Selling Lone Star Spas across the Texas Triangle.
You have the product, the factory, the delivery crews, the financing partners and 30 years of knowing what Texans buy. What is missing is a partner who fills the pipeline, answers every lead in minutes, and treats every unit sold like it is their own. This is how we would do it, what it costs, and what we expect it to return.
- Brand
- Lone Star Spas
- Market
- Texas Triangle
- First 30 days
- Austin control test
- Contract
- Month to month
What we heard.
Before any plan, here is our read of the business from our call. If any of this is wrong, tell us and we will fix the plan around it.
- 01Thirty years in home leisure. Minot store for 30 years doing $3M to $5M a year, Williston opening now. Paradise Spas in Austin and Houston reached $23M in a single year and about 2,300 to 2,500 units, top five in the country.
- 02Why the old model broke. 80 to 90% of Paradise volume came from big weekend shows (HEB Center, Palmer Events Center, mall tents) backed by $30k to $40k media buys. After COVID, a $500k weekend fell under 10 units while warehouses, staff, trucks and 300+ tubs of inventory stayed. That cost over $1M. Then Master Spas ended a 20-year dealer relationship and took the market.
- 03Lone Star fixes the cost side. Private label from Dynasty Spas in Tennessee, made in America. Dynasty holds the inventory, so there is no flooring and no cash tied up in tubs. Sell it, order it, ship it to the customer or to a distribution warehouse for white-glove delivery.
- 04The pitch is real, not an angle. The same tub that sells for $13,995 in a showroom sells for about $9,995 factory direct. Shoppers can price it at a Paradise store to prove it.
- 05Texas for Texans. Like Dakota Spas for the Dakotas, a Texas brand built for Texas backyards. Models are named for Texas cities.
- 06Stay inside the Triangle. Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth, about 20M+ people, anywhere within three hours, because every unit has to be delivered and serviced well.
- 07The lineup is picked. 12 to 13 hot tubs, 3 swim spas, plunge pools (15 and 19 foot), a cold plunge and 10 infrared saunas that ship direct.
- 08The plunge pool could be the next hula hoop. Plug it into an outlet, fill it with a hose. Under $20k, about $199 a month on 120-month financing, versus a $100k pool that takes a year.
- 09Sell both ways. Let people buy online, and put the ones with questions on the phone with a rep who lives in their city (Austin, San Antonio, Houston and The Woodlands).
- 10Financing is already strong. GreenSky and Synchrony, 9.9% programs, $10M+ financed with GreenSky during COVID.
- 11A partner, not a vendor. Someone with skin in the game who builds the ads, babysits the CRM and the sales process, and gets paid more when more units sell. Local to Austin, and mature enough to show up every week.
- 12Promise carefully. Water, power and delivery are where brands get black eyes. Marketing cannot promise what fulfillment cannot keep, and card chargebacks are a real risk on big tickets.
"I want somebody looking at this like, I need to sell 20 more units this week. How are we gonna do that?"
Jason Nelson, October 12
The market.
We pulled search demand and click costs for every Triangle metro. The demand is real and it is local. Below is what people type into Google every month, before any brand awareness, TV or social.
| Metro | Hot tub and swim spa searches naming the city | Sauna and cold plunge searches naming the city | Search clicks we can win | Real cost per click | Search spend at the ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin area | 1,450 | 910 | ~335 | ~$5 | ~$1,700 |
| San Antonio area | 1,050 | 430 | ~225 | ~$5 | ~$1,100 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,860 | 910 | ~625 | ~$6 | ~$3,750 |
| Houston | 910 | 1,190 | ~400 | ~$5 | ~$2,000 |
| Texas Triangle | 5,270 | 3,440 | ~1,585 | ~$5.40 | ~$8,550 |
Fig. 1. Monthly Google searches that name the city (Semrush, October 2026), plus "near me", "for sale", price and financing searches scaled to each metro. "Clicks we can win" assumes about 65% impression share. Click costs are local auction estimates, roughly 1.5x to 2x Semrush's national averages.
What that means for spend.
- Google Search, normal month
- ~$8,500
- Google Search, peak month
- ~$11,100
- All channels, normal month
- $15,000 to $17,000
- All channels, peak month
- $19,000 to $22,000
- Visits at full build
- 3,000 to 4,500 / mo
"All channels" adds Google Maps and Performance Max, Bing, remarketing and YouTube on top of Search. Past these levels, more money mostly buys the same buyers at a higher price.
Things we noticed.
- AAustin out-searches Houston. "Hot tubs austin" gets 480 searches a month and "hot tubs houston" gets 320, with a third of the people. Houston leans to cold plunge and sauna (390 a month for "cold plunge houston"), so Houston launches with a plunge-heavy mix.
