PPC and social media advertising are effective mediums for promoting business events. Here are some tips on how to use these ads to engage with potential customers.
What events can I promote?
Advertisers can gain immediate engagement via a paid search or social ad about any event that is occurring that differs from usual business. Examples of types of events include: tradeshow events, product launches, webinars, sales events or open houses.
How do I create an event campaign?
You should firstly create a new campaign for your event as a new text ad, image ad or sitelink. Ensure that the event has a separate, different targeting strategy to your other ad campaigns.
Use an eye-catching design
Follow guidelines for each ad platform to make sure that the copy and/or images you are using are clear and include an appealing call-to-action. Consider applying an ad customiser, such as a countdown timer, into your text ads to generate intrigue and excitement.
Get the timing right
Decide exactly when you want to target your audience – solely on the day of the event or also in the build-up to it? You may need to adapt your approach in two different campaigns. On Facebook you can set an ad to run and end at a specific time of day.
Target people in the right locations
When setting up geo-targeting, you need to consider the location of the event and the size of the event in that location. For example, a sales event in Leeds city centre would be targeted at local customers in the area, whereas a tradeshow that you are exhibiting at would need to be targeted at local customers as well as customers from further afield travelling to the area for the event.
Target people searching near to the event
In order to reach people who may be interested in your event in the area it is being held, you should target people searching for keywords or search terms related to the event. Create audience lists based on interests and behaviours in the search engines, too, within your target location.
Top tip:
You don’t have to be attending or hosting an event to reap the rewards of an event campaign. Create a calendar of local events and/or events related to your business so that you can reach your target audience at key times throughout the year. How will this work? You simply need to promote your service during this exciting time when people are actively searching for information about the events.