Sooner or later, the line “promote an event online” turns up on every organiser’s to-do list. Whether it is a course, a workshop, a webinar or a conference in a venue, the problem is the same: you have a date that does not move, a number of places and a limited window in which to fill them.
The difference from an ordinary campaign is that there is no “next month”: a store can go on improving its ads indefinitely, an event gets one attempt. That is why most of the work is done before the first ad.
The calendar written backwards from the event date
We start from the day of the event and from the moment registration closes, then set out the stages in reverse. How long the run-up is depends on the price and on how hard the decision is: a free webinar fills up at short notice, whereas an expensive course, or a conference where attendees need their company’s approval, takes much longer.
Registrations do not come in evenly: they usually cluster at the announcement, when those already convinced buy, and towards the deadline, when the rest make up their minds. The budget follows this shape, instead of being split evenly across the days.
- Preparation: page, measurement, photos and video, lists.
- The announcement: the topic, the date, who is speaking; to your own list and to a new audience.
- Registration: ads on concrete benefits, on speakers or modules, plus follow-ups to people who visited the page.
- The final days: the registration deadline and the places left, stated exactly.
- After the event: the campaigns stop on a fixed date, and those who showed interest stay on the list for the next edition.
Interest lists, gathered before sales open
The cheapest ticket to sell is the one bought by someone who was already waiting for the announcement. So before registration opens we gather people: through an interest form, through a free resource on the course topic, through short clips with the speakers. Those who leave their address are the first to hear, by email.
The same lists feed the ads: platforms can build audiences from people who watched a clip, visited the page or filled in the form, and can look for similar people. The list of attendees from past editions is used in the same way only if there is a legal basis, a point to clear up with your data protection officer.
The registration page and tracking ticket sales
The page answers the questions anyone asks before paying. A missing answer means an email asking for clarification or, more often, a closed tab.
The technical side hides a common trap: tickets are sold on a specialist platform, on a different domain from your website. If measurement tags cannot be installed there, the ads never find out who bought. We check this before the ticketing platform is chosen, not after.
- The essentials, at the top: what it is, when, where, how much it costs, the deadline for registering.
- Terms: what the price includes, invoicing to a company, the cancellation policy.
- Cross-domain tracking: the website and the ticketing platform are linked, so that the sale is attributed to the ad.
- Event structured data: markup in the page code that describes the date and the venue; Google displays it distinctly only for events with a physical venue and only in certain countries, so it is checked at setup.
How to promote an event online without invented “last few places”
Urgency works, which is why it is also abused. A “last few places” shown from day one, or a deadline that keeps being extended, gets noticed and costs you trust at the next edition. What is more, false statements about availability can be regarded as misleading commercial practices; where you have doubts, ask a lawyer.
Our rule: an urgency message is tied to a verifiable fact. If the venue has a set number of places, we announce the places left when there really are only a few. If the price goes up on a given date, search ads can automatically display a countdown to it. For a webinar with no limit on places, the honest urgency is the registration deadline.
When the places run out, the ads stop the same day or point to the waiting list.
A short campaign leaves no time for learning
Bidding algorithms need a certain number of conversions to calibrate, and in a short campaign with few, expensive tickets that number may never be reached. In that case we optimise for a more frequent step (registration started, interest form) and keep the structure simple, with no reorganising in the final days.
Google search helps only as far as demand exists: people search for the topic (“accounting course”, “HR conference”), not for the name of an event they have never heard of. For a new subject, demand is created on social networks and on video. And no ad makes up for an unclear topic or a price that does not suit the audience.
Frequently asked questions
How far in advance does promotion of an event start?
It depends on the price, the size of the audience and how well known you are. An expensive event, for which attendees need their company’s approval or travel and accommodation, needs a much longer run-up than a free webinar.
What budget do I need to fill the venue?
It depends on the number of places, the ticket price, how many people you already have on your lists and how broad the right audience is. Nobody can promise a cost per ticket before the first data comes in.
Is a free event promoted in the same way as a paid one?
The mechanics are the same, but the measure of success differs. Free events easily attract many registrations and only some of those people attend, so the reminders before the event matter as much as the ads.
This is a typical project description: it shows how we usually approach this kind of work and does not present a project carried out for a particular client. Every real project starts from your company’s situation, and the stages, timescales and price are agreed after the initial discussion.