- BNobody searches for Lone Star yet. About 20 searches a month for the name. Every early sale comes from generic and competitor searches, which is why the landing page and the offer matter more than anything else.
- CThe model names are an SEO gift. The Austin, Houston, Dallas, Waco, Tyler and Lubbock hot tubs each get a city page that ranks for "hot tubs [city]".
- DIt is hot tub season now. Hot tub search peaks November to January. Plunge pools and swim spas peak March to July. Launching in the next few weeks catches the best months.
Competitor searches we would buy.
| Search | US searches / mo | Texas Triangle share (est.) | How we answer it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bullfrog Spas | 12,100 | ~775 | Factory direct, compare before you buy |
| Master Spas | 6,600 | ~420 | Same class of tub, $3k to $4k less |
| Costco hot tub | 6,600 | ~420 | American made, delivered and set by Texans |
| Hot Spring Spas | 5,400 | ~345 | Premium features without the premium markup |
| Sundance Spas | 5,400 | ~345 | Compare jets, size and price side by side |
| Jacuzzi hot tub | 5,400 | ~345 | A Texas brand at a factory price |
| Caldera Spas | 4,400 | ~280 | Same answer, local rep in your city |
| Cal Spas | 2,400 | ~155 | White-glove delivery included |
| Total | 48,300 | ~3,085 |
Fig. 2. National monthly searches (Semrush), Triangle share estimated at 6.4% of US population. Someone searching a brand name has already done their research and is close to buying. Ads never claim to be that brand or use their trademark in the ad text; they offer a side-by-side comparison.
The plan.
Pull before push. We start with people who are already shopping on Google, prove the numbers on a small budget in Austin, then open the faucet one metro and one channel at a time. Social comes after search is profitable, not before.
Build and wire.
- Landing pages for hot tubs, plunge pools and swim spas, with prices, monthly payments and a deposit checkout
- Call tracking numbers, form tracking, offline sale tracking back into Google
- CRM pipeline, rep routing by city, instant lead alerts and a follow-up cadence
- Logo fix and Google Business Profile cleanup
- First ads live in Austin by the end of the week
Austin control test.
- Google Search only, desktop first, then mobile
- $100 a day, then $200, then $500 as the numbers hold
- Competitor searches plus "hot tubs austin", "plunge pool", "swim spa" and price searches
- Weekly read: cost per lead, answer rate, lead to sale
- Fix the weakest step of the funnel before adding budget
Open the Triangle.
- San Antonio in month 2, Dallas-Fort Worth in month 3, Houston and Bing in month 4
- Austin suburbs out first: Leander, Georgetown, Round Rock, Dripping Springs, Kyle
- Google Shopping feed and Maps ads
- City pages for every model named after a Texas city
- AI search work so ChatGPT and Gemini recommend Lone Star
Push.
- Remarketing to everyone who looked in the last 90 days, until they buy
- Meta, YouTube and TikTok with plunge pool and factory-direct creative
- Jason's story on video: 30 years, rebuilt, Texas for Texans
Run it like an owner.
- Every click, lead and sale tied to the dollar it cost
- Weekly scorecard, one page, units first
- We watch the CRM and rep follow-up, not just the ads
Beyond Texas.
- The same playbook for the Palm Island line in Florida and a Colorado brand
- Only once Texas runs clean on fulfillment and returns
The website.
lonestartxspas.com is a good start: real lineup, Texas naming, a Spa Finder and spec sheets for all 29 models. It is not ready to take paid traffic. Here is what we would change, and a concept of the new homepage.
| Today | Why it costs sales | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| "Call for pricing" on every model | The whole pitch is price. Hiding it sends shoppers back to Google. | Showroom price vs Lone Star price on every model, plus a monthly payment |
| No way to buy online | You told us online buyers exist. Today they have to call. | Reserve with a deposit, financing prequal, ZIP check for the Triangle |
| Logo badge reads "Hot TuƎ" | An AI rendering with a broken letter on a brand selling trust | Redrawn badge and a clean wordmark |
| Toll-free 855 number only | "Talk with a Texan" reads odd from an 855 number | Local 512, 210, 713 and 214 tracking numbers routed to the right rep |
| No tracking | No way to know which ad sold a tub | GA4, call tracking, CRM and offline sales sent back to Google |
| Quote forms behind a ZIP gate | Every extra step drops shoppers | One short form, then text back within a minute |
| No city or model pages | Nothing to rank for "hot tubs houston" or "plunge pool austin" | City pages tied to the Texas-named models |
Fig. 3. Homepage concept. Prices on it are illustration only until we have your price sheet. Open the full concept.
Speed to lead.
On big-ticket items the lead is bought the second it arrives and lost ten minutes later. Your reps work every lead. Our job is to get it to the right rep instantly and make sure nothing slips.
