Hosting an event is always a challenge for a company, it means investing time, money and effort to succeed. But it’s worth it!
As of 2018, Facebook has over 2.2 billion monthly active users! It seems like a natural place to promote your event and because there are so many people using Facebook, it seems like reaching them might be easy! Yet, as many event marketers can attest, it doesn't work the same for everyone.
However, it's your lucky day! We've created a guide to help you achieve event marketing success using Facebook Events using 3 principles.
How to set up your facebook event
Creating a Facebook event is easy, optimising it is the hard part. To create an event, simply click the event tab on the left side and hit "Create Event".
Here are 3 easy steps to optimise your Facebook event page:
Step 1: Choose the Right Event Name
Your event name is the first thing people see so its important to choose a short and relevant name that will stick. According to Facebook’s events team, events with longer names tend to perform worse on the platform. This might be because 54% of all users only use Facebook through a mobile device - longer titles typically won’t look good on smaller screens and will be cut off.
Step 2: Choose the right Facebook event cover image
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and its true! Choose a compelling image for your event cover image that is exciting and eye-catching since it will show up if attendees choose to share your event with others on Facebook.
Step 3: Add important event details
Facebook has an algorithm that will recommend events to users based on a number of factors. It’s important that event organizers input the correct information about where the event is being held, and when it’s starting so that the algorithm can promote the event.
Be sure to also select the appropriate event category and event tags. Since you want as many people as possible to come to your event, providing clear and accurate information is important. Your possible attendees will want to know every details about the event including what is it about, the location, whats going , and how to get there.
How to Promote your event using facebook advertising
Now that you're one step closer to having a sold out event, having an extra push will help you get to the finish line.
There are many advantages to using Facebook Ads to advertise the event, a few are; you will reach more users that belong to the right audience, they will be aware of the event, they can interact and engage with it and even book their free seat or buy a ticket!
Step 1: Choose Campaign Objective
When creating your ad from Facebook Ads Manager, the first step will be selecting the objective of the campaign. As we want to promote our event, the marketing objective will be “Engagement” and the option we have to select is Event Responses.
Step 2: Select Your Target Audience
Using Facebook's more advanced features, advertisers have the ability to target specific people based on demographic information, lookalike audiences, and engaged audiences.
Demographic-based ads: Facebook allows advertisers to target people based on age, gender, location, interests and relationship status. Try answering some questions and be realistic about who you want at your event. You can try with: Where are those users located? Do they have a specific age range? Are there some relevant interests to add?
Lookalike audiences: Advertisers can upload a list of email addresses and Facebook’s algorithms find users who share similar demographic information to the list of contacts that were uploaded.
Retargeting engaged audiences: To target visitors who have already visited an event website, promoters will need to insert the Facebook Pixel code that will track the visitor until he or she opens Facebook. Once the visitor is on Facebook, they will see an ad reminding them to register for the event.
Step 3: Set your bid and budget
Think about how much you would like to spend on your ad be sure to be optimising for event responses!
Step 4: Choosing Your Ad Creative
Advertisers are able to choose if they want to use a still image, video or a slideshow (a video of 10 images looping) to promote their event in the ad. Include as many details as you can about the relevant things that will happen at your event: the location, date and time, shout out all the main features of your event and who will be part of it. Partnering with another brand? Use Facebook mentions to increase relevance trustability and reach. Once you are ready, remember to double check your order before you publish the campaign, just to make sure that all is set just the way you want it.
Embrace Multi-Channel Promotion
Potential event attendees use more than one channel to learn about events, and to connect with friends. In order to best promote an event, it’s important to adopt an multi-channel event promotion strategy that allows potential event attendees to interact with your event brand on their own terms.
Incorporating other social media platforms into the mix is often a necessity to maximize event registration and attendee engagement. Using all platforms with consistent copy and creative will help remind potential attendees that you ARE having this event and prompt them to respond. Use email marketing strategies, Instagram stories, web banners, landing pages, Facebook and Instagram social posts to achieve multi-channel event promotion and reach all of your followers on different platforms.
Conclusion
With so many highly-engaged users, Facebook is a fantastic resources for event marketers hoping to generate event buzz. Hosting events are a great opportunity for your business. Simply follow the best practices we’ve covered to market your events successfully year over year.
Creating the Event on Facebook:
Advertising your Event:
Using content, advertising, and embracing an omni-channel event promotion strategy are great ways to get more people interested in attending.