Boost Attendance with Facebook

Once you’ve planned and set up your event, you need to attract people to register for the event and attend. No matter if your goal is to earn a profit, pursue your mission, or just get people together, you need to get people to your event.

A great way of attracting attendees and building an audience is with the help of one of the most popular social media platforms, Facebook.

Facebook has over 2.7 billion users and is the perfect platform for getting the word out about your event. With so many users on the platform, you have a higher chance of getting people to register for and attend your event.

With this in mind, in this article, we’ll go over some of the best ways to boost attendance with Facebook.

Boosting Event Attendance with Facebook

Here’s our advice on how you can use Facebook’s intuitive event marketing features and tools to promote your event and boost attendance. 

#1. Create your Facebook Events Page

If you’re considering using Facebook to boost event attendance, creating a Facebook events page is the first step. Your Facebook event page’s success will depend on how well you set it up. A good Facebook events page can grab the attention of more people than one that’s poorly executed.

Your cover photo on your Facebook events page should be 1920×1080 pixels. This will ensure it fits perfectly on visitors’ screens. Choosing a sweet and short name is also important in grabbing people’s attention right away.

For instance, if you’re hosting a live concert event, naming your Facebook events page “The Best Rock n’ Roll Concert by the Soda Preachers” is too wordy and hard to remember. Instead, naming it something like “Rock n’ Roll Festival” or “Rock n’ Roll Night” is catchy and will grab the attention of more people, even people who don’t know the band.

Facebook has an algorithm that shows ads to users based on their activity. It decides which posts users see on their feed and what order they’re presented in. The ranking signals include relationship, content type, popularity, and recency.

Event organizers need to make sure they add valid and up-to-date information regarding the event to their page to boost attendance with Facebook.

Additionally, choosing your event category is also important for your Facebook event marketing campaign. You can choose from popular categories such as conferences, festivals, meet-ups, or concerts.

Once you’re done creating and setting up your Facebook events page, you can give out bits of information to event attendees about your event by sending notifications.

Pro tip: Make sure you don’t overwhelm your attendees with notifications so they don’t turn notifications off.

#2. Share Content To Boost Engagement

One way to capture people’s attention is by giving them a sneak peek of the final product which in this case is your event. This sparks the interest of new visitors and encourages them to register for your event to experience the event for themselves.

Giving event attendees an inside look at what goes behind the scenes can prove to be a great content idea. By providing pre-event content (such as speaker interviews or downloadable guides) for your registered event attendees, you boost engagement and attract many new people to your event.

For this, you can use Facebook live video to stream clips before and after your event. This is a great way to get the word out about your event, increase engagement on your Facebook events page, and also boost event attendance.

#3. Use Facebook Advertising

Facebook offers a great event marketing platform that can help you gain new attendees. Other than designing your Facebook event marketing campaign with mobile users in mind, you can use six different types of formats in your Facebook ads.

Depending on your content, you can use ad formats such as photo, video, carousel, slideshow, or messenger.

Facebook lets event organizers use three main advertising functions to promote their events:

• Ads to collect responses. Facebook allows you to use an “Interested” button on the ad. This means that people who will click on this button are signing up to attend your event but not actually registering for it. You can later use targeted ads for those people to further spark their interest in your event so that they end up registering for it.
• Ads to drive event registrations. This kind of ad is similar to the last one, but instead of using the “Interested” button, organizers can use the “Purchase Pass” or “Buy Tickets” button to add a link to the event website. This will help make people make their decision faster and motivate them to register for your event quickly.
• Facebook Ads Manager & Power Editor. Organizers can use Facebook’s functionality to enhance their Facebook event marketing campaign. The Facebook Ads Manager and Power Editor let you target a specific audience with ads. For instance, you can use retargeting ads to get your message in front of people who visited your event website. Since the users are already interested in your content, pushing them to register for your event is the right direction moving forward.

You can also use ads based on demographic information. This means that you can target an audience using demographic filters that include age, gender, interests, and location. With Facebook Lookalike targeting, you can find people in the same demographic directly from your email list. Just upload your list of email addresses and let Facebook find similar people to your attendees.