- 01Instant alerts. Every form and call hits the right rep's phone the second it arrives, with the shopper's product, ZIP and budget. The goal is a call within five minutes. Calls are answered about 70% of the time at best, so the rep also sends a text right away.
- 02No missed calls. Tracked numbers ring your reps first. If nobody picks up, the caller gets an instant text and the lead is flagged in the CRM for a callback, so nights and weekends don't leak sales.
- 03Routed to a neighbor. A Houston lead goes to your rep in The Woodlands, a San Antonio lead to your San Antonio rep. Same city, same small talk, warmer close.
- 04Buy or die cadence. A built-in schedule of calls, texts and emails for each rep, up to 50 touches over roughly three weeks, stopping the moment they buy or ask to stop. Templates and reminders do the remembering; your reps do the talking. Old leads get reworked when promotions run.
- 05We babysit the CRM. Every lead has a stage, a next step and an owner. We flag reps who sit on leads and report it in the weekly scorecard.
- 06Calls become data. Every call is recorded and summarized, so we learn which objections kill deals and feed the answers back into the ads and the site.
The funnel we will measure.
- Ad click to lead
- 5% expected
- Lead reached
- 70% or better
- Reached to qualified
- 60%
- Lead to sale
- 10% expected
- Online checkout share
- Measured from day 1
- Time to first contact
- Under 5 minutes
Starting assumptions. The Austin test replaces them with your real numbers within about 30 days.
Ads and offers.
Built from the angles you gave us on the call. Search ads first, then social. Every offer below is one you can actually deliver.
Plunge pool. Your "next hula hoop." Targets pool searches and pool cost searches, which are huge in Texas summers.
Factory direct. Your strongest pitch, and provable. Runs on "hot tubs for sale", price and dealer searches.
Competitor searches. Intercepts Bullfrog, Master Spas, Hot Spring, Jacuzzi and Costco shoppers at the moment they are ready to buy.
Swim spas. The category you helped build in Austin. Highest ticket in the lineup.
More angles to test.
- 01Hot water therapy. Most chiropractors and doctors recommend it. You have closed deals where a doctor's note removed the 8.25% sales tax. We confirm the rules with your CPA before it goes in an ad.
- 02Airbnb hosts. A plunge pool or hot tub lifts a short-term rental listing. Hill Country and Lake Travis hosts are easy to target.
- 03Recovery bundle. Hot tub plus infrared sauna, or sauna plus cold plunge, for the health and wellness buyer.
- 04Backyard partners. Pads, decks, gazebos and electrical through local partners (we already work with All Seasons in Liberty Hill), so "I don't have a pad" never kills a sale.
- 05St. Jude. A donation with every purchase, already part of the brand. A quiet trust line in every ad.
The numbers.
Worst case, expected and best case at full build in the Triangle, then a month by month first year. The unit economics use what you told us: about a $10,000 average hot tub, about $2,000 to $2,500 kept per tub after the factory, freight, delivery and commission.
Our working assumptions.
| Product | Share of units | Avg order | Kept per unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot tubs | 65% | $10,000 | $2,250 |
| Plunge pools | 20% | $16,995 | $3,500 |
| Swim spas | 10% | $35,000 | $6,000 |
| Saunas | 5% | $6,000 | $1,200 |
| Blended | 100% | $13,700 | $2,822 |
Fig. 4. Hot tub numbers are yours from the call. Plunge pool, swim spa and sauna margins are our placeholders until we see your price sheet.
At full build, about $16,000 a month in ads.
| Worst | Expected | Best | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per visit | $6.00 | $5.00 | $4.50 |
| Visit to lead | 3% | 5% | 7% |
| Lead to sale | 7% | 10% | 14% |
| Leads a month | 80 | 160 | 249 |
| Units a month | 6 | 16 | 35 |
| Cost per lead | $200 | $100 | $64 |
| Ad cost per unit | $2,857 | $1,000 | $459 |
| Revenue a month | $77k | $219k | $477k |
| Kept after ads and our fee | −$6k | $23k | $76k |
Fig. 5. "Kept" is units times kept per unit, minus ad spend and Option A fees. The worst case is why we never start at $16,000. If Austin looks like the worst column, we find out for about $3,000 and fix it before spending more.
