You put a lot of work into crafting the ultimate event. Now it’s time to pack the house. 

That’s where event ads can help.

But a lot of people are cautious about investing heavily in them. We get it — how do you know you’ll get a return on that investment?

Well, you have to set yourself up for success. First, you’ll need to know how to create the ads and what makes an ad effective. Then, nail all the details with our 19 tips for getting the most out of those event ads.

We’ve developed these tips after helping creators sell 284 million tickets last year. Combing through the best event ads and throwing our own events has given us a unique perspective on what it takes to get the most registrations from your ads.

Ready to see your event registrations explode? Let’s get started.

19 Ways of Advertising Events

1. Hone in on your target audience for event promotion

2. Take advantage of Facebook event ads and event discovery sites

3. Enable native checkout

4. Harness the power of email as an event advertisement

5. Leverage the right social media channels

6. Content marketing is a must

7. Maximize online advertising

8. Don’t forget about your event ad’s copy and design

9. Retarget event-goers who expressed interest

10. Invest in professional photography

11. Create an event website

12. Look for similar audiences

13. Enlist a social media influencer

14. Make a video to tease your event

15. Social media ticket giveaway

16. Create a unique event hashtag (and overuse it!)

17. Network at similar events

18. Shift your focus from promotional to conversational

19. Follow up after the event

How to make an effective event ad

Putting together a great ad for your event has never been faster, but there are specific ways you need to do it. Here’s a guide to all the core components of a highly effective event ad and how to put one together through Eventbrite Ads.

Use an attention-grabbing visual

Eventbrite Ads automatically use the first image from your event as the image for the ad. That means you should choose a real-life image of attendees or an exciting one that best represents them since it’s the first thing people will see on your ad, and 90% of the information your brain gets is visual. Even outside of the ads, that’ll be the image in the thumbnail of your event listing.

A screenshot of an Eventbrite Ad photo
  • Go to the “details” section of your events dashboard to select that image
  • Hover over the image box and select the pencil icon in the top-right corner to edit the images

A screenshot of an Eventbrite Ad photo

Now, you can upload images and reorder them to decide which goes first. The first image, called the cover image, will have a star on the small preview at the bottom of the page, and if you select it, it’ll have the phrase “cover image” at the top right-hand corner of the larger image above. 

Simply click and drag the images to reorder them. You can also add a video from YouTube or Vimeo that’ll be displayed alongside your images.

People like looking at images with people’s faces, bright colors, and good lighting. It helps if the images evoke an emotion, like excitement or a sense of mystery. Just make sure the emotion you’re going for matches the tone of your event!

Target the right audience

If you’re hosting a meetup in New York, you probably don’t want to advertise in San Francisco. But Eventbrite lets you target even more closely than that. You can type your venue’s address into the “Target a Location” search bar if it’s within one of the supported areas.

A screenshot of the Eventbrite Event Ads location targeting screen

If you’re hosting a virtual event, you may be happy to advertise all over the US. But you can also get much more location-specific. Let’s say you’re hosting an event at the Los Angeles International Airport. You can type that address right into the search bar, and it’ll show you the adjustable radius in which Eventbrite will advertise your event.

A screenshot of the Eventbrite Event Ads location targeting screen

But wait, you aren’t covering Long Beach or Glendale! What if you want to advertise there, too?

You have two great ways to target your advertising more closely. First, you can change the radius to focus your ads on a narrower area or broaden it to attract more people. Second, you can move the pin to cover the areas you want to focus on. In this case, a lot of our radius is in the ocean — why not drag the pin over and cover more of the city?

These are the kinds of targeted decisions you should make with your ad campaigns. Don’t forget to experiment, too — you can try targeting one area for one week, then move your radius elsewhere if you don’t get as many bites as you’d hoped.

Create urgency

Finally, you need to inspire people to click now — a lot of the time, they’ll think, “That looks cool. I’ll think about it”, and then miss their chance to attend your event. Instead, use engaging language to urge them to take action. 

A screenshot of an evnet ad

You can start creating urgency through the name of your event. As you can see in the example above, you can do this by simply calling out the outcome you’re hoping attendees will get from your event. This outcome-focused event marketing strategy works especially well for business-centered events.

A screenshot of an evnet ad

You can also create urgency through Eventbrite’s features. In the example above, two notifications, “Sales end soon” and “20% off select tickets,” encourage people to take action. That’s a powerful combination of FOMO and savings incentives.

By offering a limited number of tickets at a discount or putting ads up close to your event’s date, you can prompt tags like the ones above and make your Eventbrite ads even more effective.

Want to advertise on the most popular events search engine in the world?

Dancers perform at an outdoor event

19 ways of advertising events

Get the ball rolling on your event promotion strategy with these 19 ways to make your event ads irresistible to people looking for something to do. These won’t just help fill your event; they’ll also make sure you bring in attendees who are fully engaged and excited about your event.

