The following workflow will show you how to use Facebook ads for your events. This strategy has been used by savvy music venues, such as The UC Theatre, Webster Hall and Echostage to generate more than a 600% ROI and sell out events through social advertising campaigns.

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Workflow Requirements:

• Facebook Ad account
• Advertiser access to your headliner’s Facebook Page
• ToneDen account (use this link to get a free account)
• Ad Spend & Creative

Step 1: Figure out your budget and schedule

Most engagement and tickets sales come 7 days after the show announcement and 7 days before the date of the show. Therefore, a digital ad spend of $500–1000 split among the on-sale announcement and close out period can produce excellent results.

On-Sale Announcement

Drive awareness by setting up a campaign to run for a few days after the on-sale announcement. Allocate 15% of your total budget toward this campaign to let fans know that tickets for the show are officially on sale.

Close-out Period

Most people are last-minute buyers, especially when it comes to events. That is why we recommend you allocate the majority of your digital ad spend for the 7 days before the show date. Leverage the other 85% of your budget to stay top of mind with your customers, drive ticket sales and close out the show.

Step 2: Create target audiences

When you’re spending your marketing dollars, the last thing you want to be doing is guessing.

Guessing who to reach is expensive and time consuming.

Every successful advertising strategy incorporates testing multiple audiences to identify specific targeting parameters that lead to success. With ToneDen, you can easily create target audiences to test and scale for your campaign.

Start by testing these audiences:

• Facebook page likes: Advertise to people that have liked your headliner’s Facebook page.
• Lookalikes of Facebook page likes: Include a lookalike audience of people that are similar to your headliner’s Facebook fans. This will help widen your campaign’s reach.
• Facebook page engagers: Target people that are interested in your headliner but maybe haven’t liked their page by creating an audience of Facebook page engagers.
• Facebook interests: Facebook has incredible targeting options for any interest: utilize Facebook Audiences insights or choose Facebook interests that pertain to your event or the headliner’s.
• Website visitors: Leverage the Facebook Pixel to target people that have recently visited your website or the headliner’s website.
• Past ticket buyers: Connect with your Eventbrite account and advertise to people who have attended your events in the past.

Once your campaign is launched, ToneDen’s Budget Optimization technology will reallocate your budget to the audience that performs the best, ensuring your digital ad spend goes further and converts more ticket buyers.

Step 3: Capture attention

Testing multiple advertising creatives is key to building an ad that people will click on in their News Feed. Today, ads that capture attention best utilize video. ToneDen makes it easy to upload multiple video creatives and identify the ad that ticket buyers find most engaging.

What to expect?

Once your ad is launched, you can get insights into how well your campaign is performing.

With ToneDen, reporting is transparent and easy. You can see how much money you’ve made from your campaign, which audience is driving the most sales and which creative resonates best with your customers.

“We believe that ToneDen has allowed us to maximize the efficiency of our digital spends which result in increased ticket sales and higher audience engagement.” — Sydney Fong, Marketing Manager, Goldenvoice