Year one, expected case.
| Month | Stage | Ad spend | Leads | Units | Revenue | Kept after ads and fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov | Austin control test | $2,500 | 18 | 2 | $24k | −$1.4k |
| Dec | + San Antonio | $5,000 | 40 | 4 | $55k | $2.0k |
| Jan | + Dallas-Fort Worth | $9,000 | 81 | 8 | $111k | $9.0k |
| Feb | + Houston, Bing | $11,000 | 110 | 11 | $151k | $14.9k |
| Mar | + Maps, remarketing, YouTube | $14,000 | 140 | 14 | $192k | $19.9k |
| Apr | Plunge pool season | $17,000 | 170 | 17 | $233k | $24.9k |
| May | Plunge pool season | $20,000 | 200 | 20 | $274k | $30.0k |
| Jun | Peak swim season | $20,000 | 200 | 20 | $274k | $30.0k |
| Jul | Summer | $18,000 | 180 | 18 | $247k | $26.6k |
| Aug | Summer | $16,000 | 160 | 16 | $219k | $23.3k |
| Sep | Back to school | $16,000 | 160 | 16 | $219k | $23.3k |
| Oct | Hot tub season starts | $18,000 | 180 | 18 | $247k | $26.6k |
| Year one | $166,500 | 1,638 | 164 | $2.24M | $228.5k |
Fig. 6. Expected case with Option A fees. Lead rates start about 30% lower in month 1 and reach plan by month 4 as pages and follow-up improve. Spend only steps up when the month before paid for itself. Before ad spend and our fees, the year produces about $462k in kept margin.
Try your own numbers.
Units a month
16
- Visits
- Leads
- Cost per lead
- Ad cost per unit
- Revenue
- Theory Road fee (Option A)
- Kept after ads and fee
Guardrails.
You lost a million dollars once because costs ran ahead of sales. This plan is built so that cannot happen again.
- 01Small, controlled tests. No budget increase until the month before paid for itself. Spend doubles only on proof.
- 02Kill rules agreed up front. If cost per lead is over $150 after $1,500 of spend, we fix the page before spending more. If fewer than 5% of the first 40 leads buy, we fix follow-up before adding traffic.
- 03Only where you can deliver. Ads only show inside the Triangle, and checkout checks the ZIP before it takes a deposit.
- 04No promises fulfillment can't keep. Site prep, 240V power, delivery access and lead times are spelled out before checkout, so buyers know what happens next.
- 05Financing first on big tickets. Deposits by card, balances through GreenSky or Synchrony, which keeps the lender in your corner and cuts chargeback risk.
- 06Accounts in your name. Ads run in a Google Ads account set up for Lone Star and billed to your card, so spend is never marked up.
- 07Weekly scorecard. Units, revenue, ad spend, cost per unit and lead response time on one page every Monday.
- 08Month to month. No contract. If we don't perform, you fire us.
Partnership.
You asked for a partner who makes more when you sell more. We priced it two ways. Both include everything in this plan: the site rebuild, tracking, CRM and lead routing, all ad management, SEO and AI search, creative, and the weekly scorecard. Ad spend is paid directly to Google, Microsoft and Meta.
Standard.
$3,500 / mo
plus 15% of monthly ad spend.
- Simple and predictable
- Our fee only grows if ad spend grows, and ad spend only grows when it is making you money
- At $16,000 a month in ads: $5,900 total
Partner.
$1,500 / mo
plus 15% of monthly ad spend, plus 3% of delivered sales.
- Lower fixed cost while we prove it in Austin
- About $410 on an average unit, paid only on delivered orders
- Our upside is tied to delivered units, the same number you care about
- At expected volume: about $10,500 a month, and more only when you sell more
Either way: no setup fee, no contract, and the first ads go live in Austin within a week of a yes.
Next steps.
From you.
- 01Pick an option and we start this week.
- 02Price sheet and margins by model, including plunge pools, swim spas and saunas.
- 03Access to the domain, current site, Google Business Profile, any Google Ads or Meta accounts and the CRM, if one exists.
- 04Your reps. Names, cities, cell numbers and hours, so routing works on day one.
- 05Financing. GreenSky and Synchrony dealer IDs or application links.
- 06Fulfillment facts. Dynasty lead times, warehouse locations, delivery days and what is included.
- 07Real photos and video of the plunge pool, especially one being filled with a hose.
From us, week one.
- 01Tracking, call numbers, CRM pipeline and rep alerts live
- 02Plunge pool, hot tub and swim spa landing pages with prices and deposit checkout
- 03Logo redraw and Google Business Profile cleanup
- 04Austin Search campaigns live, starting at $100 a day
- 05First weekly scorecard the following Monday
How we work together.
One Austin team runs the whole system, and you always have a direct line to Travis.
Theory Road builds and runs every piece of this plan: the site, tracking, ads, CRM and lead routing. Specialists on our team handle the day to day work on each one, so nothing waits on a single person going quiet for a week.
Travis owns the strategy and the numbers. He reviews the account every week, signs off on budget changes, and is a call or text away whenever you need him. When something needs a decision, you talk to him, not a ticket queue.
- Strategy, budget and numbers
- Travis
- Site, ads and tracking
- Theory Road team
- Working every lead
- Your Texas reps
- Scorecard
- Every Monday
- Direct line to Travis
- Call or text, anytime
- Where
- Austin, face to face
- Contracts
- None, month to month