1. Hone in on your target audience for event promotion

What to do: Think like your event-goers. Who are they? Why are they likely to attend your event? What does your event have in common with others they’ve been to? Where do they spend their time online? 

Building a profile of your ads’ target audience will help you speak more directly to their wants. You can do this by looking at past attendees to see who enjoyed the event the most or even returned for more than one event. With more accurate targeting, you can get much more impact from the same advertising budget.

When to do it: Six+ months from your event. The sooner you know who you’re advertising to, the more time and money you’ll save.

2. Take advantage of Facebook event ads and event discovery sites

What to do: Sometimes, the clearest solution is right before you. Eventbrite research shows that over half of event-goers look to neighborhood guides for things to do. In-the-know fans also turn to more targeted sites to discover events. You can also use Facebook event ads to target people based on their interests and location.

When to do it: Start three–six months before your event. Early ticket sales come from fans anticipating an event for some time.

3. Enable native checkout

What to do: Wherever you advertise, make checking out as easy as possible. That’s simple with Eventbrite, where your ads lead directly to the event page. 

You can make it easy for people to pay through Facebook as well. You do this by creating an Official Facebook Event, which you can promote with Facebook event ads. The event ads have a “buy tickets” button on the event listing.

Event distribution is a simple way to reach various platforms and sell tickets directly on their sites. It entails making your event visible on multiple platforms like Facebook and Eventbrite so that as many people as possible hear about your event.

When to do it: Throughout the process. Keeping this function available during the life of your ticket sales ensures event-goers can commit whenever, wherever.

4. Harness the power of email as an event advertisement

What to do: The trick to email marketing is using it correctly. Categorize your email lists by previous event ticket purchasers and demographics within your target audience, then write email campaigns that speak to those smaller groups. 

First, create an email list of people who have bought tickets in the past. They’re more likely to register for your next events if they enjoyed the last ones. You might also want to target certain demographics. For example, targeting students could be a great idea if you’re doing a test prep event. 

You can speak more directly to their wants and needs by creating separate email lists for these different groups. Past attendees might want to know what another event can do for them, whereas students who’ve never attended before would need a more initial overview of what you can offer.

You can even use email copy templates to optimize your text and get more people to sign up.

You can use email and event ads to build on each other’s benefits. By targeting the same audience with both and using unified messaging, you can increase the likelihood of the key people you’d like to target, such as past attendees or interested demographics, attending your event.

When to do it: Throughout the event-planning process. There’s an email for every type of buyer. Plus, reminder emails cut back on no-shows.

People taking a selfie at an event
MAMA / MAMA’s Night Market / Los Angeles, CA

5. Leverage the right social media channels

What to do: Social media is one of the most powerful event marketing channels. If it isn’t clear-cut, experiment with different platforms to find out which ones your audience uses the most. Then, you can focus your social media event advertising there to get the most bang for your buck. Millennials and Gen Z are the most receptive to social media advertising.

When to do it: One–two months from the event. Keep your event fresh and relevant in the feeds of social media users.

6. Content marketing is a must

What to do: Content marketing covers everything from blog posts to infographics and videos. Build a strong brand image for consistency across your output, whether in colors, fonts, or tone of voice. To do this well, develop a content strategy where you promote social media posts from your event’s attendees, give previews of upcoming events, and let people know about your plans for the future.

When to do it: Throughout the process. Even post-event content reminds your fans of the great time they had, builds relationships, and makes them more receptive to future communications.

7. Maximize online advertising

What to do: Online advertising delivers results. For direction along the way, Eventbrite can help across all sectors of online promotion, from defining the target audience to algorithms and A/B testing. 

Hone and refine your social media and Google Ads to make the most impact with your ad budget. Then, watch the work pay off.

When to do it: One–two months ahead of your event. Use online advertising as you would a social media ad. When using powerful tools like Eventbrite’s marketing suite, the more data collected, the better. Get started early to know where and how you should advertise.

8. Don’t forget about your event ad’s copy and design

What to do: Good copy and design catch the attention of event-goers. On top of that, promotional content is the first image potential attendees will see. Make it fun or dramatic, and include an eye-catching design and clear copy. Use pictures of real people — not stock photos — and give your writer examples of what your authentic voice sounds like.

When to do it: Six or more months before the event. This is the kind of work to outsource — give artists and writers meetable deadlines before content is ready for publication.

9. Retarget event-goers who expressed interest

What to do: You’ve seen retargeting technology in action. You search for something online; then you see ads for it on another site. Some creators have seen a 10x return on investment from ad retargeting. Give people who weren’t ready to purchase tickets the first time a second chance.

When to do it: 2 weeks from the event. This is a great tool to get last-minute buyers on board without flooding their feed.

