The whole thing is a bloody con both for the punter and the flying schools
Maybe a little harsh, but basically true i think.
There is no way your marketing should be 10-20% of your hourly rate
Indeed, we both know what kind of margins flying schools typically have to get by on. That is however pretty much what the big, national voucher sellers want. Some want it all as discount, others will mark up a price with a less discount. If they were a major proportion of the business, then it would be financially difficult to do them. But it would, at least short term, be unwise to ditch them, as they would just trot along to your nearest competitor and get them to do it.
When marketing a flying club's own direct sell vouchers, it's an effort to get above them (virgin, buyagift, adventure001, intotheblue, etc) on google. We can do it with a specific geographical location, but it takes work and we won't do paid ads to get at the top sponsored listings.