It’s also worth thousands of dollars in ticket sales!

We’ve taken the past few weeks to analyze tens of thousands of creatives that have been used with ToneDen’s ads platform to determine what makes a successful ad for a music show.

The results are astonishing. For example, we found that testing at least 2 different variations of creative in an advertising campaign triples your chances of reducing your cost per ticket sold.

From our data and analysis, we’ve put together a set of best practices that you can use across all of your ads to ensure you’re selling as many tickets as possible with your shows’ budgets.

Before getting into those best practices, it’s important to understand the anatomy of a Facebook ad and how potential event attendees view them.

When first encountering an ad in the News Feed, here are the items your potential show attendees look at (in sequential order):

1. Image / Video: The 1200 x 628 thumbnail that Facebook asks for all of your advertisements to include.
2. Post Text: The message you want your page to deliver to your fans.
3. Headline: A brief statement that tells potential attendees what your event is about.
4. Link Description: Additional text that emphasizes why people should attend your event.
5. CTA Button: The “Call to Action” button that you ask your fans to click — and, hopefully, purchase.

The order of creative consumption suggests that the most important elements of creative within in your ad will be the image/video you include followed by the message you deliver to your attendees.

Next, we’ll go through a set of great examples of ads that highlight each element above.

I. Image &Video 🎥

The image/video is the most important part of your ad and should evoke an emotional response from the viewer. We found that ads that included video were 50% more likely to drive ticket sales than those without video.

The takeaways here are:

1. Always try to include a video if available.
2. Include images of the artist’s face in the thumbnail if possible.
3. Test multiple images or videos to identify the one that actually drives conversions.

II. Post Text ✏️

The post text is the best opportunity you have to direct a personalized message to your potential attendees. We found that messages that speak directly to fans yield ticket sales at a significantly higher rate.

The key takeaways here are:

1. Speak to your audience directly using words like “can’t wait to see you” or “get your tickets today”.
2. Always include the city, venue name, and date of show in the post text.
3. If the ad is not coming from the artist, include the artist’s name too.

III. Headline 📰

The headline is your chance to summarize your ad into an easily digestible statement. We’ve found that all successful ads include the artist or event name, venue name, and show date in the headline, with little to no other text included.

The key takeaways here are:

1. Always mention the tickets are “on sale” and include the artist or event name.
2. Keep it as short as you can (under 25 characters).

IV. Link Description 🔗

The Link Description is your opportunity to include other information about the show, and a chance to educate people about your call to action.

The key takeaways here are:

1. Use this as an opportunity to mention the artist’s or event’s name again in conjunction with the fact that tickets are on sale.
2. If applicable, also include supporting acts or other headliners that may be relevant.

V. CTA Button 🎟

The call to action button is a surprisingly important element of your ad. We found that ads that included a CTA button had 40% more sales than those without.

The key takeaways here are:

1. “Learn More” is a great, low-commitment call to action that results in more ticket sales than “Shop Now” or “Book Now”
2. You’re better off including a CTA Button than omitting it

We hope that some of these tips can help you sell more tickets! At ToneDen, we’ve built a simple and easy-to-use platform that can help automate all of your social advertising. From building the best creatives to targeting the right buyers, our system can help you seriously win at Facebook and Instagram marketing. It’s 100% free for you to try it yourself.