A group of people looking at a phone at an event
That Lady Thing / Lady Boss / San Francisco, CA

10. Invest in professional photography

What to do: Set the tone for your event ads with quality event photos that tell people what to expect. From advertising to email, photos come in handy across all elements of your marketing efforts. Ask your photographer for various sizes for different platforms, such as Facebook or Instagram.

When to do it: Throughout the process. Hire your photographer for pre-event hype and on the day of the action, then use the photos for follow-up and future events.

11. Create an event website

What to do: An event website becomes a hub for anything related to your event — the video content, photography, copy, and design all come together. Best of all, a unique link is easy to promote across platforms and share among friends.

Having a great event webpage can also open up the opportunity for a different kind of event ad: You can link to the event page instead of going straight to checkout. That’s easy to do with Eventbrite event pages, which give you the space to describe your event details while making it easy for visitors to move on to register when they want to.

The result? More ticket sales. Creating a free event website in minutes with Eventbrite is possible, too.

When to do it: Three–six months from the event (as long as it’s ready by the time you advertise it).

Create your next event page in a few minutes.

Someone creating a website

12. Look for similar audiences

What to do: You have a solid list of people who previously purchased tickets to your events. You want to find more people just like that. With Eventbrite, it’s easy to figure out who your most likely attendees are and ensure they see your ads so you get the most registrations to make them even more effective. You can do this audience targeting with different tools on different sites, like Facebook’s lookalike audiences, or across many different platforms with Eventbrite’s marketing tools.

When to do it: Throughout the process. This continuously provides a useful perspective, from before creating the event to the final sales report.

13. Enlist a social media influencer

What to do: Your attendees are your biggest advocates. Within those ranks, you might find one or two who are extra influential. Seeking social influencers within your target audience is a simple way to increase reach. Offer tickets, merch, and a link to share on their page. Measure the impact of micro-influencers at your event for a better picture of sales.

To calculate how much benefit you’re getting from your influencer marketing, you can benchmark it against the average clicks for social media ads, which is about 1.36%. Anything above that bar is a sign it’s going well.  

When to do it: Two weeks from the event. Give your event a registration surge when on-the-fence potential attendees have a better idea of their availability.

14. Make a video to tease your event

What to do: When creating marketing content, emphasize video teasers. Videos are more effective than still imagery in social media and capture what your event is about, with an overall effectiveness rate of 20% for videos versus 12% for photos. As explained above, you can even include the videos on the event page that your ads link to, making both the ads and the page itself more effective.

When to do it: One–two months before the event. Consider dropping a video at different stages of sales to raise interest.

A person checking in to an event
The Contour Group / Country Dance Party / Nashville, TN

15. Social media ticket giveaway

What to do: Contests build buzz and help gain more followers. Try enter-to-win sweepstakes or a playful TikTok challenge. You can even advertise the contest instead of your event in some places. That makes a marketing funnel that brings people from the contest to the event. 

When to do it: One week before the event. This works well for unconvinced attendees.

16. Create a unique event hashtag (and overuse it!)

What to do: Launching a special hashtag campaign before your event helps monitor engagement and reach. Your hashtag is a form of free event advertising — every time someone uses it, your event gets promoted.

When to do it: Three–six months. Build your hashtag presence even before tickets go on sale.

17. Network at similar events

What to do: Teaming up with like-minded event organizers is a great way to promote a community event. Look for people in your sector who aren’t necessarily competitors by searching for related events in your area on Eventbrite. Share the price of a booth at a trade show where they can sell, and you can market or invite them to be sponsors at your event so you can both cross-promote.

When to do it: Throughout the process. Always be on the lookout for a helping hand!

18. Shift your focus from promotional to conversational

What to do: Move away from strict marketing messages on your social media platforms and engage your followers more candidly. Give them helpful content that builds trust and piques interest. This warmer, more personal tone can make your ads more effective. This helps you build a brand online as a real person, not just a faceless company or someone only looking to promote themselves.

When to do it: Implement this at every stage for a consistent brand tone.

19. Follow up after the event

What to do: Everyone loves a debrief. Give your event a lasting impression with photos, videos, and a newsletter. Send it out for all to see — even those who didn’t attend (to generate some old-fashioned FOMO).

You can format this in a number of ways, like a thank you message or a post-event survey. These have several effects: They raise your brand awareness, make those who didn’t attend wish they had, and make the people who did attend feel more valued. They can also act as advertisements for the next event you host.

When to do it: Within one week after the event. Ideally, you would follow up with a thank you message within 24 hours.

Maintain the momentum until you’re sold out

The path to a sold-out event is paved with carefully planned advertising and marketing efforts. From using the power of email and social media, trying out content marketing, investing in professional photography, to saying thank you after the event, each step is important in making the best event you can. 

Remember, it’s not just about promoting an event but about creating an engaging, memorable experience that resonates with your audience. If you want to truly make your event special, make the lead-up as exciting as possible with a targeted and personalized event campaign using Eventbrite’s marketing suite.