Wyoming

Jason “JB” Balogh learned to fish with his grandfather as a boy, but fell in love with fly fishing when he moved to Wyoming in 1997. He started Fish the Fly Guide Service in 2009, guiding people to fish some of his favorite spots in rivers, streams, and lakes near Jackson Hole and Yellowstone National Park. Trips to catch the state’s native cutthroat trout–which swim into the Snake River’s backcountry tributaries in summer–are a unique specialty, with Fish the Fly being among the few companies to hold backcountry permits. JB and his 12 employees now helm hundreds of outings each year. Some customers fish off a boat, some wade up mountain creeks, and non-fishers can enjoy float trips down the river complete with bison burgers and sunsets over the Tetons.

Customer reviews and 5-star ratings on Fish the Fly’s Google Business Profile help prospective clients envision the experience. JB links his Business Profile directly to Google Maps and Ads, increasing the profile’s visibility and driving more traffic to it. “It gets our customer reviews in front of more people,” he says. JB credits Google Ads with nearly doubling website visitors from 2023 to 2024 alone. “Our sales volume increased by 11 percent in 2024, and we were able to hire a new guide as a result,” he says. Performance Max campaigns reach anglers wherever they’re absorbing fly fishing content on the internet. The team interprets web traffic patterns using Google Analytics, so they can tweak their ads and web design. And stunning videos on their YouTube channel transport viewers to Wyoming’s rivers. “Even if you're sitting in your work cubicle, it takes you there,” JB laughs. But it’s about more than “just a dollar sign,” he says–JB also works to protect the Snake River watershed. “My goal is to reconnect people to nature. And I want to make sure these resources and types of activities are available to my children and beyond.”

Friends and travel guides Kevin Deneen, Gabe Aufderheide, and Trevor James wanted to make it easier for people to explore nature–without logistics getting in the way. They founded Moterra Campervans in their hometown of Jackson in 2016, offering fully stocked campervans and unique travel itineraries for the nation’s wild spaces. “Someone who typically stays in a hotel but wants to experience a national park for the first time can get out there and push their comfort levels,” says Trevor. Adds Gabe, “It has everything you need. The van offers a sense of true leisure–you don’t have to scramble to get back to your hotel.” When more people headed outdoors during the pandemic, business skyrocketed. “We went from four of us to a team of 25 or 30, dispersed across different states and new locations,” Trevor says.

The team uses Google Workspace to run operations. “We can access it from any device,” Kevin says. “It’s how we brainstorm, keep information moving efficiently, and onboard new teammates. And knowing everything is secure creates incredible peace of mind.” Google Analytics helps the team pinpoint trends: “We get a snapshot of upcoming travel people are interested in. It helps us shape our messaging,” Trevor says. In 2023, Moterra built out their Google Ads strategy and saw a 181-percent rise in website visitors. “Strictly from Google Ads, we were seeing 5,500 people on our site every day in our biggest month. It was as if we had opened a new storefront on Main Street,” adds Trevor. The team also uses Gemini to save time. “If I have 30 minutes between meetings and want to knock out a blog, Gemini accelerates that,” Kevin says. “I recommend anyone who’s new to AI to start with Gemini." Moterra now rents 70 campervans in seven locations. Says Gabe, “We want to make it easy for people to immerse themselves in these amazing places–and have the trip of a lifetime doing it.”

When mother-and-son team Karen and Ben Hostetler looked around at the ranches in their Buffalo, Wyoming hometown, they wondered why they couldn’t buy anything made with local wool. “It became a passion to start putting a brand identity to the wool raised in this area of the U.S., and it went from there,” Karen says. The pair launched Mountain Meadow Wool in 2007, helping around 50 ranchers annually to process and trace their wool through production and into yarn and other products. “Most mills in the U.S. specialize in one area of the process so wool is sent away, but we do everything from washing the wool to spinning and knitting it into garments,” Ben explains. “We work with third- or fourth-generation ranchers who, for the first time, can see something being made out of the products they raised. There's a great sense of pride.”

When the pandemic began and more crafters and knitters were searching for quality wool products, the Hostetlers saw an opportunity to boost their online presence and reach people looking for specific types of yarn and wool. They began sharing YouTube videos with behind-the-scenes stories, and tweaked their marketing with Google Ads optimization tools to better reach audiences. That resulted in a 617 percent increase in customer conversions in just six months, from both crafty customers and retailers. “Online visibility drove the most growth,” Ben says. “More people buy directly from our website via online searches, then they go into their brick-and-mortar store and ask for our yarns, and then that store calls us so they can carry our yarns in their store.” Now, Mountain Meadow Wool’s 24,000 sq. ft. facility is one of the biggest employers in the historically boom-bust local economy, providing stable jobs for 24 people–and one sheep. Yarnold, their fluffy mascot, pitches in to attract tourists who regularly stop by to visit him.

Ezra Peters, his wife, Amber, and her brother, Adam Lackner, were young military veterans in 2007. The couple served in the U.S. Navy, and Adam was a U.S. Marine who had been deployed to Iraq. As civilians, they wanted to work for themselves, leveraging the focus and discipline they learned during their service. Together, they founded BrushBuck Wildlife Tours, living on a budget so tight they thought twice before ordering fries with their burgers. Their goal was to stand out in the local tourism industry by being prompt, professional, and courteous. The first season they led fewer than 50 wildlife tours with two vehicles. “At first, we thought this might be our first and last season, but we became the number one company in our area within a very short time,” Amber recalls. “We changed the expectations for a tour guide here in Jackson.”

The trio knew how to generate leads locally, but attracting customers from outside Wyoming was a bigger challenge. “It was a good moment for us when we started using Google AdWords,” Google’s advertising program, Adam says. “AdWords lets us have a presence with people who are booking six to eight months before they get here, especially for our multi-day tours.” AdWords now accounts for about 60 percent of their sales. Google Analytics helps the trio understand and track website traffic, and Google My Business gives potential customers the opportunity to check out reviews and photos. Adventurers considering a tour can also watch dozens of videos on the company’s YouTube channel, which Adam calls “a very powerful tool.” Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and other G Suite tools help everyone stay in touch and on time.

Today, BrushBuck Wildlife Tours offers domestic excursions to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Denali National Parks, and international tours in Africa and South America. They escort 7,000 to 10,000 people annually in 10 vehicles. In addition to creating a great customer experience, the founders are dedicated to spreading their work and training ethic. Adam concludes, “We’ve started to build a culture like a Marine Corps platoon or a Navy unit here. You start to work together in ways that really you don’t see in a whole lot of businesses. Anybody can be a good guide on eventful days, when the bears and the wolves all come out. I want our guides to get five-star reviews even on bad days.”