Do you ever feel like you’re throwing spaghetti against the wall—just hoping something sticks—when promoting your event? You’re not alone.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by event marketing. Should you run social media ads? Radio ads? Billboard? TV or streaming? Print? And which social media channels? Which radio stations? Which billboard location is best?
Sure, you can spread your budget over more than one channel, but no one has unlimited funds to spend on marketing. So you need to be able to make smart decisions about which opportunities will give you the best bang for your buck.
The best way to do that? Tracking guest sources. That is, tracking exactly which ads or marketing channels are bringing you the most ticket sales. Only then can you really make an informed decision about which marketing mix will give you the best results.
By tracking your guest sources, you can better allocate your marketing budget and increase ticket sales.
Passage makes it simple to track guest sources and evaluate your marketing campaigns. There are a few different ways you can accomplish this with our platform:
If you rely on a lot of third parties to generate web-traffic to online pre-sales for your event, then you'll find this one extremely handy. We've put together the absolute simplest referral reporting system imaginable. Want to give it a try? Just follow these 3 basic steps:
Put ?referral=CODE at the end of your event URL, where "CODE" is your desired referral code (up to 16 characters). That's your custom referral link.
Send your referral link to your referral partners, and have them use that to send customers to your event or venue pages.
Check your transaction report: you'll see a code under the "Referral Code" heading, and can even filter by a certain referral code to get sales totals.
And if step 1 was too confusing, just use the handy dandy referral code generator, which is also available under the "Promote" tab in your admin area.
Referral codes are able to be looked up in both your tickets and transactions report to get either the number of tickets sold and revenue generated.
Using a Promo URL will allow you to offer discounts to your customers by sending out custom links, or having the links installed on certain web pages. Use of a promo URL will automatically apply the discount to the customer orders, so can be handy if you're running a special or want to have local businesses or partners be able to offer discounted pricing for your event.
Promo URLs are available for every promo code you have on the system.
The custom promo URL just adds ?promo_code=CODE (replace "CODE" with your promo code) to the end of an event, venue, or all events page URL.
When a customer uses that link to go to the venue or event page the discount will be automatically applied to their order total after they add tickets to cart. So, the customer does not need to enter the code (nor can they forget to add it!). Promo URL usage is tracked the same way as regular promo code submissions. So, in your reporting you'll easily be able to track how many tickets have been sold from that link by filtering for the promo code.
Promo Code tracking is a little different from Promo URLs, and here’s how:
Promo URLs will automatically track sales. With Promo Codes, you’ll need to rely on your customers to enter a code at checkout.
Either one can work, but Promo Codes themselves can be set up in less than a minute and require no additional work on your part. The downside is that you’re asking guests to do some of the leg work by entering the code themselves, so you can track where they came from.
But the upside? You only need to discount tickets when a guest actually enters that promo code. With Promo URLs, you’re auto-applying the discount to anyone who clicks on that link.
Once you start to see that source data flow into your admin reports, you can make data-driven decisions about the best way to spend your marketing budget.
Analyze your data to see which sources are driving the most ticket sales and revenue. Focus your budget on these high-performing channels.
Shift budget away from under-performing channels and towards those with a higher ROI. Consider A/B testing different marketing messages and platforms to optimize your spending.
Use data to segment your audience and tailor your marketing messages to each group. Personalized offers and content can increase engagement and conversions.
Monitor your campaigns in real-time and make adjustments as needed. Optimize your spending based on current performance data.
Build a CRM to store and analyze customer data. Use this data to improve future marketing campaigns and cross-sell other events.
Analyze historical data to predict future trends in bookings and ticket sales. This will help you plan your marketing budget and strategies more effectively.
Look for cost-effective advertising options that reach your target audience. Don't assume that expensive ads are always the most effective.
Marketing, advertising, and promoting your event can be one of the biggest challenges for any event organizer. But by following these guidelines, you can gain a better understanding of where your event guests are coming from and how to optimize your marketing budget for maximum impact.
Need some help setting up Promo URLs, Promo Codes, or Referral Tracking for your next event? We’d love to help! Schedule a call with an event expert today - we’ll even set those up for you!