An event is all about the people. They ultimately define its success, creating energy and excitement and, with the right crowd, helping shape your overall brand experience. And this success all comes down to your use of digital marketing.
Whether you’re organising festivals, product launches or panel talks, a solid digital marketing strategy is how you can get people talking and shape something that everyone wants to be part of. But what does this look like, especially when you’re surrounded by competition?
Inspired by the results Royle Forest Weddings achieved in one of their campaigns, here’s an action plan to help you start using both paid and organic social to build hype and boost real-world event attendance.
Why use social to boost event attendance?
Because social is where your audience lives. It’s a channel that lets you speak directly to an active and engaged audience ready to convert by using geo-tagging, sharing experiences, and creating targeted ads. This makes social one of, if not the most powerful tool for increasing visibility and attendance. It’s how you create a buzz, nurture a community, and get people RSVPing.
But your strategy needs to be a blend of both organic and paid social. This is what’s going to give your event promotion the visibility, credibility, and conversion power it needs, and here’s what that might look like.
Create an organic buzz
Organic social content is all about connection. We know it’s a space where you can reveal your brand’s personality, convey your values, and nurture real, meaningful relationships. But it’s also where you start building that FOMO and showing people why your event matters, and why it matters to them.
Here’s how to use it right:
01. Start early
Begin teasing your event 6–8 weeks ahead with save-the-dates, sneak peeks, or behind-the-scenes looks. This early engagement is what gets people intrigued, and that intrigue grows into personal investment. The more progress we see, the more invested we are and the stronger that emotional connection becomes.
02. Reveal your event
Aim to gradually reveal key event details and highlight speakers or other notable attendees to build anticipation. You could also try partnering with relevant influencers to amplify your event’s reach, as well as encouraging your vendors, performers, or speakers to get involved, too. After all, their followers are your potential attendees.
03. Create shareable content
Starting early also gives you plenty of time to generate excitement and reach more people by using shareable content. Think branded countdowns, speaker quotes, polls, and memes tailored to your audience. The aim is to make it easy and fun for people to spread the word, creating a community that people want to join.
And using an event-specific hashtag is another great way of encouraging user-generated content before, during and after the event. Start using this at the very beginning of your event promotion campaign so that it really homes in on that sense of community.
04. Keep it Reel
The informal, fast-paced nature of Stories and Reels is ideal for event marketing. Try venue tours, product previews, or live Q&As to build energy, and remember, these don’t need to be curated or perfect. Customers today want raw authenticity. They want brands that are real and honest and human. That’s how you connect with your audience while building trust, letting them experience the reality of your event.
05. During the event
Share, share, share. Live stream or post photos, videos and updates as they happen, tapping into that FOMO and making your followers wish they were there. User-generated content also helps with this. Set up photo opportunities like photo props and stands, and encourage them to use your event hashtag so that you can repost and share.
06. After the event
And keep going once the event is over. Share highlights and testimonials, and recap the important things through blog posts. For thought-leadership panels and other insight-driven events, make any insightful presentations or resources available for download. This all emphasises that connection and gives more people an insight into your event, building the foundation for more attendees at future events.
Paid for visibility
While your organic efforts get to work, Paid Ads are a fantastic way of giving your visibility a big boost. You can target specific audiences, retarget past and existing customers, and generally just remind anyone interested in what you offer that you exist. Here’s how to use paid social to boost your event’s visibility:
01. Define your audience segments
Start by breaking down your audience. Who do you want at this event? Are they industry professionals, young creatives, or families? And what are their interests, locations, and behaviours? Once you know who you’re speaking to, segment your ads by age, gender, job role, interests and previous event engagement. The more specific you are, the more relevant your ads become.
02. Retarget & re-engage
Use retargeting to re-engage people who’ve previously interacted with your content, clicked an RSVP link, or watched event teaser videos. These are what we call warm leads, and they’re already familiar with your brand. They know you, and all they need is a well-placed ad to give them a nudge.
This is where mixing up your content can help keep the conversation going, so alongside countdown ads, price-tier reminders, and limited-ticket alerts, try linking to blog posts, behind-the-scenes content, speaker reveals, or generally anything related to your event.
03. Mix up your creatives
Variety matters, so mix static images and carousel ads with Reels and video for maximum impact. And remember that while image ads are great for headline reveals, video will generally outperform static. Think testimonials from past attendees, clips of speakers or performers, or a quick preview of what to expect. But whichever format you go for, make sure to use high-impact visuals and clear calls to action.
04. Timing is everything
Use awareness campaigns early on to build interest, followed by conversion-focused ads in the weeks leading up to the event. In the final days, switch to countdown ads and urgency-driven messaging like ‘Last chance to RSVP!’ And remember that FOMO is a powerful driver, so create ads to promote early bird tickets, RSVP deadlines, and limited availability to encourage hesitant prospects to take action.
05. Budget smartly
And the great thing about paid social is that you don’t need a massive budget to make an impact. What you do need is a strategy. Allocate more spend in the final 2–3 weeks before the event when urgency is highest. If you’re running a phased campaign, consider boosting posts earlier on to build awareness, then retargeting as the event date gets closer to convert that interest into attendance.
06. Test, monitor & refine
Finally, like everything to do with growing your business, A/B test different versions of your ads, trying different headlines, images, CTAs, and audience groups. Then monitor your ad performance, tracking click-through rates (CTR), cost per acquisition (CPA), and other engagement metrics to find out what’s working and scale back what’s not.
Royle Forest Weddings Success Story
A unique woodland tipi venue nestled within a 200-acre forest, Royle Forest Weddings needed to boost awareness of an upcoming wedding fayre in a way that would set them apart in a highly saturated and competitive market. This all began by setting up their tracking, as they previously had no way of measuring success from their activity.
Once their tracking was in place for us to monitor and refine their ads, we went ahead and ran simultaneous engagement and lead generation campaigns. The lead campaign was optimised to drive sign-ups for the upcoming open days, while the engagement campaign allowed these users to funnel through and be retargeted. This strategic blend allowed Royle Forest to reach the right audience while maintaining an authentic and engaging presence.
Together with a variety of static and video creatives for all lead, engagement and traffic campaigns, the result was a 386% increase in link clicks with an overall 4.5% click-through rate. The mix of creatives was successfully grabbing users’ attention and stopping their scroll, driving highly engaged traffic directly to their website for a total of 1,053 leads. At the same time, we refined ad spends to deliver a 40% reduction in cost per click for maximum ROI.
In the end, we were able to combine paid audience targeting and organic reach to turn online engagement into 500 real-life wedding fayre attendees. This demonstrates just how powerful social media can be when it comes to boosting event attendance. Organic social creates a personable and nurtured community, while paid ads amplify everything you’re doing organically to promote your event even further.
Read the full Royle Forest Weddings case study here.
From sign-ups to show-ups
So there you have it. Whether you’re planning an intimate local event in Shrewsbury or a large-scale industry show, using a strategic combination of both paid and organic social will give your event the visibility for success.
If you’d like to see how we can help you turn online interest into real-world attendees, feel free to get in touch and let’s start driving sign-ups for your next event.
