The most recent instalment in our Eventbrite Live series – a series of hosted live events aimed at helping event organisers market their events – took place on November 23rd at The Ned hotel, City of London.

In an ever-changing industry, event organisers looking to market their events are finding it harder and harder to be heard above the noise. From customising the right audience to identifying the best way to reach them, smart marketing now relies on data more than ever before.

Bringing together our marketing expertise, we presented a marketing masterclass to a selected guest-list of attendees at The Ned, sharing our key insights and stats to help event organisers market their events and achieve ROI. Read on for key takeaways from the morning and afternoon sessions.

Advanced Facebook Advertising & Promotion Tips

Moving a potential ticket buyer through the funnel requires smart and strategic promotion. Starting from the foundations of setting up Ad Manager for your Facebook account, attendees were walked through a practical guide to advanced Facebook targeting.

Facebook boasts 2 billion active users and the targeting options available make it the most powerful way to reach the people you want to sell tickets to. We shared our experience with Facebook’s “relevance score” and the way in which this enables marketers to keep their CPC (cost per click) low, as well as explaining the importance of the Facebook pixel.

“Eventbrite’s integration with the platform means users can measure the performance of the Facebook ads they use to drive ticket sales on Eventbrite.”

For those looking to market their events smartly, there are three key audiences to consider on Facebook – saved audiences, custom audiences, and lookalike audiences. The targeting options available on the platform allow an incredible level of reach and attendees at the event were taught about audience building and re-targeting in order to secure more ticket sales.

To learn more about mastering Facebook advertising, download our guide.

Can your website sell tickets effectively?

Identifying barriers to ticket sales is important. As part of the presentation, attendees were warned of the multiple ways a potential ticket buyer can be turned off their path to purchase and how to avoid them – slow website loading times and hidden fees featured on the list. The key question to ask is – can your visitor buy a ticket quickly and easily? If not, changes need to be made. A seamless buying process is crucial in order for your smart marketing efforts to pay off.

So, where and when are your customers buying? If you can answer this question, you are edging closer to a sold-out event. At Eventbrite, our data allows you to assess where and when ticket sales are happening. Pitching desktop sales against mobile sales led to interesting insights around when best to target your potential ticket buyers.

“In brief, desktop sales tend to happen during office hours while mobile sales last until late in the evening.”

We also shared stats from our study around when certain groups of people make purchasing decisions, finding that women are more likely than men to buy tickets in advance – for example – and that, generally, the more expensive the event, the earlier people buy.

How To Track Event Ticketing & Registration Sales

Finally, monitoring data insights and allowing them to influence your decisions will make you a smarter marketer for your event. There’s a great range of free tools available to help event organisers do this, and we finished off the session by sharing some key benefits of data insights and what you should be looking for.

1. Set out your acquisition strategy from the start and determine your reach.
2. Identify who is discovering and buying your tickets, and where they are doing this from. If you are trying to sell out an event in London but ticket sales seem to be coming mostly from Bristol, then re-examine your geo-targeted reach accordingly.
3. Monitor the behaviour of those who are engaging with your content – what are they talking about and engaging with, how can you get to know them better and convert them to a ticket buyer for your event?

“Identifying where your audience is hanging out online ensures you can put your content in front of them on a platform where they are comfortable, interested and more likely to convert.”

Preferred hang-out spots will depend on the type of audience. At Eventbrite, we are growing our list of distribution partners to ensure we are covering a wide range – current examples include Spotify, Facebook, and Ents24.

See you at the next one?

Our hope for this series is that those who attend walk back out the door with renewed enthusiasm for marketing and a host of new ideas and inspiration for their next event. As 2017 draws to a close, we are looking to next year and to continuing the Eventbrite Live series into 2018. If you are interested in attending an event near you, just hit “Like” on our Facebook page and keep an eye out for event updates.