#4. Integrate With other Social Media Platforms

You can use other social media platforms to further spread your content and make your Facebook event marketing strategy much more effective. Since Facebook integrates with the popular social media platform Instagram, sharing images and videos there can help attract a whole different set of audiences for your event.

There’s a chance that many people who might be interested in attending your event may only use Instagram and not Facebook. This allows people to use their social media platform of choice to learn about your event, view content, and register for your event. Additionally, this also makes it easier for people to find you and your event which can help you boost attendance.

Facebook Promote Event  Best Practices

Here are some practical tips and best practices for Facebook event promotion:

Set up a Facebook Page

If you haven’t already, create a Facebook Page for your brand or organization. This will serve as a hub for all your event-related content and allow you to reach a wider audience.

Use your Facebook page

Make sure to promote your event (virtual event, live event, public event, etc.) on your Facebook page. Share updates about the event, post photos, and encourage your followers to attend.

Use a compelling cover photo

Your event’s cover photo should be visually appealing and should accurately represent the event. Eye-catching images or videos attract potential attendees.

Create a Facebook event

The first step in promoting your event on Facebook is to create an event. Make sure to include all relevant information, such as the date, time, location, and a detailed description of the event.

Utilize the Events Tab

The events tab on Facebook is a great way to promote your event and make it easier for people to find and RSVP. Facebook Events Tab helps you promote your event to people who are browsing events in their area as well as reach a wider audience outside of your immediate network.

Run ad campaigns

Run ad campaigns to promote your upcoming event across Facebook and other social media platforms.

Create a Facebook Ad Campaign

Use Facebook Ads Manager to create an ad campaign that targets your desired audience. You can use targeting options like age, gender, location, interests, and behaviors to reach people who are most likely to attend your event.

Utilize Google Ads

In addition to Facebook Ads, consider using Google Ads to promote your event. Google ad promotion can help you reach a broader audience outside of Facebook.

Target audience

Make sure to target your desired audience and potential attendee when promoting your event. Targeting your audience can help ensure that you are reaching people who are most likely to attend.

Utilize event promotion tools

Facebook offers a variety of event promotion tools, including event creation, event promotion, and event registration. Using Facebook’s advertising tools, create a targeted ad campaign to promote Facebook events, reaching potential attendees through a variety of channels including their news feed, Facebook groups, and through the use of lookalike audiences.

Lookalike Audience

Use Facebook’s Lookalike Audience feature to find people who are similar to your existing audience. Lookalike Audience can help you reach a new group of potential attendees.

Create a custom audience

Use the “Custom Audience” feature to target people who have previously engaged with your page or attended your previous events. Custom Audience is a specific audience you create based on your existing customer data, such as email addresses or phone numbers.

Create an Event Hashtag

Create a unique event hashtag and use it in all your social media posts. Encourage attendees to use it as well, so you can track the buzz around your event. Using event hashtags will make it easier for people to find your event on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Use Facebook Pixel

Install the Facebook Pixel on your website to track website visitors and create a custom audience for your event. Facebook Pixel will allow you to retarget people who have already shown interest in your event. And will also measure the effectiveness of your event promotion efforts and make adjustments accordingly.

Engage with Attendees

Encourage attendees to RSVP to your event on Facebook and respond to their comments and questions. Responding to your audience will help you build a relationship with them and increase engagement. It will also create a sense of excitement around the event especially when you provide updates.

Build brand awareness

Use your event promotion efforts to build brand awareness and increase your following on Facebook.

Leverage Facebook Group

Join relevant Facebook Groups related to your event’s theme or industry and share your event with the group. Joining groups can help you reach a targeted audience that is already interested in your topic.

Use your followers

Encourage your followers to promote your event by sharing your posts and inviting their friends to attend.

Post Regularly on Facebook

Post regular updates about your event on your Facebook Page and other social media channels. Share teasers, sneak peeks, and behind-the-scenes content to keep your audience engaged.

Use a call-to-action in your event posts

Encourage people to RSVP and attend your event by using a clear and compelling call-to-action in your event posts.

Conclusion

With the right Facebook event marketing strategy, you can boost engagement and attendance for your next event. We shared our best tip on how to boost attendance with Facebook and, hopefully, you’re in a good position now to take the next steps.

Ready to start organizing successful events? Try the Event Espresso demo today!