When it comes to promoting your next event, what can you do to boost awareness within your target audience and increase registrations? Implementing a paid advertising strategy can help you reach these goals and elevate your event. To get started, you need to know your messaging, have a budget in mind and be familiar with the people you want to reach. These steps outline how to get started with a paid advertising strategy for your next event.
First steps to using paid advertising
- Budget smart. Decide how much of your marketing budget will be allocated toward this — that will provide direction on how much you can spend per ad across multiple platforms. Your budget determines how far you can reach a particular audience.
- Generate graphics. Prepare your creative and/or graphics in advance. Visuals should include text, bold colors and an image that communicates the event specifics in clear detail. This will encourage your audience to address the call to action.
- Create a marketing campaign. Create your paid ad campaign separately from your event marketing plan. The ad campaign should stand alone, just like the budget. Include new ad copy that targets the desired demographic and sitelink to drive leads to the CTA, graphics and overall marketing plan strategy with key dates. This practice will keep you on track and produce reactive results that are measurable.
Key takeaways:
- Have your copy and graphics done ahead of time for an easy plug and play.
- Create a separate and unique targeting/marketing strategy.
- Start a new campaign for each event to accommodate settings and to track conversion rates and ROI.
- Each platform has its own set editorial guidelines, so research your platform of choice before you design your creative elements.
- Have a separate budget for paid ads to avoid spending the event budget.
Implementing a paid ad campaign
Now that you have your campaign in place, implement your plan with these four components in mind: time, target marketing, geo-targeting and visuals.
Time
Stick to your timeline to ensure your campaign communicates accurate information and allows time for your audience to act on any CTAs with a deadline. By following your plan, you will know which message to communicate. Some questions to keep in mind when developing your timeline are:
- When should your message reach your audience?
- What approach/tone does your message need to capture your audience?
- What is the purpose of the ad? Is it worth paying for?
Tip: Be sure to read the platform’s guidelines for how long an ad can run. For example, Google ends ads at midnight of that day, whereas Facebook can set a specific time of the day. (Facebook time is in military hours.)
Geo-targeting
When setting up the paid ad, you can target your audience by location. At some point through the set-up process, the event location will dictate how you operate. Include the location information in your ad campaign. For example, if hosting a large meeting or tradeshow, you may include attendees in the area as well as travelers coming to the area. A local event will require a smaller reach of a specific mile radius within the hosting city, whereas a national event like a webinar will need a stronger budget to hit major metropolitans.
Tip: Countdown timers and ad customizers can be inserted into ad texts on Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. Microsoft has a great breakdown on how the countdown feature works.
Target marketing
Targeting for events varies from the host ad account. Your target audience relates to the exact group of consumers most likely to engage your product or service. The audience that will see your ad campaign will be defined by age, gender, income, location, interests or numerous other factors. Social media that has the capability of paid ads will focus heavily on interests and behavior. When setting up your search, connect with people who are seeking events near or around the event location.
Using strategic search terms will enhance the possibility of targeting people who are interested in your event. Go further by using key terms to target your market in search engines. This can be done by applying audience lists such as “channel telecommunication” or “disruptive technologies” within your target geography.
Tip: Consider keyword groupings such as interactive live technology.
Visuals
Marketers and digital influencers need vibrant visuals that communicate the event in a short message. Text ads and image ads should be relevant to the promo with a direct CTA. Do not complicate your creative with multiple colors, texts, fonts and layers. Keep it clean and to the point. Also, remember that each ad platform has guidelines that address editorial content, such as limited text in the image ratio, before finalizing your design. This process will save you time by avoiding any ads getting disapproved.
These tactics will help you get in front of the audiences you want to successfully promote your event. It can be challenging to reach new audiences online, but using paid advertising is a relatively simple way to yield results.
MCI USA
