how marketing decisions were made.
The owners were clear about what they expected from a partner: they did not want to tell an agency what button to press next.
Our role was therefore broader than campaign management.
We reorganized the priorities behind the marketing activity and introduced a clearer structure around budget allocation, seasonality, campaign planning and continuous testing.
Marketing moved from a collection of individual actions to a system guided by business goals and proactive decision-making.
Building a Multi-Channel Campaign System
We concentrated the paid media strategy around three primary platforms: Google Ads, Meta and TikTok.
Each platform served a different role.
Different channels for different customer behaviors
Google could capture people already searching with clear intent. Meta could reach audiences during discovery and promotional periods. TikTok gave the brand access to short-form, entertainment-driven discovery.
Instead of evaluating these channels as isolated advertising accounts, we treated them as parts of the same acquisition system.
Budget and campaign emphasis could then shift according to demand, seasonality and business priorities.
The question was never simply which platform produced the most clicks. It was which combination of channels could create the strongest commercial outcome.
Turning Seasonal Demand Into a Major Growth Opportunity
Some of the strongest opportunities in entertainment marketing happen when customers already have a reason to buy.
We therefore placed particular emphasis on seasonal periods rather than treating every week of the year as identical.
Black Week and the holiday gift voucher campaign
November’s Black Week campaign and the December holiday voucher campaign became two of the strongest parts of the project.
Campaign timing, messaging and budget allocation were adjusted around these high-intent periods.
The result was a significantly stronger promotional performance than Time Heist had experienced during comparable periods previously, according to the client.
More importantly, the campaigns demonstrated why seasonality should be planned into the marketing system instead of handled as a last-minute promotion.
Optimizing for Bookings and Revenue — Not Vanity Metrics
Clicks, impressions and engagement can help diagnose campaigns, but they were never the final objective.
For Time Heist, the real question was much simpler:
Are more people booking rooms?
This changed how campaign performance was evaluated.
We focused optimization around actual booking volume, promotional performance and the commercial impact of the advertising rather than producing reports filled with impressive-looking platform metrics.
That business-first perspective helped keep the marketing aligned with what mattered most to the owners: fuller rooms and stronger revenue.
Moving From the Break-Even Zone to 500–600 Monthly Bookings
One of the most important changes was not simply growth. It was predictability.
Before the project, approximately 300 monthly bookings represented the level required for the business to cover its costs.
That made fluctuations in booking volume a serious operational concern.
During our work together, monthly booking volume moved into a much stronger range of approximately 500–600 bookings.
Then, in February, Time Heist reached a new record:
The highest monthly booking volume reported during the project.
For the business, this represented more than a stronger marketing metric. It created a substantially more comfortable operating position compared with continuously hovering near the break-even threshold.
Booking Growth Was Reflected in Revenue
Higher booking volume matters most when it produces a meaningful commercial result.
According to Time Heist’s feedback, revenue increased by approximately 30–40% after we took over the marketing in October.
That was an important validation of the strategy.
The objective was never to create more activity around the brand for its own sake. The goal was to use performance marketing as a direct business growth tool.
More bookings, stronger promotional periods and improved revenue showed that the marketing system was contributing to the business where it mattered most.
Becoming a Proactive Marketing Partner
One of the client’s biggest frustrations before working with us was having to carry too much of the strategic responsibility themselves.
They did not want to pay an external partner and then still have to invent every campaign, promotion and next step.
What changed in practice
- The owners no longer had to carry the full strategic burden.
- They did not need to arrive with finished marketing solutions.
- Campaign planning became more proactive.
- The advertising channels were managed within a shared strategy.
- Promotional opportunities were planned rather than improvised.
That change in working relationship was important because marketing became something the business could rely on instead of another task the owners had to manage themselves.
Why This Was More Than Ad Management
On paper, the service mix sounds straightforward: Google Ads, Meta Ads and TikTok campaigns.
In practice, the real value came from connecting them around one commercial objective.
A system built around bookings
We brought structure to previously fragmented marketing, coordinated channel roles, planned around seasonal opportunities and optimized performance around bookings and revenue.
That is the difference between simply running ads and using performance marketing as a business growth system.
From Unpredictable Marketing to a Stronger Booking Engine
The clearest outcome of the project was that marketing became a more predictable and commercially meaningful part of the Time Heist business.
Instead of measuring success through advertising activity alone, we could point to concrete business milestones.
Verified project outcomes
Booking volume moved into a substantially stronger monthly range.
Time Heist reached its reported booking record in February.
Revenue growth reported by the client following the October 2025 marketing transition.
Google Ads, Meta and TikTok managed as one coordinated acquisition system.
A Great Experience Still Needs a Marketing System Behind It
The Time Heist project demonstrates an important point: having a strong service or entertainment experience does not automatically create predictable growth.
If marketing remains fragmented, campaigns are constantly improvised or the business owner has to decide every next step, a large part of the opportunity can still be lost.
By connecting paid media, seasonality, strategic planning and commercial measurement, we helped Time Heist move toward a more stable and scalable acquisition model.
The result was not simply more advertising
It was a stronger marketing system supporting more bookings, higher reported revenue and better use of high-demand promotional periods.
Performance marketing works best when advertising is treated as a business growth tool — not a collection of clicks, campaigns and reports.
Want More Than Just Traffic From Your Marketing?
If your business already has a strong product or service but your marketing still feels unpredictable, we can help build a more structured acquisition system around measurable business goals.
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