A common experience we hear from someone who has tried Facebook Ads to market their event goes something like this:

“I spent a bit of money boosting some of my posts or doing a campaign targeting a Saved Audience. I got some fairly cheap traffic to my site which was great, but hardly any ticket sales from it, so I stopped using it.”

Sound familiar? Can’t figure out why?

We wish it were so simple but let’s look at a comparison between Google and Facebook to explain why purchasing on first interaction is not common amongst Facebook users.

Google: If someone searches “red t-shirts” on Google, sees an appropriate ad about good value red t-shirts, there’s a strong chance that customer will convert and buy the t-shirt. When we click a Google ad, we’ve already indicated a purchase intent by doing a search for a specific thing (a red t-shirt).

Facebook: When we’re browsing our feeds on Facebook and an ad for red t-shirts pops up, and we click on it, we are much less likely to make the purchase. When we browse our Facebook feeds we’re not often looking for products to buy, but rather catching up on our social lives or browsing content.

From the comparison, you can see a Facebook user is much further away from the purchase point in their journey when they click your ad than someone searching on Google. The Google user has already considered which purchases they will allocate their disposable income to, defined their specific product need, and potentially even searched for your brand.

When you display an ad on Facebook, it’s unlikely this process has occurred for the user. Therefore you can’t really be surprised if someone clicks your ad, but leaves your site without converting (buying a ticket). It’s an annoying truth, but fortunately, it’s one we can do something about.

This is where Custom Audiences and retargeting come in.

Retargeting simply means targeting people with ads who have already visited your website and/or ticketing page. You need to retarget them to bring them back to the site at the point when they are ready to convert (buy a ticket). Retargeting is extremely effective because you’re targeting people who are already aware of your brand and have shown some interest in your event.

Now that you have the information on ‘Why’ it is so critical to your events’ success to create more targeted Facebook campaigns, it’s time to get started. Lucky for you, we have put together a free, comprehensive guide on How to Master Facebook Advertising and Sell More Tickets. Download it now so you can reach new customers and enjoy more sales whilst saving on your marketing budget.