Marketing an event is no easy feat, but creating a Facebook event is one of the easiest, cost-effective ways to increase exposure and drive registrations. Facebook events can be either in-person or virtual and fall under a multitude of categories, making it easy to connect with consumers who have interests similar to your event. Here are our 6 best practices for promoting your event on Facebook:
1. Use a business page to create your event. When creating a Facebook event, you have the option to create an event from a business page or an individual account. We recommend using your business page so that the event appears on your Events tab and promotes the event to an audience that is already interested in your organization. A professional looking business page lends reputability to your event and allows people to look through what your business offers.
2. Optimize your Facebook event. Here are five tips to ensure your page is the best it can be:
- Use a short and memorable event name that aligns with your brand. Shorter event names tend to perform better since most people access Facebook through their mobile devices.
- Select a cover photo (1920×1080 pixels) that is clear and represents your event.
- Choose the correct event category to ensure your event is seen by people with interests in that category.
- Invite co-hosts to cross-promote your event so it will then show up on their business pages. This is very helpful when a co-host has a well-established audience.
- Post or schedule content to be posted from your business page to your event discussion. You can also use the discussion area to update attendees about your event.
3. Invite friends to your Facebook event before promoting it. People are more likely to engage with your event if other users have interacted with it. This is because it signals to people that others are excited about your event already and your content is worth engaging with.
4. Post about your event on your business page. Share your event and then pin it to the top of your page. This ensures that it is the first thing that users see when they visit your page. If your organization has competing priorities, work with your social media team to pin the event for the three weeks leading up, and then remove it.
5. Boost your Facebook event. Creating a Facebook event ad helps increase awareness and drive more registrations. The two ways to boost a Facebook event are directly on the event page and from Facebook Ads Manager. This is quick and easy even if you have no experience boosting on Facebook. This cost-efficient strategy to increase awareness, engagement, and ticket sales can be very helpful. We recommend that organizations use a budget between $5-10 per day, which can go a long way toward increasing event visibility.
6. Use Facebook’s lookalike feature to target audiences similar to those who already follow, like and engage with your content. What is a lookalike audience? This audience is composed of a group of new people who are similar to people who have already converted, thus making them more likely to be interested in your event. You can target people who are akin to your email list subscribers, past customers, Facebook followers, website visitors, and more. Facebook does this by utilizing email addresses from your source audience with Facebook profiles in order to find users within a similar demographic or shared interests. Creating a looklalike audience increases the likelihood of cold audiences interacting with your event since they are similar to your warm audience. Additionally, your source audience is automatically excluded so that your event is shown to new people.
Attracting prospective registrants to engage with your organization’s event is made seamless through Facebook events. Whether you have a large budget or no budget at all, Facebook events are a great tool to use as part of your event marketing strategy. Do you have any tried-and-true best practices for promoting your event on Facebook? Share it with us in the comments.
Mina Garagozlo
Mina Garagozlo leads social media and marketing for Event 360 and our client partners. A graduate of the University of Alabama and the University of Maryland, she combines her educational background in business, marketing psychology, and art to execute engaging corporate and event marketing. Mina’s passion for marketing lies in her love for telling a brand’s story.
